Skinny kid WWPALD?
My DD is 6 she will be 7 in November. She is 4' tall and only 45lbs. She has lost weight in the last few months. I can't get her to eat. Only a few bites of protein, starch and a veggie. At dinner EVERY night I have to fight her to eat. She is always the last one at the table sometimes she spends 2 hours there.
I think this is a battle of wills, if it were pizza or macaroni and cheese this wouldn't be an issue. She can eat her own body weight in pizza. We don't eat that stuff often. She will eat fruit and certain veggies, sometimes. If she ask for junk for a snack I tell her to get fruit she usually just skips the snack.
This has been going on for 2 year at least. She has been picky since she was 3. It seems to just get worse as time goes on. The fact that she hast lost weight worries me a lot. I am thinking about making her drink pediasure shakes. Part of me feels like its "giving in" to her being stubborn.
WWYD?
Re: Skinny kid WWPALD?
Don't let her have it as a meal, have it as her snack.
Is she due for a well child check? I'd ask the pedi since she is losing weight. I was like that as a kid, super picky, wouldn't eat, lost weight, ect- but it's not like I was ever truly hungry/starving. Now, I can't get enough food, I love it. What was I thinking?
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I don't think she is ever starving either. If I say no you can't have chips you can have an orange she just goes on about her day. Does have a well child check up in Nov. I think doing the pediasure as a snack is a good idea.
Have you tried letting her shop with you and pick out her own snacks? LIke, have her go to the produce aisle and pick out anything she think she'd like to eat, then go to the snack aisle and let her have ONE item of her choosing and that's *it* that's what she gets, once that's gone, too bad so sad.
You could even go to the health food store so at least the chip/snack itself would be a tad bit healthier.
I was super super picky as a child, I don't remember it being ' a battle of wills' i just truly hated the food my mother prepared and I would gag and throw up. It has a lot to do with immature palates that kids have. Now? I love all the food, but then? NO WAY!
What does she like to eat? anything remotely healthy? I don't have a child your DD's age but I dont think fighting over food is the best way to deal with this. (not saying that's what you're doing) If she likes peanut butter and jelly, I don't see any issue in allowing her to have that, offer her whatever you're eating first and then if she doesn't like it, let her have the PB&J.
Forcing and fighting over food leads to more problems than 'giving in' and letting her have what she actually will eat. (well, unless it's *only* chips and pizza)
Spaghetti (which we are eating tonight and do on a regular basis), pizza, mac n cheese, chips, icecream, grapes,bananas,cheese,broccoli, greenbeans,peas oranges, vegetarian sausage, eggs, pancakes or waffles, cereal. Those are the only things she will eat all the time. Sometimes she will eat something that surprises me and like it. The next time she wont even taste it.
I agree that fighting her it is not good. I admit I have been doing that lately. Which is why I posted this on here. I think I am going to start her on the pediasure shakes for now. Maybe try a reward system.I will talk to the doctor about it in November.
The problem I have with letting her eat an alternate dinner is that I have 2 step kids who don't get PB&J for dinner. Thankfully they are great eaters. I know which foods the kids hate and I don't make them. Only my stepdaughter likes spinach so I don't feed it to the other kids. My stepson wont eat raw tomatoes and he hates cooked carrots. With Sarai, the list of foods is so short. She does eat all of the healthy stuff on that list all the time.
I let her choose what we have for dinner sometimes, and for the other kids as well. They get to help cook dinner. That will help her eat it that day, but not if I make it again. She loves ketchup and sour cream so I let her put that on stuff she says she want to eat. She likes something one day and not the next. At the end of the day my biggest concern is that she is growing and healthy.