Food issues in a 5 yr old

[arentfanny]

She is basically dwindling down what she will eat and what she won't.

This has been progessively worse as in today she has refused sandwiches for her lunch box so has gone in with ham, cucmber, carrot, jelly, apple, banana and a biscuit we made earlier. She will have pasta which I will do thonight for tomorrow. Last night we sat at the table for 30 minutes, all of us making sure she ate something. she will eat maybe 2 or 3 mouthfuls and play with the food and then say she is had enough and we are getting concerned.

She does keep going on about her fat tummy and I am worried that some other chidlren have been saying something and this is now effecting the way she eats, is this possible?

We have an appointment with a paediatrician over her behaviour issues so I guess will talk about this too. Anything else I can put in her lunchbox?

I sympathise with you as my son is very fussy and faddy with food also (he is six). However after getting fed up of throwing away uneaten food I have become quite tough. If he doesnt eat what I make him then thats fine but he does not get anything else! I know that sounds harsh and it is difficult not to worry about them wasting away but beleive me when they get hungry enough they will eat! I also stopped giving him snacks between meals until he was consistantly eating enough at meal times. You should definately discuss this at your appointment but in terms of body hang ups I would be amazed if a five year old was concerned about body image even in this day and age. Good Luck

Alas - it is worth considering the body image issue. I have a friend whose dd (5) has picked this up from school already. My dd is not skinny and I really dread her hearing this.

Ozzy we do that anyway, so she barely eats anything at times.

Got a little more info out of her today, I said we would be having spag bol for tea which she likes, she said she didn't like it anymore as it makes her fat

Will wait for the appointment.

Hiya, my 7yr old came out with that last night .

Re lunches, she had a phase of ending up in the school office with her packed lunch as she was the last one in the hall. If there was anything in it she didn't love, she wouldn't eat it but was too scared to admit this to the dinner ladies in case she got in trouble. This has eased up in the last year or so, mostly down to my careful lunchbox planning and she will even have occasional school dinners if we plan it with the menu in advance.

We do find ourselves quite oppressed by her likes and dislikes as she won't eat and I battle to get her to try new things.

For packed lunches I rely a lot on dried fruit a lot as she won't eat fresh fruit - Humzinger bars, apricots and homemade sultana flapjacks.