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| My daughter aged 3 |
I’ve been wanting to write this post for ages, for nearly 9 years in fact, but I really couldn’t think of an appropriate title. My ‘fussy’ or ‘picky’ daughter just didn’t fit. For 9 years my daughter just hasn’t eaten. I have read soooo many books, web sites and blogs about hiding your vegies in food, family friendly meals, how to get picky eaters to eat, blah blah blah and let me tell you, absolutely nothing works.
From about the age of 2 years old, she started to get a bit fussy, like all kids do I guess. They’ve gained new found independence or they just don’t like the taste or texture of certain foods so they refuse them. Not my daughter. She just plainly refused to eat the food I served. On visits to the Maternal & Child Health Nurse at her regular check ups, the nurse would tell me to make finger foods or make it crunchy or again, blah blah blah. Nothing worked. Over the years I have read and tried absolutely everything there is to try on getting a child to eat.
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| Aged 9 with her brother and her favourite food, hot chips |
Coming from a family who ate everything (even though I was, and still am, fussy towards runny eggs) we just didn’t leave the table until our dinner was eaten but we were pretty lucky that we ate everything. I can remember sitting in the kitchen in the dark with stone cold choko on my plate but I eventually ate it. We tried sending her to bed with nothing, serving it up to for breakfast, lunch or dinner the following day, not giving her anything else, never making a fuss, getting her to pick things out to try at the supermarket. You name it. We tried EVERYTHING!
Just last year I was at my wit’s end only because I worried about her nutrition at 10 years of age. We took her to a pediatrician and then subsequently a child psychologist. This doctor got her to eat almonds, baby spinach and hummous. So there! How did you think it made me feel? When she goes to her father’s now she eats vegetables that are on the list written on the fridge but she won’t eat them at home. She has even eaten a sausage roll and a hamburger with her father but not with me. Think of it as her last act of defiance with me and you might have a better understanding of why she won’t eat for me. She’s a very clever girl and quite clearly understands the meaning of nutritional value with certain foods but she just won’t eat them. She says it makes her ‘sick’ so she doesn’t eat them.
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| Aged 10 |
I gave up reacting to her defiance years ago so I don’t know why she continues to do it. Yes, she’s stubborn and maybe all I can hope for is that she will eat normal foods one day but boy, it does make it hard at meal times. I’ve been cooking the same food for everyone for years now and she just refuses to eat it and goes to bed hungry. She’s not over or under weight and quite healthy, from what we can gather. It’s not even a matter of what she won’t eat because if you can name it, she won’t eat it. We’ve made some tremendous progress over the years with her moving on from chicken nuggets to actual real chicken for example. Here is a list of guaranteed foods she will eat:
- hot chips (always hot chips) or my homemade potato wedges which I try to include in every meal
- white or wholemeal bread
- butter
- Vegemite
- cheese
- apples
- bananas (with not a bit of black on them)
- chicken
- crumbed chicken
- broccoli, carrot and corn
- potato crisps
- lollies (of course with the lollies, which is once a fortnight movie night thing)
- popcorn
- gravy
- some cookies and very rarely cake
- cracker biscuits
- plain pasta (after a long drawn out process)
- plain rice
- plain white fish
- ice cream and ice blocks
She’s never eaten nuts, sauces, spreads or all the other things kids normally like. Her brother is a fantastic eater. He might fuss over a piece of capsicum in his dish and I’m happy with that. It’s just when she flat out refuses to eat. Not a lot in that list to choose from. I’ve got quite a lot of friends who have children with the same issues and its been diagnosed as having some sort of sensory processing disorder. My daughter wasn’t diagnosed with anything other than she’s a bit ‘quirky’. Quirky alright! I think is all that bad karma coming to get me from all the bad things I did all my life.
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| Up until aged 2, she ate everything |
It’s always a work in process. People who eat with us just can’t believe what she’s like but I just thought I’d share it here on the blog as basically a record for her and also that all these delicious meals I make and things I bake are for me, Damien and my son. She gets some on her plate but it’s thrown in the bin. I really feel for you if you have children the same. If you’d like to comment, I’d so appreciate some advice but I’m sure anything you tell me has already been tried. All I can hope for is that one day she will eat and learn to enjoy food.
