To think just don’t offer them beige food?

[Ashlll]

Or am I spectacularly uneducated here? My sister has a 3 year old who apparently will only eat beige food and mostly crisps. She says it’s a sensory thing and we have to respect it when around him, for example when I took him and dd out last week I had to give him quavers rather than the snacks I had got for dd… which then made dd want quavers too! Same with water, he won’t drink it and it has to be juice.

I am not massively strict but did say to dsis just don’t buy these things then he won’t know he can ask for them… she says he just won’t eat or drink. I think this is ridiculous (I’ve not said this to her). AIBU?!?

Quavers are disgusting and yes UPF.

INGREDIENTS
Potato Starch, Sunflower Oil, Cheese Flavour [Whey Powder (from Milk), Flavouring (contains Milk), Flavour Enhancers (Monosodium Glutamate, Disodium 5'-Ribonucleotide), Milk Powder, Cheese Powder (from Milk), Potassium Chloride, Garlic Powder, Acid (Lactic Acid), Colour (Paprika Extract)], Rice Flour, Soya Flour, Salt, Yeast, Onion Powder (Malt Flour from Barley), Pepper, Wheat Flour (contains Calcium, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Colour (Annatto).

My “concoction”

Whole Milk
Double Cream
Egg Yolks
Sugar
Strawberries or Cocoa Powder
Dessicated liver or any organ capsule

Which is more nutritionally balanced and dense please to have alongside the meal replacement shakes to nourish and help a child gain weight?

You aren’t suggesting your weird shake as an alternative to the quavers though. You were suggesting it as an alternative to the meal replacement shakes.

You're persistent, I'll give you that.

Going to buy a big 6 pack of Quavers, eat them all and dedicate them to you! 😂

For the LAST time - try it ALONGSIDE the shakes.

Worth a try, no?

DC2 would just refuse to eat if there was nothing they liked, even at 10 years old. Now they are 20 and eat virtually everything.

You see, this sort of attitude.. 🤢 Good luck.

Your argument is so tedious. Your attitude is the problem here harassing posters with your ill-informed, unwanted 'advice'!

I shall enjoy my Quavers. Haven't had any in a while.

Good lord, the obtuseness.

Nutritional shakes are routinely prescribed by doctors as the best means for getting calories into unwell people. People undergoing cancer treatment use them, people (like me) with inflammatory bowel disease use them, people recovering from surgery use them, and people with eating disorders use them. They are an entirely standard medical treatment and have been for decades before the spurious concept of ‘UPFs’ was even invented.

Ok. This may be the case. We are not talking about this. We are talking about children with disordered eating. I already said if god forbid I was in this situation where my child’s is dangerously underweight and will not eat, I would use the shakes as prescribed. I would then try and make my own version to give alongside the shakes to help them gain weight and put in some actual food source nutrients into their bodies. Soooo shoot me 🙄

For what purpose?

Can you compromise on offering something that DC standards a chance at eating (so quite plain and with a consistent reliable texture), that is less processed?

So plain breadsticks or rice crackers perhaps might be a better option than salty crisps.

On the flip side my friends who gave chicken nuggets, beige food and chocolate etc from a very early age all have kids that will only really eat that type of food and they struggle to get fruit and veg and normal meals into them.

Anecdata at its finest. My DC had beige food/nuggets etc from quite young at the childminder (no other childcare option at the time). Eldest is now an 8 year old who eats all green veg, lots of healthy food etc. Does not like chocolate at all and won't touch it! Will choose an apple over a chocolate bar any day.

Youngest still quite likes beige food but gets more and more adventurous every day.

If your child likes them and tolerates them, it will help them gain weight and be an additional source of nutrition?

We are talking about people like this. They are the same shakes.

They don’t need you to create your own home made shakes. What they need alongside the shakes is feeding therapy and feeding support to get them used to trusting and eating food.

So, again, why are you introducing the shakes? What’s the purpose of them?

So you’re going to give a child a random cup of shake and say try this? And you think they will?

You think that introducing more liquid into their diet is what they need or should the priority be introducing solids?

Fml. If it was my child I would give the shakes for all the reasons I’ve given. Still do the therapy if you must. But ffs try the shake too!!!! I really hope that you might and that they help. Please don’t let your arrogance stop you from trying something new that might actually help them gain weight and get additional nutrition.

Be interesting to see how often safe foods are things like fruit and veg, or if it’s usually beige ..

I am asking in all seriousness here. I know if I eat a lot of processed food I crave more - I do think the ingredients of some processed food can play havoc with the brain and gut and normal signals around hunger and other systems in the body. We definitely need more research on this.

We ARE talking about this. We are talking about children with eating disorders.

Okay so what it wrong with trying the shakes alongside what has been prescribed?

What's wrong is, as mentioned, that you could bring about a dangerous aversion to the shakes that she needs.

That’s the same for everything the pp tries to introduce?

For my child, some fruits and veg were "safe". Thank heaven for frozen peas.

My daughter used to eat Tesco breadsticks. They were one of the few solids she would consistently eat.

My mother in law put out Sainsbury’s breadsticks. My daughter trusted the table and took a breadstick and ate it. She now doesn’t eat breadsticks.

You could make the shake. You could serve the shake. They won’t drink the shake. The fact that you think, even after I explained to you the process we had to go through to introduce the meal replacement shakes, that I could just give her a shake is actually hilarious.

Do you think that I’ve spent 11 years not offering food? That she is only allowed to eat those things? And she isn’t exposed to anything else?

What is your plan? “Do you want this delicious shake?” And they just drink it…? Like make it make sense.

It is yes. But the shakes are the difference between life and death. You’re suggesting gambling with the only thing she has of any nutritional value. If she doesn’t drink them willingly she has to have a tube inserted. And I have to tell her paediatrician she stopped drinking the shakes because I tried to introduce a home made poor equivalent.

I struggled with eating when I was younger. There was no stress. No visits to doctors. I grew out of it. I would push my food to the side of the plate to look like I had eaten it.

I don’t think all this happens in countries where there is a struggle for food and to feed children.

This is the risk you run with everything you introduce.

anyway, it’s up to you.

I can only share what I would try.

good luck and I hope you figure it out eventually.