Hi Everyone

I am starting this new group on request from members

This is a support thread for parents of fussy eaters. Please feel free to share your information & resources & discuss issues concerning you regarding your Fussy Eaters.

Link to previous thread

Regards

Hey all.
Brief bit again about my eldest - Neophobic, mainly white food eater, prefers dry to touch foods. Loads of progress made over the last few months (as documented in previous thread).
Also, for those that didn't see it

Very interesting article here on Picky/fussy eaters and genetic/environment factors
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/1...&ref=dining
If you need a log on - go to bugmenot.com

Also, some tips from experts in this article
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/1...html?ref=dining

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Also, am still awaiting my copy of "More peas please"

Has anyone read it yet?
A blurb from the book
"More Peas Please is the first book in Australia to provide an across-the-board guide to helping children learn to happily eat a variety of healthy foods. It examines the importance of feeding kids a balanced diet, helping them overcome negative responses to certain foods, and the significance of early feeding experiences on speech development. It also contains loads of easy, fuss-free recipes for delicious, family-friendly meals"

To be honest I haven't made it to a Speech Pathologist. He has very good vocab and no speech problems. Sensory wise he has no issue if it is not food - ie is fine getting covered in paint, mud, water, sand etc.
The only problem that I can see (physically) is he has one giant tonsil (the size of a large marble), but the GP says that is normal and not to worry about it. I am getting a ref to an ENT anyway to get that ruled out.

Dinner tonight, some more progress.
We successfully got Mr Fussy to handle and sniff lettuce, cheese, tomato and meat. The meat was a bit too much for him, and he insisted on a fork to hold it, but still a lot more than he would have done even 6 months ago.
He is making small progression keeping food on his plate if unwanted. Meat and cheese are still a huge no no, but at least the vegies are staying on for now
So, another good day. I may just faint if this keeps up!

My Story....

DS1 is 4.25yrs.

He started out solids fine at 6m and by 7.5-8m was eating 'family' meals cut up into small pieces (ie. quickly went off purees in favour of finger foods).

At 15m DS1 had a stomach upset and vomited twice (he had reflux mind you to 12m) and had a case of the runs.

That was when things started to change.

First went vegies..... then meat..... then fruit.

So now I have a 4.25yo whose diet is:

Dry cereal (if I am lucky) of weetbix/cornflakes/ricebubbles
Butter Toast

Lunch:
Vegemite Sandwich or Vegemite & Cheese Sandwich..... MUST BE WHITE BREAD ONLY.... CHIA BREAD IS DIRTY

Snacks:
Mainland Tasty "Cheese Biscuits" - 3 slices of cheese and 3 water crackers
Heinz Vegemite & Cheese Sticks (so bread sticks)

No longer will he have a 'fruit sucker' of pureed fruit (think Raffertys or Fruit Splat), or any kind of museli/fruit bar

Dinner:
"red Bread" Tortilia, Homemade pizza (pita bread base, tomato paste & cheese only), or bread.
We put out dinner that the FAMILY is eating (so Tacos/Fajitas etc with everything in the middle) and DS1 gets to choose what he puts on his plate. So he just goes for a Tortilia - but we limit any bread to a maximum of 2 slices.

Pasta is a no-go (threw up when we made him put a piece of pasta to his lips).

If we limit bread intake he will just go hungry very happily.

Only bit of goodness we get into him is a V8 Juice popper once a day and some Ferro-Liquid Iron in a small amount of Pineapple/orange juice.

We are off to see the Paed on the 9th March.

Yes we have tried everything. There is no such thing as 'hiding' something.

Cathode you are giving me hope with your progress. I can't wait until I see the paed.

Isolabella, It is a long hard road, that be sure

I had an epic fail with the apple pancakes this morning. I used granny smiths (usually use peeled grated fuji in them) and didn't use as much mixed spice, and the texture was a bit coarser ... I got asked "what's in this?" so I said "the same as always, apple pancakes" met with "I don't like it" argh.

I did some baking yesterday ... so of course neither of the kids will touch any of it
Bacon and spinach muffins are met with "disgusting" as to is the banana cake.
#2 has never been huge on carbs which is perfectly fine with me (omg he ate half the bowl of taco mince last night! as in the bowl that was for EVERYONE's tacos).

So am working up the courage to make that Spinach and carrot chocolate brownie recipe today {posted in last thread}.

Three steps forward two steps back?!?! LOL

Yeah my DS2 is the same. He will eat half the FAMILY portion of mince for Tacos if given the chance.

We have been eating 'family' meals where all the food is put in the middle of the table and the boys can choose from what the family is eating what they want to eat. DS1 is getting very put out now that I am doing some meals without a 'bread' component. He just goes to bed hungry. DH is complaing too over the lack of bread (but understands what I am trying to achieve with DS1).

Agrh on any slight change to a recepie. I think that is partly why my mum's pikletts became 'dirty'.... was that she used vinegar once to make the milk sour rather then lemon (as I was out of lemon). Since then DS1 likes to help cook the pikletts but will not EAT them.

Hi ladies,

Ok, add me to this group as I definitely belong here! I'm a mum to my DS who is 3.5 and DD who is 14 months.

My DD will eat/drink anything you put in front of her, my DS will eat...ummmm NOTHING

I have cried and cried and cried so many times by his denial of food that I really think I'm going to get a stomach ulcer from my worry.

We took him to a paed about 9 months ago as he had severe constipation (obviously from not eating much). I can't say that I was overly impressed with the advice given as I wanted an underlying factor, not laxatives!!! Anyway, on to my story:

My DS will only eat dry foods (when bribed). His diet consists of pasta, chicken (sometimes), rice (which isn't good for his constipation) and veal scnitzel (if we're lucky). He won't eat soups or fruit. The only vegetable he'll eat is cucumber. He like orange juice and he has just recently started drinking apple juice.

He has started pre school this year and I'm very very fortunate that the teachers are helping me with his feeding. I put 2 x sandwiches, a banana, yoghurt, jatz biscuits, juice and raisins in his lunch box and I get nearly all of it back minus a couple of slices cucumber and his juice. They don't have a microwave oven so everything has to be in the fridge (unfortunately).

Any and I mean absolutely any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks ladies

p.s. Last night I made spinach/fetta pasta (green ravioli) and as soon as he sat at the table he said "Oh no, green pasta" and didn't touch it...lucky I had stuffed capsicum as back-up

Welcome teammezz! though I am sure, like us, you would rather not be here

I've been following a lot of advice on this article http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/10/dining/1...&ref=dining and the renaming of food occasionally works. "Power Peas" still suck apparently

Thanks Cathode for getting this thread started.

Ryan was a great eater until 15months or so and would eat anything and everything, then suddenly overnight decided he could survive on next to nothing, this was after a couple of illnesses within a month including 2 bouts of croup. He won't even eat lollies, chips, icecream, biscuits.

I offer breakfast cerals, he refuses. I make toast, he occasionally asks for butter but mostly it's dry sometimes he'll have a few bites but mostly it will just sit infront of him until i chuck it.
Sometimes he will eat a slice of ham but mostly lunch is dry cruskits, saos.
He will have a few bites of apple but that is the only fruit. He use to eat all fruit except rockmelon, peaches and kiwi fruit.
Refuses dinner and again will sit with the family but not touch a thing.
He went through a stage where he would eat a tiny bit of chicken but not anymore...
He has custard occasionally
At preschool he doesn't eat.
Oh and even when he ate weetbix they had to be dry.

We saw our GP months ago but all he suggested was weigh ins monthly and bloods in a few months. We didn't go back as we feel his healthy he just won't eat.
Our usual GP has just returned from maternity laeve so we will see her i think.

Today i picked Ryan up from preschool at 12pm as they called saying he was sick but as soon as i got there he was running around and he seems fine now. Anyhow i thought i'd treat him to a popcorn and chip snack box from KFC and see if he'd eat it. He ate 2 chips and one piece of pop corn.

I'm at a loss as to what to do, I feel like such a failure and am so worried what will happen if he doesn't soon eat something, anything!

Well, what a struggle it was to have him eat the tiniest piece of chicken snitzel last night...bribes galore. Only when I bought out the oven backed chips did he smile...mind you, he had about 4 of them only!!!

I've packed his lunchbox today with so many different foods so hopefully there will be something he eats (wish me luck)

Just a quickie update.
Last night he smelt a wide range of foods - corn, beetroot, eggs, cheese, tuna, spinach muffins, bacon rolls. No dramas with any of it.
Tonight we will be moving it to picking it up (with fingers to get used to textures), smelling it and keeping it on his plate.

I've bought some really pretty petite fours for "dessert" as an added motivation.

Good Luck with the lunchbox Mezz!
I am sure that my sons will come back today with only the pancakes missing


Belnryan - don't feel like a failure! I went through that as well. It is so hard when you have kids like this, but all we can do is do our best. If you are worried about nutrition, try and supplement it with vitamins and minerals, try the milk that has added vits with them - ie the Junior milk range.

It is worthwhile having blood tests because they can help rule out things that may be causing him to physically not want to eat stuff - gluten intolerance, Low level Zinc can affect eating, Low iron levels etc.

wooohooo on the successful smelling of foods.

Currently in the throws of a world class tantrum.

To backtrack ... when he came home from Kindy, he said he wanted to make a cake. So we made some brownies (normal ones, I still haven't worked up the courage to make the spinach ones yet).
Major progress in that he wanted to lick the spoon. He *never* does that!

Anyway, he was getting excited about the prospect of it for dessert, so I said to him, no worries, if you eat your dinner you can have some along with the "special" cake I bought (gorgeous green and choc petite four).
Dinner was chicken nuggets, carrots, peas and corn.
We started dinner really well. He touched everything, smelt everything, squashed everything with his fingers and put everything to his lips. I thought, WOW, massive headway today. Brilliant! We are having an enjoyable, fun even, dinner! (we were doing actions for the power peas and crazy carrots etc).
Then meltdown. Out of the blue, no-one had said anything, no-one had done anything.
He just wouldn't eat anything. He just started cracking it.
I thought, oh well, stuff it. Everyone else can have dessert and he can rotate. I nastily put his petite four in front of plate (out of reach)and said he could have it if he just ate one nugget.
Nope.
Howling something shocking.
He is still at it now, 20 minutes later. (10 minutes ago I sent him to sit on the front door mat - inside).
I tried talking to him quietly, I tried reason, I tried bribery. I told him that he doesn't have to eat anything on his plate that he doesn't want to, but he will not get any cake if he doesn't eat any part of his dinner.
He said fine, he will get an apple.
I put foot down, and said no. If he isn't hungry enough to eat a nugget, he isn't hungry enough to eat anything. I should note, he eats these nuggets, he usually loves them. There is nothing different about them at all.

Okay. Now I have just had the talk again. No more howling, he said okay he will go to bed without anything else to eat.
~sigh~
Instead of 2 steps forward, one back it feels like one step forward, 2 steps back.

As for todays lunchbox ... Out of everything that I sent in with him (2 apples, a banana, freeze dried peach, banana chips, banana honey bar, carrot sticks, tiny teddies, bottle of orange juice ... he ate 6 mini pikelets (out of 9). That was it.

NB: We never do dessert. This week is the first time I have ever offered desserts (tonight was the third time this week). The other 2 times this week went really well as bribery. But, after tonight, I think we will go back to being a dessert free house.

Big hugs.

Must have been the night for tantrums last night. DS1 decided to throw something at me. So the 'Naughty Step' was met with "I don't want to go" and a melt down from ther . took over 45mins before I had him calm again (I generally let them work tantrum out of their system and will only talk with them once they are calm).

Hope everyone had a good long weekend!

Anyway, in a bid to get stuff for lunchboxes - nut free - I raided the health isle and god a heap of high protein low carb stuff, just so he is getting some nutirition at kindy.
Am going to be trialling a high protein shake that is choc flavoured and a high protein (30g) bar that is also choc flavoured - neither have actual chocolate.

In place of nutella, I have now got some "Choc-Ezy" which is based on cream cheese. Fingers crossed for that one.
Also found some "Slim Secrets" potato crisps. 1.2g of fat in the whole bag (4.2g protein).

So, aim here is to just get him eating something other than just apples or plain bread for lunch at Kindy.
At home we are still focusing on holding/touching foods, smelling and now touching to lips.

So trip to the Paed today.

Paed conclusion is DS1 is perfectly healthy (ie. growth of height/weight/HC has been consistent all along - even before he started with the bad eating). Iron levels were down (ie. from Oct tests) but Ferro Liquid we have been giving should have brought that back up again... which means that added iron has not affected DS1's appetite . Blood cell counts normal so not anaemic......

.... so his conclusion for DS1 (as no obvious allergy type things) is Behavioural. So referred to Paed OT to see if they can do anything.... otherwise it will be a Cathode is doing.... cut out all of his preferred food and then 'starve' him to eating proper food.... Paed does not recommend this approach unless a last resort.... as he finds the parents cave first (ie. child outlasts the parent).

On another note.... also have a referral to Paed ENT specialist as snoring/bodysweats/restless sleeping was also noted.

So more appts to make/people to see.

SO yes..... extreme behavioural issue

My little bugger lasted 15 days of starvation before I finally caved in.


Keep us updated with what the specialists recommend. Good luck!


Update on mine:

Choc ezy doesn't make it to his mouth. He likes the slim secrets. I tried them, crikey they taste like sh*t.
No luck with the protein bars or shakes. Doesn't even make it to his mouth.
#2 loves the protein drinks and the up and go breakfast drinks .... but have told hubby to keep them aeway from him. Last thing I need is for him to only want to eat that stuff ... and he needs more protein in his diet like he needs a hole in his head.
Mr Fussy has discovered pretzels. Joy. yet another dry 'white' and salty thing with no nutritional value to add to his diet

from reading your experience I would suggest 2-3wks for DS1.

Sorry i can't help but LOL at the pretzels. It does do your head in.

Hmmm ay try "up and go" for DS1.... he does like his V8 citrus juices

Hi,

I've been a bit slack.. Started uni by distance ed and struggling to find time.

No improvements at all here, if anything Ryan is getting worse. He seriously has not eaten one single thing in 5 days, just milk, orange juice and water. I don't know what more to do. We are off to the drs on Friday so hopefully we can get some advice on what to do next.

He asked yesterday for a ham sandwich and then a vegemite sandwich and an apple, i got them ready and he didn't eat.

We tried a few multivitamins but they were all chewable so had no luck at all. This afternoon i bought a liquid one that i am going to try and put into his juice, he fell asleep super early though so now will have to wait until tomorrow.




So hard isn't it. Ryan would starve, i wish he had a preferred food at this point i'd be happy to feed him coco pops or equivalent for breakfast, lunch and dinner if only he'd eat.

IsolaBella: Hope all of the appointments go well.

Cathode: I thought of trying the up and go, might buy some tomorrow.

Hi Everyone,

Just wondering if I can join in with this group?

My story (warning: this is a little long).

I actually tried to search threads yesterday on food phobias as I have almost reached breaking point with my DS.

DS is 2.5yo and started solids at 6 months. Was doing great with all the pureed stuff (jar and home-made), but had issues with lumpy or textured foods. He was getting much better with the lumpy stuff and would eat sanwiches but he was then diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes at 17mo.

This is when he regressed and after starting on insulin, his appetite returned, but we had to go back to pureeing his food.

Fast forward to now. He will not try new foods. He will happily pretend to eat foods but when presented with anything new he will carry on as though I am offering him poison. He wont even eat cake, icecream, lollies etc.

He will occasionally have toast for breakfast, sometimes dipped in soft egg yolk (but only for DH) but most days I can only get him to have Up'n'go for breakfast.

He will happily have his milk but most days refuses lunch. Will snack on biscuits if he is in the mood and will sometimes eat hot chips. (being T1D we need to get carbs into him to keep his blood sugar stable). Used to eat cheese but has gone off that now too.

For dinner he will ONLY eat either:

- Baked beans (pureed) spread onto bread and toasted with cheese on top
- Pommes (potato balls from the freezer, oven baked) dipped in sauce (sometimes use Baked beans for sauce for iron)
- Pasta with red sauce ... occasionally
- tinned alphabet spaghetti

He will then have a fair amount of custard. As mentioned, he needs carbs to be able to administer insulin otherwise his blood sugar will drop, causing huge health issues.

Before diagnosis he would happily eat yoghurt, fruit, vege soup/minestrone etc.

I have been hesitant to start a thread asking for advice on EB as I don't want to be flamed or labelled a bad parent for his diet. I have tried everything. Being diabeic, we have seen a dietician several times and I am tired of going home in tears after being repeateldy told, "just keep offering things" ... like I don't bother?

I would LOVE to say, OK, not hungry? Don't eat it. You will eat when you are ready. But having Diabetes, I can't do that. Particularly if his blood sugar is already a little low at meal times. I am not sure even now, if I should be posting this in the Diabetes section?

I am currently 39 weeks pregnant and can see this baby will be eating steak & veges before DS. I am so frustrated.

Sorry if this is all over the place but DS is trying to drag me off the computer.

I will find time to read through all the previous posts for ideas and support, but for the meantime, I am relieved to find a group of people who I know will appreciate and understand my frustrations.

Thanks for reading if you have come this far.

Cherise.

P.S. I actually can spell but I am a bit rushed so the typing is not great

Cherise,
You are most certainly welcome to join us! Though I fear, like the rest of us, you would rather not be here
It must be absolutely frustrating and scary at times for you as you have the added worry of his diabetes.



I watched a fascinating episode of Eataholics last night. A poster in the previous thread had mentioned this series, but I haven't been able to get it until now.
Anyway, the episode we watched was on a 24 yr old girl who would only eat bread and some tinned soups. That is all.
Apparently that is all that she has eaten since she has cleft palate surgery when she was around 2yrs old.
Psychologically, the therapist said that it was probably a control thing that started it as what she ate was the only thing that she could control.
Unfortunately it didn't give any advice on how to combat it when it first arises in toddlers ~grrrrr~

Link for it on youtube is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfU-mObEPrE...feature=related

In England, the series is called "Freaky Eaters" - nice.

Hi all, have just been having a browse at this thread. I don't think my toddler's current eating issues are anything out of the ordinary at this stage but I am hoping to curb some behaviours before they get worse.
Cathode, did you receive your copy of More Peas Please? What do you think of it?

Yes, I received the book a couple of days ago (got a brand new copy off ebay for $8).
I haven't had a good chance to sit down and have a good read yet, but I did read the part on medical reasons for fussy eating, particularly the part on tonsils and found that interesting - as Mr Fussy has a massive right tonsil - size of a large marble.

The section labeled Three to six years - battle of the minds, I didn't find terribly impressive. Apparently this is a "much easier" age group to deal with (pfffft) and that they can quickly come around it you tell them that the particular food item will make them faster or stronger (tried that ages ago - fail) or if you empty the house of the "bad foods" the child will see and have no option but to eat healthy (yer, right - actually did that once - he just didn't eat).
I obviously have to read it a bit more. I am sure that there will be some tip or trick in there that I haven't tried, or some advice on something, lol.

The book does also deal with how to prevent fussy eating, and strategies to improve diet. So it ma be more worthwhile for someone with a traditional fussy/picky eater.

Thanks for that Cathode. Mr Fussy's tonsil is an interesting thing and a section about tonsils in the book- very interesting indeed.
My DS has gone from no real issues before Christmas to falling dramatically on the floor with much noise when the word "dinner" is mentioned. He does not like us to interfere with his food eg, was sucking on an Up and Go when I adjusted the straw - went from "yummy" to not interested immediately. He has not eaten an evening meal for quite some time, not a 'proper' meal, and it is disheartening to keep serving up food that I know is going to go in the bin. Anyway, sounds like our issues are still small time compared to others so no moaning here but want to get onto things before they increase. Onto e-bay for some book shopping, thanks again.

The trouble is that a "small time" issue can easily lead to a big time one. I think you are doing the right thing in looking for help before it gets worse.

For the food wastage - we ended up getting bokashi bins (we don't have space for a compost heap). We got them just so we didn't feel so bad about all the food that was getting chucked.

Thanks Cathode

Yes I would rather not be here, but as I think I already said, it's a relief to find that I am not the only one faced with these rather extreme eating issues (not that I would wish them on anyone).

And I know it could be much, much worse. The T1D is a PIA but we take it in our stride.

As for wasted food, DH's parents have chickens, so all our scraps & wasted food gets put in a container & fed to the chickens. They lay the best eggs I have ever eaten!

Nothing else to add - just wanted to thank you for the warm welcome (and much-needed hug).

CC

Slight breakthrough today. As the cupboards were bare this morning (Sunday lunchime is shop time for the week), DS1 who had passed on breakfast was hungry. As there were no 'brown bars' or 'bread' or 'cheese' he actually had a 'red bar' (aka Heinz Strawberry fruit/bran bar)..... something he hasn't eaten in about 9m.

So a small gain. Still trying to work out when we will do the 'cold turkey' approach.

Well, Mr Fussy has just proved what a pigheaded *ss he is.

I thought I would do an experiment this morning ... as I still need to find something to put in a sandwich that he will eat at Kindy - that doesn't have nuts.
So ... I made him his morning toast (1 slice along with a corn and spinach muffin and some fruit), but put the Choc Ezy stuff on it - it's cream cheese based and is high in protein, calcium and potassium - I gave him his toast and said here you go, yours is chocolate toast (brother had vegemite toast today).
He was happily munching away and was through 1/2 of it (1 slice) - fruit and muffin untouched - and I said "do you like your toast today sweetheart?"
"It's yummy!"
"That's awesome sweetie! Here, look which chocolate I used" and I show him the jar.
He promptly looked at me funny and ran off to spit out what was left in his mouth.

On one hand I can see the funny side, on the other hand I want to bash him

Time for an experiment.

Dinasour Chicken nuggets tonight. My bets on DS2 eating all of them and DS1 refusing to touch them.

ETA: it is amazing... some parents wouldn't allow a chicken nugget and here I am PRAYING for a chicken nugget to be eaten.

I hear you on that one. I do anything to get a nugget in as he desperately needs protein.

We had good luck with batman and dinosaur shaped nuggets.

Good luck!

OMG The Dinasour Nuggets went down with ENTHUSIASM and a request for MORE (I only cooked 4 for each boy).

I have told DS1 that if he is a really good boy tomorrow he can have some more for dinner tomorrow night.

This is the FIRST bit of MEAT DS1 has eaten in 2yrs (as we did manage for the first year to get a TINY bit of bacon into him on a homemade pizza).


Batman nuggets have been a failure in the past but Dinasours seem to be a hit (I was actually looking for some nuggets for DS2 to have and saw the Dino ones and thought... DS1 likes Dinasour Donuts so why not try Dinasour Nuggets).

Hello all. I posted in the original thread about my fussy DS who now, at 5yo, seems to be out growing some aspects of fussy eating. Thanks for the link to the NY Times - that basically confirms that kids seem to outgrow it at this age (I wish I had known that 2 years ago though! )

My approach was to allow the foods DS would eat part of the time, with some hidden nutrition and provide challenging food some of the time with rewards for eating a whole meal (a reward chart with a toy at completion). I don't know how useful that was - given that he is just now outgrowing it perhaps this approach did nothing at all!

I think I have been lucky that DS has a sweet tooth, so I can hide a lot of fruit and veg in cakes and muffins. Last week I made a really lovely Choc Pumpkin cake from a Womens weekly cookbook.

Anyhow I had trouble finding good kids vitamins in Aus as all the liquid ones seem to have at least one dodgy additive (we eat additive free as much as possible). I ended up getting some from the USA. Thought I'd post them here in case anyone else has the same issue. See Rainbow Light at iherb - I got the Gummy Bear Essentials which my kids would gobble all day if given the chance, and the Just Once Mutistars, which don't taste good but have a massive variety of ingredients and the kids will eat them if they can have a Gummi bear afterwards.

Just a really quick post ...
I came across this and it looks pretty interesting ...

My Child Won't Eat (Part 1 of 5)

I'll have to watch it during the week....

Hi ednaboo! Great news on the outgrowing! gives me some hope

Thank god for this thread - wish I found it earlier

My DS 4 has become extremely fussy the last few months - getting anything half nutritious into him is a battle and a half. I dread mealtime because no matter what I offer him he wont touch it or he'll take two bites and thats it.

He's also been complaining about being tired etc and he is starting to look skinny (or maybe he's having a growth spurt??).

the other week the doctor also mentioned a possible Innocent Heart Murmur that we have to get checked out next month so I would really like for him to improve on his diet a little.

Only thing he'll eat atm apart from the obvious chocolate, cake and biscuits is yoghurt or cheese and ham sarnies or peanut butter and jam sarnies (but even sandwiches are hard to get into him) - lately DH has actually gotten some salami into him but I dont want him to live on processed meat

Anyway - just a quick ramble to introduce myself

I'm off to the shops soon to get a few supplies for DS - I am determined to get some food into him tonight!

Welcome Lynny

Are you worried about his nutrition? only ask as I can recommend the Heron Vitamini range (can get from Coles) and the Iron melts chewable iron tablets (from pharmacies - you may have to order in).
My son categorises them as 'lollies' so he has no issue with them and often reminds me every day that he needs his vitamins. He has had no energy issues whilst taking them.

No if only they would make a chewable fish oil tablet I would be happy!

Yup, me too.

I really need to be in here.

My 4 year old DD is the fussy-est eater ever. As her brother now says when anyone asks...."She lives on fresh air".

Breakfast - One tub of yoghurt with a large cup of cows milk. Vegemite toast rarely and only if I'm lucky.

Lunch - Always the same, a vegemite sandwich. Maybe a vegemite Sao?

Dinner - (My nightmare) DD eats very few things. Pasta (spaghetti, penne etc) plain with nothing on it. Chicken Nuggets or a sausage or some chicken breast broken up. That's it! Followed by a large cup of milk or three if she's eaten nothing. She will happily not eat and it doesn't bother her at all. She drinks water throughout the day. If her plate has too much on it she will take one look at it and push it away.

DD recently had her 4 year old needles and was weighed etc. Her weight is apparently fine for her age vs height etc. She was in the 50th percentile for weight and in the 95th percentile for height. To me she looks slim, but tall. I don't know.

I used to stress about her eating habits (or lack of) but I've become slightly better recently. There is just nothing I can do about it.

I should mention that she is on a children's multi vitamin and has been for a very long time due to her poor diet.

I will be watching this thread with interest.

Thanks Cathode - yeah I'm a bit worried about the amount of food he eats (or doesnt eat ) and the lack of nutrients in his diet. Atm he's on Blackmores multi's for kids and 2 fish oil caps a day (reminds me, just ran out of them ) Percentile-wise he seems to be doing great for his age so no real concern there.. yet

He just seems to eat stuff with not alot of substance iykwim


On an especially bad day his diet looks like this:

Breakfast:- Glass of warmed up milk with milo sprinkled over the top. Half a slice of toast - nothing else.

Lunch/Snack:- Tub of yoghurt, sometimes I can nag/yell/negotiate a sandwhich into him but then it has to be peanut butter and jam without crusts.

Dinner:- Warm milk and milo on top


On the very odd occassion he will eat fruit, like a banana, mango or strawberries. Spag bol with lots of cheese he'll eat half a bowl of if you beg long enough. With the rest of his food he wont touch it unless you can eat it with a squirt of sweet chilli sauce on it I know he'll eat pancakes for breakfast if I made it and he'll eat muffins, pikelets etc but I dont want him to eat that for every single meal or every single day.

Tonight he actually went really well and ate almost everything I gave him!

After preschool he had a yoghurt and meusli bar

For dinner he ate:-

3 slices of ham rolled up (had to beg and plead with him to eat it, eventually he did)
2 slices of cheese (which he wouldnt eat)
2 of those tiny little sultana boxes
blueberry friand (not healthy as such but I'm desperate here! - as it happens he didnt touch it )
small juice

and he is just about to have a warm milk - touch wood it lasts

Hi all with fussy eaters,

I have 2 children, DS1 is now almost 4, and DS2 is 2 years old.

DS1 was a terrible eater from the word go. We started him on solids at 6 months, and went through about 6-12 months of pure torture in terms of meals. From up to the age of a year old, I don't think 'starting solids' was the right term to describe his eating. We'd be lucky if he had ONE teaspoon of mush each meal. I tried everything. To make things worse, he was on the 10% percentile in terms of weight, and I was petrified that he'd stop growing & waste away.

When he was about 18-24 months, I'd had enough. He was snacking all the time. I'd give him fruit - the only thing he would eat, and raisins, crackers etc throughout the day. He barely ever ate a proper meal with us. Some meals I'd make 4 different dishes, just to get to something he would eat. One day we just thought 'this is it', and we gave him porridge for breakfast. He didn't eat any of it. We put it in the fridge and offered it to him for lunch (no snacks in between). He didn't eat it. We brought it out for dinner (no snacks in between), and he finished it off. I know I sound very cruel, but I think that is how we got over this fussy eating in this particular child. That day was a breakthrough, because after that we did these things

* Stopped the snacking (Stopped the endless supply of milk too)
* If he didn't want a meal, we'd ask him if he was sure he didn't want it. If he didn't, then we'd put it away for another meal (Depending on what it was, there's only so much time I'd keep it around for though. Might make another batch if it was starting to get a bit gross).
* I stopped obsessing about his weight

He now eats pretty much everything. And i mean everything including all vegetables and some things other children wont even look at. I rarely give him anything with sugar in it or processed foods if i can help it. There are some things that we'll say it's okay to not eat if he really doesn't want it (ie. the spinach cannelloni that was so foul that even my DH wouldn't touch), & give him another option, however I'd say 99% of the time he will finish off (Or almost finish) his meals. He is probably on the 30-40% for weight (but i'm not worried anymore because he is a very healthy size, does not look like he's wasting away). I don't give him any snacks in between meals, unless he is going through a growth spurt or really hungry & I know he'll eat his next meal.

After reading a few posts, it seems like some children do have problems eg. diabetes, or are really sick, or extremely thin. But for other 'fussy' eaters who are normal, do parents try the 'starve them out' method? Surely children wouldn't really starve themselves? Or would they?

And another thing i was thinking about, do we expect our children to eat too much? Maybe some children can survive on 2 small meals a day. Just because it's not what every child does, it doesn't mean that it's wrong for a particular child. DS1 would never (& still doesn't) complain about being hungry, but if DS2 is hungry for even a second, I will know about it.

I hope I don't offend anyone with my questions. I'm just posting my experiences with my child, and hoping that someone might benefit from it, or tell me why it wouldn't work with their child.

Welcome JMC
There is a theory, I think it was on the last vid link that I posted, about if there is too much on the plate the child goes into sensory overload. Something along the lines of offer very small portions of new foods and always include at least one item on the plate that you know they will eat (but not much of it).
We have been doing this, and whilst he is not eating it yet, he is really happy and proud to show off with playing with the food and smelling it all and touching it to his lips ... massive progress as far as I am concerned


God they can be weird can't they? Mr Fussy went through a phase of wanting pickled ginger for every meal

Hi Mumof2babies. Thank you for your input

Yep, tried that And yes they do. Mr Fussy went 15 days on our starvation trial (all he was having was an apple and a 1/2 glass of milk a day approx). I ended up caving in and going onto the next method (which is the current one of encouraging him to get used to food types by smelling, touching, putting to lips and playing). With him it has very much evolved into pure pigheadedness and control - as the Eataholics clip that I posted says, at this age the only thing that is completely in their control is what goes into their mouths.


I'm not one much for the "Supernanny", but she is in a new series called "Extreme Parental Guidance" and if you can find season one episode 4 dealing with a seven year old called "Rio" and his food fussiness it is very interesting. Rio only eats bread and butter. Nothing else at all.
The way that she basically worked it was that Rio was using mealtimes for all the "attention" as they would have big fights every night. All she did in this case was to take the focus off him, as in he was not given different food, he was given what everyone else was and then completely ignored at the table (everyone else talking to each other, not looking at or talking to him). Basically it is a starvation method as he was not given access to his usual food. Anyway, it is really better if you watch the whole episode ... I haven't been able to find a link to post here.
(nb: I imagine that this method would not work for everyone - was pretty much what we did with Mr Fussy and didn't work - but hey, I think if you have an extreme fussy eater, you get to the stage of being willing to try anything).

OMG this is the thread I have dreamed about! Have a lot to go back and read up so far but just thought I would introduce myself.

I am Sam, I have 3 kids, only 2 are fussy (my 4yr old DS and 2yr old DS)
2yr old has egg allergy which eliminates lots of foods but even when I make things for him with an egg substitute he still wont eat them.

Both have been fussy since about 15 months and have got worse over time.

I feel like I have tried everything to get them to eat!

Look forward chatting to you all

Welcome Sam
The original thread (which was one I started in regards to Mr Fussy and our journey) has a load of tips and advice from other mums. Interspersed in each of these 2 threads are links to books, tv shows and documentaries, recipe tips and general support

It's a long hard slog .... but you are not alone

How to traumatise a child in 3 easy steps.
*measure them after dinner.
*Tell them they are getting shorter.
*Tell them it is because they don't eat their dinner.

Wow, what an instant panic attack! He wanted to know about what he could eat to get taller and stronger and kept crying because he is getting shorter wah wah. Heartbreaking.
Was purely incidental, I didn't do it planned or deliberately.
Anyway, he went through the list of what he does eat to me and asked things like
"Will apples make me stronger and taller?"
"No sweetie, apples keep you healthy and keep colds away"
"Will watermelon make me stronger and taller?"
"No sweetie, watermelon keeps your skin healthy and firm"
etc.
So, in the end he asked for some yogurt (he asked to eat his dinner, but I had already turfed it). I was flabbergasted so I went off and grabbed some. He put the tiniest bit on his lips (not in his mouth) and promptly vomited all over me - he was so freaking hysterical.

Anyway, we had another chat (after I cleaned up) and he settled on a 1/2 glass of milk to help him get stronger - I told him that milk makes his bones strong (nb: he hasn't had milk to drink in the longest time, I think once in the last 6 months). He sculled it and went off to bed to wait growing taller. ~sigh~

So, now I am googling trying to find some kids stories about eating to make you strong and tall..... So far have found these ...

http://www.neatsolutions.com/ChildrensBook...yEaters_01.html

http://www.amazon.com/Books-for-Picky-Eate.../R3R9GAXT8SGIAJ

So am off to book depository to get the lot! only a couple on BD, so am hoping that neatsolutions sends to OZ.

Edited to add that I did find most of them on bookdepository, fingers crossed that this works

DS1 when offered something he does not like or 'nothing' will go with 'nothing'. The Paed has suggested we try all other methods first before the 'strave them out' as in his experience the parents crack well before the kids . DS1 actually is disproportionately heavy for his height. Ie. 10% height and about 50% for weight so he is actually short and stocky

As for eating too much I am actually trying to LIMIT what DS1 eats. He is hungry but NOT for the food I want him to eat (ie. stuff other then bread, crackers or cheese). So he will whinge and complain to be fed bread/crackers/cheese but if offered any type of meat, veg or fruit will decline to eat. Even pasta is not eaten.

So for us it has been a MAJOR breakthrough for him to even eat chicken nuggets (first bit of meat in over 2yrs - previously had an extra year of a TINY bit of bacon on home made pizza).

So when your child basically only eats:

Dry Weetbix
Crackers
Bread (plain, cheese sandwich or Vegemite sandwich)
Cheese
Breadsticks
Tortillas (once again bread)

You really want to get VARIETY into their diet not actual quantity.

That's it exactly.

Mr Fussy is over 90th percentile for height and weight.
The weight is so high because all he will eat is carbs ... processed to buggery usually.

Hi everyone,

Great thread! I'm another with a fussy eater. DD is 4.5yrs and she's a healthy height and weight, just super fussy. Getting better as she gets older but still a struggle particularly when we go out, to find something she'll eat. With her its meat of any kind, whether its sausages, mince, beef, pork, if she can see it, she won't eat it. If you mix it with rice or potatoes and cover it with gravy, she may eat it. She won't try ham or anything like that so her sandwiches are basically vegemite. She'll eat vegies if they're mixed with pototoes and gravy or with rice and gravy but she won't eat them on their own. Only vegie she'll eat raw is carrots. She does love milk and yoghurt so thats not a problem but she won't eat cheese. She'll nibble on it and end up playing with it. For us its not really how much she eats as she eats like a horse provided its stuff she likes. Its more variety that I find hard. She seems to like the same things everyday which I hear is not uncommon in littlies but I always find myself thinking surely she must be bored of the same thing everyday!!

Anyway, will pop into this thread for a read when I can

That is my problem with DS1 too.

Give DS1 the opportunity and he would eat a WHOLE LOAF of bread.

I am very conscious of portion sizes and ensuring correct portions for my children..... never putting too much on their plates... most often allowing them to take how much THEY want from the 'family' plates on the table. If they want more fine, they can have it, if they don't want to finish what is on their plate no problems.

We don't make a drama out of what DS1 eats (ie. The Nanny).... he gets presented with what the family is eating and has the choice of that or nothing, if he chooses nothing that is his choice... not a big deal.

Hi Everyone!
Can I join too?? Wow cant believe there are sooo many fussy kids out there... here is our story!

DS2 - aged 2

Breakfast - Piece of toast with Peanut butter (If I am lucky he'll take a bit or two!) plus a cup of cows milk.

Lunch - Same as breakfast

Dinner - Maybe a bit or two of a chicken nugget or fish finger. Sausage etc

He refuses bread (unless its toast). A few cookies throughout the day, no fruit or vegies. But he drinks heaps of milk throughout the day. He refuses chips, cakes, icecream etc...

He is also a very bad sleeper. Well who would be on a stomach of nothing!!!

DS1 - aged 4, is just as bad but he'll eat bread and junk food. Just nothing with any nutritional value.

I am going to go back and look over thread 1. Hopefully there will be some tips that will help.

Welcome Sebby and Jak80!

Hopefully you guys can utilise some of the advice in the threads, and if not, know that we are all supporting each other (and not judging) throughout this frustrating time

And be sure to let us know of any 'wins' no matter how small (so we can all try the method )