Eating Disorder? Or just stubbornness?

[Crayola kiddies]

I remember a post by Reggio which was about a child who only ate chicken fingers and about three other items and the child ended up with major health issues one if them being diabetes .... I think I would google this issue and find out the long term effects and then open a dialogue with the parents and give them the information .... Cause they may not realize the long term effects and maybe they can push a little harder. For my own kids if they leave the table with out eating it becomes their next meal. No exceptions !

[John_Frost]

It may be behavioural and leaving as it is for now and thinking that it will change with time or can be changed it later can something serious. My little brother had similar issues and he was left alone and feeding him just the things he liked. Later on as he grew his eating became disorderly. He got so addicted to similar type of food and didn't try out normal food and he started to put on a lot of weight and his health grew bad. My parents looked for many solutions and at last they've decided for any counselling and got him to Bellwood Health Services, Toronto. I am not mentioning this to scare the parents here but just to make them aware that don't make excuses not to feed children the food they need to have at this age. Believe me it is hard to get rid of bad habits.

[Momof4]

Crayola, I've heard that story about the chicken fingers many times, I think she read that somewhere. I have actually done what you mentioned too, saving lunch in the fridge and pulling it out for afternoon snack with a picky eater. If they are hungry enough they will eat it.

Playfelt is right, if a child sees the same thing on their plate over and over I've had children who all of a sudden start eating it too. I like to think I'm more stubborn than the child!

[mamaof4]

its rare but i have heard of some kids who have this issue. in the US you can get feeding therapy- is that an option?

[MonkeyMamma]

My son saw an occupational therapist at CHEO for an assessment. I believe feeding therapy would be carried out by an OT here.

[Skysue]

I think that if we make eating to become emotional than these kids tend to get stressed out and just plain won't eat. If it were my daycare I wouldn't offer fruitloops. Offer the child only healthy options and have a reward if they eat all there lunch.

My daycare kids get to have a glass of chocolate milk ( babies and toddlers excluded) at quiet time if they eat all of there lunch. My extremely stubborn eater looks forward to this treat but knows she must eat all of her lunch. I don't compromise this with any of my kids. A few have gone without but it was there choice and It gives them a sense of control.

I don't get emotional if my picky eater takes one bite of her food its her choice. I also have narrowed it down to 5 things she will eat for lunch and yes I make her a separate lunch from the rest of the group but 99% of the time if she picks it she will eat it. All choices are healthy, I know some of you would never do this but for me I have realised that if I try and force her she just gets so upset and shuts down.

This gives her since of control but with healthy options. She's usually the 1st to ask when do we get to have some chocolate milk.

P.S Before some of you cringe we don't eat sweets except for on chocolate chip cookie Friday. I love giving my kids something to look forward to at the end of the week.

[Secondtimearound]

I have a dcg same age and the same problem . Pop tarts with strawberries was the 'healthy ' breakfast . At first I didn't say anything , I have her 2.5 yr sister so I started with her . She had never eaten oatmeal , so I fed her what I fed my own dd . Dcm would send them with every packaged food you could imagine and about 3-4 cookie and crackers fruit roll ups ugh so when my own dd started wanting it ( she had never tried fruit roll ups) I just left her snacks in the backpack and 3 months later she eats pretty much what I'm serving !! She even likes brocoli !!
I
Dcm sent 3 fruit for snack today , and I'm still trying to suggest veggies but a vast improvement over all !!!
I'm not sure with your dcg the crying after trying something new seems abit extreme given her age . I think I would put out lunch as planned and let her decide if she would like to eat or not . Maybe the less made of it would be better .

[mickyc]

I am blessed with a picky eater as well. My daughter does not like meat (unless it is ground) and won't eat much vegies. It is so frustrating. We have had many a fight at the kitchen table. It is slowly getting better. I am very strict and yes I do force her to try the food or she must go to her room until she is ready to eat. I found what vegies she will eat (raw celery, peas or corn) and we eat those most of the time. Every once in awhile I do something new and she MUST try it.

When it comes to daycare I usually just make things I know the kids (and my daughter) will eat. If the food doesn't get eaten when I serve it then it comes out again for the next meal. My rule is what I cook is what I cook and if you don't eat then you do without (and get fed the same thing the next meal). Seems to be working.

I would maybe take some focus of trying new foods. Put the food in front of her. If she doesn't eat then take it away and serve it again next meal. No talking about it, nothing. She either eats what you serve or goes home hungry. It isn't as if you aren't offering her food. When she is hungry then she will eat.

[momof2_boys]

There are deeper issues sometimes with picky eaters. I know because I am one. I have been since I was a baby (or so I've been told by my parents). I wasn't being manipulative or any thing and I didn't grow out of it either. Obviously not every picky water has an eating disorder but I think it would be wise to keep the possibility in mind. Up until maybe a month ago, I couldn't eat onions without putting them through a blender so that I couldn't feel the texture of bitting into a piece of onion. And even now, I dice them up really small and add less than the recipe calls for because I could taste the onion too much. I don't like certain foods touching each other. When I was younger I would gag while being forced to eat casseroles or scalloped potatoes. To this day I cannot eat anything with mushrooms. I actually loose my appetite if I think I'm going to eat any thing with mushrooms in it. I can't even eat meat off a bone because in the past I've chewed off accidentally cartilage or something non-meat. I'm much better now than I was when I was younger, I used to also only eat bread, pickles and uncooked carrots at holiday meals. I've tried a lot of things but the list if things I do eat is much easier to list than the stuff I don't like or get very nervous about trying. So it's not always a choice of not trying something, sometimes it's a lot more than just that.