How to deal with a bad eater?

[sweetheart]

My dd (5) is a persistantly bad eater and nothing dh and I do seems to make any difference.

I know she won't starve but her eating habbits have always made dh and myself cross and it's something we want to stop NOW - before she becomes a permanant faddy eater.

We've tried cooking her exactly what she wants - didn't work.

Having a cooked school dinner at lunch time - didn't work (And the school didn't inform us she wasn't eating )

Sending her to bed for not eating - didn't work.

No treats before tea (and none after if dinner wasn't eaten) - didn't work

I'm not trying a star chart as she really wants the new bones mag that is out. I've told her if she gets 3 stars a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) between now and Friday she can have the mag. Somehow - I know this isn't going to work either.

Today I've reduced the amount of food I put in her lunch box to a scrap and dh is going to cook her dinner when she gets in from school as she normally has a small snack and we are trying to cut out all snacks until she is eating proper meals.

This is the last thing I can think of and if this doesn't work I have absolutly no bloody idea what to try next.

I'm getting to be at wits end....... any ideas or experience of this???

now trying a star chart!!!

Do her school friends take packed lunch or have school dinners?? It may be that she feels left out??
With dd1 who started showing signs of being a faddy eater, hv told us to give her exactly what we had for meals, and to sit together and eat, it worked...sort of. Although she is still picky, she eats small amounts and shows preference for some things over others, we dont do the sweet treats thing in this house at all, she does prefer fruit to normal food though.

There is a mixture in her class and I give her the choice of school dinners or packed lunch.

We did try eating together at the table and it worked - for about a week. Then the novalty wore off and we ended up arguing at the table.

Last night she said we didn't give her tea when she was hungry (after school) which is why we're trying that. But I think it's just an excuse she made up to get out of being told off.

Dinner time is turning into a war zone in our house and I hate it. Especially when dd is then put to bed as because I work it's the only time I get to see her.

To be honest, I was getting really upset about dd1 too, and then when dd2 came along, well I was just too exhausted and dd1 came round.

Did you only do the eating together for a week, perhaps keep it up for longer?? Try not to let her notice how it upsets you when she doesn't eat.

Your expecting your second baby soon aren't you. Does your dd know this how does she feel about it???

she knows about the baby and is very excited. Shes been a fussy eater for alot longer than I've been pregnant!!

We did sitting at the table for longer than a week - the novalty value of it lasted for the first week.