won’t eat

iv been there brought the tshirt .

my middle daughter would eat nothing but spaggeti hoops cornflakes toast and custard .and a little chicken. i tried and tried the other two would eat almost anything but not her, i made faces with mash and peas and all the crazy stuff i tried veg burgers . i tried withholding food i tried putting the same stuff down for every meal nothing worked . i am afraid i lost my temper in the end and pushed her face in her dinner. i just gave up and let her eat what she wanted , 

shes 27 now and still pretty fussy eater but she does eat much  more verity than as a child ,beef and chicken in gravy, fish finger, chicken legs , bacon ,potatoes tinned carrots , its not the best diet but it what she eats , she may change again in a few years , but please do not force your daughter or threten her i mean your eat it or eles , i no its so easy when your worried , but you can lead a horse to water you cant make it drink , just keep trying little bits of new stuff , as long as shes eating something. a friend of mine was threatned by her dad he said eat your dinner she said i eat everything except the meat , her dad said your eat everything so the only control for her was to eat nothing . she lived to be just 27 .so be very careful not to force the issue . and see if in time she will change 

if you have funds take her to see a natrapath maybe could help.

give her time hun better shes eating something.

Are there any other things, apart from eating, that don't seem quite right with your daughter?  I'm wondering if your daughter has autism, which could be mild or be more like Asperger's syndrome.  Autistic people often have strange eating habits and likes and dislikes for certain foods, but if she's autistic there would be other problems too such as poor social skills.

a friend of mine had the same situation with her 5 year old a few years ago and when visiting the doctor he told her not to worry about it because he only liked two or three things he was getting enough nutrotin so she left him alone and let him eat what he wanted. she would put out other foods and eventually he began eating other things on his own. maybe try bright coloured foods to get her attention and just leave it up to her.

As you say your daughter is 7 years old, she must be going to school - what does she eat at lunch time? Childrens' behaviour at school is often very different to what you see at home. If she has a packed lunch, then she will still be controlling what she eats, but if she has a school dinner, then I wouldn't be at all surprised if she ate a much bigger variety of foods along with her friends.(She might not tell you about it!) If she was having a cooked meal at lunch time at school, then I wouldn't worry too much about what she was eating at home. And when eating at home stops being an issue, then she may well start to eat more variety there as well.

Will she eat sweets and snacks? If not, then there may just possibly be more to this; children on the autistic spectrum can have a very difficult relationship with food. If you have noticed any other differences in her behaviour, it would be worth seeking an expert opinion.

Usually children grow out of it but sometimes they don't:  my grandson, 15, will not eat vegetables, and I know a 94 year old cardiologist who hasn't eaten veg all his life.  A girl I knew at school would only eat chips in bread and butter.  A distant relative eats chips and stodge only.  They survive but they're not healthy. But most kids grow out of it.  I found, with a very, very fussy son, that he would eat if a friend ate the same thing with him and if he was having fun.  Try not to be anxious around food times with your daughter!

Did you try taking your daughter shopping so she can choose what she likes the look of, into the shopping trolley.

Have you tried cooking and baking with your daughter?  Buy her a pretty apron and children's size (pretty) cooking utensils.

I believe that if you don't put too much importance to her behaviour at meal times, it will be less stressful for the family.

Hope these ideas will help.

My son gradually started eating less and less from about age 5 on.  He is now 24 and eats pretty much only pasta, cheese, and pancakes.  I tried all the different "tricks" to no avail.  I truly believe that to him most foods taste terrible, to the point of making him gag if forced.  My suggestion would be to accept your daughters strange eating habits and just be open to any ideas SHE may have to try something new.  Be patient, as she gets older she will find it embarrassing and will want to try new things, to the point that she can.  The worst thing for my son was that when we went to inlaws for holiday dinners, they made such a big deal of his fussy eating and dwelled on it so much, that as a teenager he refused to attend anymore. To this day he still will not go to his grandmothers house for family gatherings, nor will he go out to restaurants except for breakfast (because he likes breakfast food), and then only with close family or friends.  My son wouldn't eat in the cafeteria in college because of embarrassment and it really hurt him socially so please be careful as the social damage that can be done could be significant.  I also believe my son is somewhere on the Aspergers/Autism spectrum (undiagnosed and high functioning), something that another poster mentioned as a possible correlation.  I'm not sure it means much other than helping to understand.  Good luck!

I've worked with children and young adults on the autistic spectrum for many years, and have found that it is rarely the taste of food that causes the problems, but the texture and sometimes the colour. For example, one boy would not eat anything brown, others objected to anything with a slimy or 'mushy' texture etc. etc. This is not to say that some children might not find certain flavours unpleasant.