We are having massive issues with our 5 year olds eating habits.

Put lightly he refuses to eat near enough anything and its getting us a bit worrying.

Whatever we put in front of him he refueses to eat apart from his weetabix in the morning and of all things fajhits coated chicken in a wrap.

We have tried everythung to gethim to eat like not giving him thr option of otheer food if he won’t eat what’s infront of him,stopped giving him treats and sent him to bed on an empty stomach.

What can you suggest we do ?, a couple of years ago he would eat most things but now he won’t.

Help !!

similar issued with both of ours at somepoint, it should pass.
Question – do you eat as a family much?

Based upon having had three kids, they’ll eat when hungry – but like ourselves there are somethings they just won’t eat, no matter how hungry they are.

Give him 2 Weetabix?

Same problem, comes and goes. We have found that making food fun and attractive helps e.g. Smiley faces with potatoes, fish fingers etc. Also keep things separate, keep meals times regular and all eat at the same time.

Edit – that

Question – do you eat as a family much?

Good luck though, it can be painful

It is frustrating. But I’d suggest don’t make a big deal or fuss about it at the table, it’s all part of experimenting/discovering about eating and food, about developing tastes, but of course about developing character. Just put the same food you’re all having on his plate and eat yourselves. Don’t get annoyed, or bring attention to his not eating. Had a similar thing with my kids, a friend had it worse with hers. Eventually they started eating again.

Hope this helps.

A friend’s child ate nothing except plain spagetti and McDonald’s fries for years. They were beside themselves with worry, GP basically said he’s healthy and it will pass, and in time it passed.

Definitely don’t pressure them and seek advice if you’re really worrying. Good luck 😀

Yet to confront this myself (although my two 3 yr olds aren’t exactly good eaters). But my understanding of it is that a child will not starve to death if there is food for them to eat – it’s just a battle of wills if you give them something else and they won’t eat it. After a few days of not eating they will eventually break.

Hi thanks for the replies.

We have tried the suggestions above and they don’t seem to work.

He eats 2 and a half weetabix in the mornung and we all sit together at the table together every night.

Its all phases.
One week nothing but pizza.
Next week nothing but ravioli.
Then yogurt, and so on until they get fed up of each food,, but the little sod wont tell you until put it in front of them and you get ” gone of that”

🙁

NB: I don’t have children so this might be most stupid suggestion ever.

I only have 2 weetabix in the morning and that keeps me going for a good few hours. How about only one weetabix so he’s more hungry in the evening?

As I said – could be a dumb idea…..

Try your very best not to make food into a battle ground; the wee fella will use it to give you grief…

I ate nothing but beans on toast……for the best part of 10 years.

– Starvation

– a really big runaround just before meal time to crash the blood sugar and he’s begging for food.

– Cut out (and throw out) the sweets and snacks, except fresh fruit.

– dont make dinner a battle, plus distraction my wife talks and jokes with them so they dont reaslie its being shovelled in

– give him the worse option treatment. First offer a really bad option, then when they are really dreading that and protesting offer the thing you actually wanted them to do/eat. Jobs a goodun, they think they have got off lightly.

Don’t make it an issue, so don’t go on about it, praise the good and ignore the bad (food wise), just leave bowls of fruit and other bits & bobs your child may like, whatever happens a child won’t starve themselves. (usually :oops:)

Try your very best not to make food into a battle ground

This.

Keep all other options open, try various options / combinations and most of all, don’t get heavy / stressed about it.

I think my daughter survived for years on chicken fingers and little else – it’s done her no harm at all. I didn’t see the point of upsetting both her and me by trying to force her to eat things she didn’t like.

Get him involved in choosing/making the meals. Make some basic pizzas with faces and things – make him feel involved.

Another good thing is to just say it’s a snack and give him small bits of a lot of different fruit, veg with dips etc. They get put off with a big plate the same thing.

He’s partly trying to see how far he can push you so actually not giving him anything makes it a game to him. Just start your meal and almost ignore him. This seems cruel/wrong but he’ll start eating if he’s not getting any attention.

Good luck!

serve it cold for breakfast every day until it gets eaten

My daughter (nearly 3) Eats essentially:
Weetabix/Porride/or cornflakes
Toast
Bread of any form!!
Tuna or cheese sarnies
Tomato penne pasta
spaghetti and bolognaise sauce (no meat)
rice cakes
milk
yoghurt
raisins
veggie sausages
yorkshire pudding
gingerbread men like they are going out of fashion!

occasionally fish fingers

No veg as such, no fruit

Not sure if any of these points will help:

I was told when my little in went through this phase that kids learn quickly that what they put in there mouths was about the ONLY thing they could control in their lives, everything else you call the shots. It won’t help solve the problem, but it did help me get less frustrated at least understanding what it was about.

Apparently kids don’t have regular metabolisms like us, so it’s not unusual for them not to need as much food from day to day.

I know those don’t help directly, but may help ease your mind a bit

Make some basic pizzas with faces and things

I like this idea, my kids both love to make/cook things.

Getting him involved with preparing the food and getting him to help cook it might add some interest into eating it as well?

Mum, Dad look what I made….. 😉

MrSmith – Member

serve it cold for breakfast every day until it gets eaten

My dad used to do that to me!

It has stuck with me too, the thought of eating cold meat makes me feel sick, just thinking about it!

I can tell you what not to do. Don’t force them or trick them. I’m still scarred from that as an adult.

Rob Jackson, if tomatoes, veggie sausages, raisins and possibly the yoghurt don’t class as fruit and veg, I’m not sure what does….

Rob Jackson…. One of my two (just turned three) eats almost exactly that, although she devours fish fingers as first choice.

Our 20 month old is on the idave diet..
Loves protein such as eggs, ham, steak, sausages and chicken. Generally wont eat carbs such as potatoes and pasta except the odd piece of toast. Eats some veges but loves fruit such as oranges, pears, kiwis and bananas.

Childrens taste buds change as the grow as im sure you well know. Get them involved, be persistent but also try and make mealtimes enjoyable not just trying to persuade them to eat.

Take him swimming, have a good long energetic splash around.
Then go to the nearest park, climb a tree or hide in hedge of some sort of weird exciting place and have a pic nic whilst chatting about pirates, scarey monsters or whatever he’s most into.

He’ll eat his body weight in cheese sandwiches, malt loaf and whatever.

If you do go down the route of letting him get involved in making the food a good tip is to make up nonsense names like Popeye Pasta (spinach and pasta), Mr Tumble toasties blah blah….whatever he’s into make something up. You’ll be surprised the affect a name makes tbh. Key emphasis is to make if fun.

As already mentioned he might genuinely not like stuff – or may be allergic/intolerant. Youngest has a severe egg allergy and one of the first signs was him not eating it – i’ve never driven as fast when the allergy really kicked in! 😯

My son also would only a very restricted diet at that age, we tried to introduce smoothies and juices for vitamins and milkshake for calcium and protein, also those chewy vitamins.
Its tough to not be worried and make a big deal but he’s now 11 and eats a lot more varied food and more of it.

Starve them out!

I’m convinced Baby North (nearly 2yo) is French.

She eats:

Bread
Ham
Cheese
(But not pizza)
Fish
Raisins
Apples
Milk
Water

And refuses pretty much everything else. In spite of her diminutive stature (she’s 2nd centile for weight and 9th for height) she seems happy enough.

this problem could drive a person nuts,
My eldest only eat chesse and chip at one point for ages he now eat what ever and every thing.
My 2 year old did not eat any thing apart from porridge and noodles for 1year he now eats most stuff.
All the advise above seems correct.

never make eating stressful for you or them, cook your food ask him if he want some if he say no tell him you will put some weetabix in a bowl for him then.
Dont ask him to eat them just put it on the table and repeat morning,lunch time and evening then progress to serving your food up at the table from serving dish to your plates and in a week may be amonth he will eat from them to.
Also start useing your hands to eat certain thing and cook and serve finger food a few times a week.
Next is patients

its a simple attention getter.. starve the little mite he ll soon clear his plate.. my 6 yr old knows she ll get attention as if she doesnt eat she dies ( very quickly its called MCAD for those who like googling) so refuses to put anything in just to get undivided attention and rob her sister of it.
so MTFU and put a plate of food in front of em let it sit here till end of your meal and bin whats still on plate.. kids respect rules and routine parents dont

its a simple attention getter.. starve the little mite he ll soon clear his plate

Rash generalisations bad. If you’d tried that tactic with me as a kid, you’d have wound up with me in Casualty. The last thing I wanted with food issues was attention.

Often this is the age where they start to want to have some control. And choosing not to eat is one area they can have that control.

Things that have worked for us:

-Let him choose what the meal is occasionally.
– Don’t make a fuss if he’s not eating. Often my daughter announces she’s not eating any more. If you ignore her, she gets bored and goes back to eating.
-Make it fun. My youngest daughter will want to beat me at finishing a mouthful even if she’s announced she’s not eating.
-Don’t worry. He won’t starve.

If you’d tried that tactic with me as a kid, you’d have wound up with me in Casualty. The last thing I wanted with food issues was attention.

Is this becuase apart from the hunger strike you would have climbed on the roof and started throwing tiles down?

Do the here comes the train into the tunnel routine….
If he doesn’t open the tunnel, make the train crash into his mouth getting food everywhere…

Kids are just weird – our 2-year-old loves strong flavours, will happily eat spicy things, eats pickle from the jar and devours olives, but doesn’t trust anything green.

We generally just give her whatever we’re eating, like it or lump it.

No child ever starved itself to death. Stop worrying.