Mealtime Is a Battle

I was the younger sister to the "really picky eater".....I tried to follow in her footsteps until I saw how much trouble it got her into....then I jumped off that bandwagon!

Just keep building on what she likes, trying new foods a few times a week and making sure that she tries at least a small amount at every dinner. You're on a good path. Also, encourage her to help you cook. My children at that age, loved making and eating quesidillas and you can throw a few extra ingredients in them too. This could be a phase - she may change. Just keep up with the variety...add more beans, tofu or fish, too. It's not a terrible thing that she won't eat meat.

By the way...my sister is an incredible cook....much more creative with food than I have ever been...see how things change! Good luck.

There is a great book by William G Wilkoff, MD called Coping with a Picky Eater that every parent or provider of kids should read and have a copy of. http://www.amazon.com/Coping-Picky-Eater-Perplexed-Parent...

This book has what I call the Picky Eater Plan. I have used this plan with kids that literally threw up at the sight of food and within 2 weeks they were eating normal amounts of everything and trying every food.

First you need to get everyone who deals with the child on board. If you are a provider it's ok to make this the rule at your house and not have the parents follow through but you wont' see as good results as what I described up above.

The plan is to limit the quantities of food you give the kid. When I first start with a child I give them literally ONE bite worth of each food I am serving. The book suggests that every time you feed the kids (breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner) you give all 4 food groups. So, for lunch today I would have given the child one tiny piece of strawberry, one spoonful of applesauce, 3 macaroni noodles with cheese on them, and 2 oz of milk. Only after they ate ALL of what was on their plate would you give them anything else. They can have the same amounts for seconds. If they only want more mac and cheese, they only get 3 noodles then they would have to have more of all the other foods in order to get more than that. If they don't eat, fine. If they don't finish, fine. Don't make a big deal out of it, just make them stay at the table until everyone else is done eating. BUT make sure they get no other food till they are sat at the next meal and they only get what you serve. When I first do this with a child I don't serve sweets at all. So no animal crackers for snack but rather a carrot for snack. Or one of each of those. I don't make it easy for them to gorge on bad foods in other words. Now if they had a meal where they ate great then I might make the snack be a yummy one cause I know they filled up on good foods.

Even at snacks you have to limit quantities of the good stuff or else they will hold out for snack and just eat those snacky foods. I never give a picky eater the reward of a yummy snack unless they had that great lunch prior to it.

It really is that easy.

We went through this for a long time. My 4.5 year old finally eats meat other than chicken nuggets. I would suggest tofu hidden in smoothies for protein. You really can't taste it when mixed with fruit. It sounds like she's got some pretty healthy options you are giving her that she's accepting. Trader Joe's has a yummy dark green colored drink filled w/broccoli & more. My son also will drink that! I wouldn't worry too much! Good luck.

Dr. Sears is a well-respected pediatrician who will tell you that you can train your child's tastebuds to like foods they do not yet. Have your daughter try grazing. Get a muffin tray and cut up different colored and various vegetables and leave them out for her all day. She might enjoy the fact that they look pretty and can try when she feels like it rather than when mom or dad tell her to. Let her experiment and tell her that although she may not like some of them yet- she can trick her taste buds to enjoy them soon. Check out Dr. Sears website for more advice.

Mealtime is crazy at my house. I serve our dinners family style making sure there is something everyone likes and also including new foods so that they see it and eventually try it. It takes a child to see a food something like 25 times before they even try it. There are times when my six year old eats only a few noodles and a lot of carrots with ranch dressing with dinner. No one is allowed to say I hate that because then the little kids hear it it's monkey see monkey do and won't try it. So after they try something and don't like it they are to just keep quiet. Look at the whole week to get a feel for her nutrition. If that has a lot of variety and includes all the food groups she is doing great.

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