5 year old won't eat dinner...

[Rainbowpea]

Hey everyone, I have a little girl who will be 5 in March. She is a REALLY fussy eater and refuses most dinners. She eats breakfast, nibbles on her packed lunch and won't eat dinner at all.

She has been referred to the dietician who told me just to ignore her when she doesn't eat as she does it for attention. I have really tried this for the last 3 weeks and she is no better. In fact her behaviour is now getting really bad and I'm sure that it's linked to her being hungry all the time.

Anyone had a similar experience or can offer any advice??

 

[fuffyburra]

I agree with the PP, it's her choice whether she eats or not. She may well be badly behaved because she's a little hungry, but she'll learn to try things and eat properly, and it'll all be over. The night is always darkest before the dawn, as they say! lol

My twin sister was the fussiest eater EVER, and my mum would just put the food down in front of us, and if we didn't want it she'd just take it away in silence and we'd go hungry. I tried EVERYTHING she put on the table my sister soon learnt to do the same.

Also, we used to grow fruit and veg in the garden, and I think it helped my sister to be more enthusiastic about trying it, as she knew she'd grown it. If you have a garden that'd be good

Good luck! x x

 

[RachA]

I agree with PP's. Don't make an issue of it. Put a meal on the table and if she doesn't eat it don't offer anything else. It doesn't hurt them to go hungry at all. She will learn that there is nothing else on offer and will get the message. 3 weeks isn't all that long really.
Also, don't offer anything else later in the evening as that is more likely to be something that she wants to eat and she will soon get the idea that if she refuses breakfast she will get something she likes before bed anyway.

 

[JASMAK]

I have a SUPER picky eater, and we too saw a dietician. We took all junk foods out of her diet, provided her with ONLY healthy choices, and we give her a wide variety of choices, we have two set snack times (mid morning, and mid afternoon). She only gets water with meals, except breakfast she gets milk (she used to fill up on just milk). She also gets one cheese and one yogurt serving (to make up for the req'd dairy servings)...and the rest is all healthy. She chooses the rest...how much, and what when she is offered it. She isn't allowed to talk about what she hates (she likes to go on and on about how much she hates something). If she doesn't want something, she is to just leave it. This may sounds strict, but it's actually very relaxed. There is rules, but the rest is really up to her. She still gets treats too...but they are once in awhile.

 

[Rainbowpea]

Thank you for the replies. I am trying not to struggle with her over food but it is very hard when I can see her getting thinner and more tired as a result of her poor diet. She hasn't been like this for a couple of weeks, she has been like it for about 8 months, and it is the last 3 weeks I have been really following the not paying her any attention advice.

My concern is that because she is not encouraged to eat food (as I'm not making an issue of it) she is refusing more food than ever before and in the last week she has started stealing food- she took biscuits out of the kitchen and stole sweets from a friend's house. My poor little girl is hungry and i can't see that just ignoring her is helping her.

 

[JASMAK]

I would see your doctor then. Also, I would get all the sweets out of your house.

 

[sdc010905]

I don't mean to offend anyone but I don't agree that a child will eat when it needs to. My son started to lose his appetite shortly after his 3rd bday and I adopted this approach but it was certainly the wrong one. He continued to lose weight and stopped gaining height too. At 4 yrs 5 months he weighed 13 kilos and had dropped from the 60th percentile to the 2nd . He got more and more rundown and caught every bug and virus going. Eventually he was exhausted and irritable all the time and would fall asleep in the day time perhaps if we were driving- normal for 2 year old not for a school child. I had brought him to gp concerned and they admitted him to hospital ruling out cystic fibrosis, leukaemia, coeliac disease and ran a lot of blood tests. He had to go on nutritional supplements for months and we saw a dietician privately for quite a while. Research failure to thrive and discuss with a paediatrician as gps just aren't knowledgable enough in this area.

 

[meli1981]

my daughter is six and is a very fussy eater as well. she doesnt eat veggies or fruit and very little meat. i personally didnt ignore this and went ti a dietician, where they told me to just keep introducing these foods. this didnt work as i have the MOST stubborn child on earth! i was worried because she is six and only forty pounds. most of the kids i know close to her age are at least fifty pounds. anyway i give her vitamins, the flintstones! and i give her pediasure. she likes the chocolate, and calls it her chocolate milk. it has all the vtamins and minerals as well as iron, and extra calories that they need if theyre not eating right. so if i were you i would give her vitamins, as well as the pediasure, or boost ir something like that. you can be rest assured shes getting her vitamins while trying to get her to eat! the pediasure comes in chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, so theres something shes likely to like! hope it helps!

 

[JASMAK]

I don't mean to offend anyone but I don't agree that a child will eat when it needs to. My son started to lose his appetite shortly after his 3rd bday and I adopted this approach but it was certainly the wrong one. He continued to lose weight and stopped gaining height too. At 4 yrs 5 months he weighed 13 kilos and had dropped from the 60th percentile to the 2nd . He got more and more rundown and caught every bug and virus going. Eventually he was exhausted and irritable all the time and would fall asleep in the day time perhaps if we were driving- normal for 2 year old not for a school child. I had brought him to gp concerned and they admitted him to hospital ruling out cystic fibrosis, leukaemia, coeliac disease and ran a lot of blood tests. He had to go on nutritional supplements for months and we saw a dietician privately for quite a while. Research failure to thrive and discuss with a paediatrician as gps just aren't knowledgable enough in this area.

I think we all agree. My daughter was hospitalized with severe anemia from not eating. This is why we made changes....after seeing a dietician. My daughter has autism and I think that is where alot of her food issues stemmed from.

 

[Amarna]

I agree that you need to talk to her doctor and I'd try vitamins in the meantime, you may have to try different brands to see what she'll like but it'll be worth it. I wouldn't feel comfortable ignoring it for this long either. My daughter can be picky (not as bad as the OP's daughter but still quite picky) and one thing I noticed that helped her is to involve her with cooking and preparing meals. Have you tried that with her? For example she can help me mix ingredients together, prepare a salad, wash veggies/fruit. A few meals a week I let her pick out the veggie that we have with dinner. My daughter at least seems much more likely to eat when she's helped prepare it and knows that she had some input, or at least feels like she did.

 

[Rainbowpea]

Interesting that this thread has been resurrected! Maybe something got lost in translation-i was ignoring her behaviour on the advice of the dietician who thought her food refusal might be an attention seeking thing. It didn't work. My daughter is still just as bad with food and the dietician has now referred her to a psychologist- I guess she thinks it is a food phobia or something. We are waiting to get an appointment.

I hope we all get some breakthrough with our fussy eaters!