Can my child live on watermelon?

[Melonononon]

DD is 4 and has just started reception. She has always been a horrifically slow eater, and all meals are a fight. She takes at least an hour to eat a meal, even something small like a slice of toast will take 1+ and that’s with me telling her to eat every mouthful. If I leave her to it, she would literally just sit and stare at the plate. I’ve tried sitting at the table with her, sitting by herself, letting her watch tv, bribing her with treats if she eats quickly, literally nothing works. It’s like this for every single meal, no matter what I make, even if it’s something she loves or she’s asked for, she just doesn’t eat. I have older children so I know the difference between ‘child eating slow’ and this and this is a nightmare. I have a fear that I’m going to give her a future eating disorder, but I literally don’t know what else to do. If I let her leave her food she then gets hungry later. If I take away her food, she wakes up crying in the middle of the night because she’s so hungry. So every mealtime is me sitting next to her saying eat, eat, eat

now she’s started reception, she’s exhausted so has been sleeping in. Obviously this leaves even less time for her to eat and it’s making the morning incredibly stressful. She absolutely loves watermelon and it’s the only thing I’ve found that she eats quickly. I’ve googled and it’s not exactly a fully nutritious breakfast, but it’s not terrible. Would it be an anwful idea to literally just let her eat a huge portion of watermelon by itself for breakfast 5 days a week?

What does she ask for when hungry?

Will she drink a smoothie? You could start making smoothies to try and bump up the nutrients.

Have you seen your GP about this? Is this something that started recently or has she always been a picky eater? Is she able to articulate why she is not eating? Did it get worse (i.e. was so much focus put on food that it has created negative associations). I would have thought it is better to give her watermelon than nothing but regardless, this is something that needs to be looked at by a professional.

I had slow eaters. It's a nightmare! I remember sitting for an hour at the table. Funny how you block these things from memory until reminded 🙂
How about smoothies/porridge for breakfast and soups for tea. Just so it's easy to eat. Save the difficult stuff for the weekend! Watermelon is not unhealthy but it's also not filling.

I think there are worse breakfasts - but she's going to be hungry before it gets to lunch time. Can she take something to much on at break time? Maybe just some bread sticks or some nuts something like that if nuts are allowed? Alternatively would she eat a fruit salad for breakfast maybe? It would be more filling if it had some banana in it for example.

200g of watermelon is about 60 calories. Even if she eats 400g a day that is not a lot of breakfast. Smoothies, milk, hot chocolate, banana milkshake as other ways of upping the calories? Or wraps are calorie dense. Something like some peanut butter/choc spread in a wrap, or a flapjack maybe?

DS2 was like this. He also had ARFID from babyhood - refused the breast, bottle, everything and is subsequently extremely small for an adult male. It is incredibly stressful. Lots of people think if you don't put up with this nonsense they grow out of it. They have no idea!

What we did was to make every mouthful as calorific and nutritious as possible. I knew I could only get two mouthfuls of anything into him then he'd give up. So I made those mouthfuls postage-stamp sized sandwiches of wholemeal high protein bread, spread with nut butter or full fat cream cheese and high fruit content jam. Drinks were a shot glass of home made banana milkshake with full fat milk and ice-cream with Abidec vitamin drops. you could try this and then give watermelon cubes afterwards if she'll eat those voluntarily.

The other thing is - don't restrict food to meal times. I would cut those sandwiches up into tiny squares and give two at breakfast, a couple on the way to school. That would add up to half a slice of wholemeal bread with high calorie cheese or nut butter for the protein and a bit of jam for energy. I also used to post them into his mouth when he was playing or watching and not concentrating on eating.

Do you drive her to school? Gave the watermelon at home and a smoothie in the car.
I think the question to ask is why does she find it easier to eat watermelon quickly? Does she have something going on with her throat / teeth? How does she do with mash potatoes?
has she been checked for a tongue tie?

I was also going to suggest smoothies of milkshakes made with full fat milk

*or

No she’s going to be starving on just watermelon. I’d adjust her bedtime so she can get up earlier to eat something more substantial. At the very least a banana smoothie with full fat milk or yoghurt?

How about watermelon and little oaty pancakes? To see if you can get her eating some carbs too. So build on the watermelon rather than removing it.

Watermelon is fine. I’ve never liked eating breakfast. You can always put something in her school bag for her to eat at 11ish if necessary.

If she’s not hungry at meal times just take the food away and give her something basic once she is hungry.

Nothing worse than being fed food you don’t want to eat.

Noone at school will be sitting with her to get her to eat each mouthful, what's happening with her lunch?

Most of all take the drama and pressure from the whole thing.

If it's watermelon or nothing, watermelon for the win.

Would she dip it in yogurt? Have it on a skewer with banana? I'd probably even drizzle it in honey!!!

How much lunch does she eat at school? Or is watermelon going to be it until she gets home?

I don't think there's anything wrong with her being hungry. If you're feeding her when she's hungry, she's probably not hungry at mealtimes.
Personally I'd harden my heart and when she says/cries because she's hungry I'd say "dinner time is in an hour, we're having sausages", or "that's because you didn't finish your breakfast, what a shame" and leave it at that.
She needs to learn cause and effect.

She'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with her becoming hungry before lunch either, you're supposed to be hungry before the your next meal.

If it's all she eat the fine but id stick toast or cereal on side and allow plenty of time. Smoothie is good idea. Gravy with tea and blend veg in . Multi vitamin. Milk yoghurt. Snacks. No pressure she just eats whatever she can. How is school managing it?

what about calorie drinks? will she drink milkshakes or smoothies? you can buy those for the calories and a bit of watermelon on the side.

you can also buy special milkshakes for kids that wont eat much that has lots of calories and nutrients in them

There's nothing more unappetising than being told to eat, told when to eat and told to eat quickly.

Give her a cereal bar or yoghurt drink or melon that she can choose to have or not in the mornings either at the table or on the way to school. It's not an issue if she skips breakfast really. And if she doesn't want dinner, put it in the fridge and she can eat it when she's hungry later nearer bedtime. As long as she isn't skipping dinner to have pudding or sweet snacks I don't see the issue with eating dinner later when she's actually hungry. You need to re built a positive association with food before you start to introduce meal times again. Take the pressure off of both of you.

Is there really nothing else she likes? Peanut butter? Milk shakes? Personally I’d find something calorific she likes and can eat or drink fast. Porridge with honey and say choc chips?

Bribing her with snacks? What are the bribe foods?

What are her tonsils like? I know several children with enlarged tonsils who are like this who improved enormously once they were removed.

Watermelon will fill her up but not give her much energy.
What happens if you limit mealtimes to a set length - you said she does recognise hunger later - if you allow 30 mins for tea but at 4pm will she come back hungry at 6 having eaten nothing at 4?