Eating/Food Phobia

[LaylasMumKelly]

Hi, I desperately need some advice about my 2 year old daughter. My Husband and I are having great difficulty with her eating habits. It started when she was 6 months old, she never wanted to be weaned off of milk and we had great difficulty getting her on to solids. The problem is now that she seems to be scared of food. All she ever wants is toast or crumpets and if we give her anything else she gets herself into a complete state, crying and trying to run away. We have tried her with all kinds of food from baby puree to finger foods but with no success. We have got her to help cook which she loves but when it comes to eating it she wont. She hates getting food on her clothes or her hands and panics if she is 'mucky'. I put some mash potato on her lips today and she actually vomited. She then stripped her clothes off and is going mad with a baby wipe trying to get every last bit of mash potato off of her. I am begining to think this is a phobia. She is the same with dirt, if she gets mucky at the park we have to come home because she starts panicking. She is not underweight but she is borderline. Her bowels have suffered too and she was placed in hospital with sever constipation before Xmas. I have asked my health visitor for advice but I haven't got anywhere.

JaynieB, I have just re-read your message. My brother became a veggie when he was 6. He just asked my Mum to stop giving him meat! None of the rest of my family are vegetarian, infact my Dad and my other Brother are very into meat and would quite happily get rid of any veg or salad if my Mum would let them. My veggie brother is 19 now and probably the healthiest member of my family. He eats Quorn and drinks a lot of milk. He can't explain why he went veggie, he reckons he was a plant eating dinosaur in a past life!

My daughter is having problems with her 3 yr old son, at the moment he will only eat cucumber, red peppers, rice cakes and the occasional white grapes. He also would drink milk until it comes out of his ears He will eat chocolate and crisps. My question is does anybody else experience terrible temper tantrums. She is a fantastic mum and devotes all her time to him and has used the naughty step, which now does not work, in fact she spent 2 hours the other day calmly putting him back on the step every time he got off. She gives him choices when it comes to food and also most daily situations I suspect to avoid confrontation as he will never give in. I just wondered if anyone had the same problem and was there an improvement with behaviour when the food issue was resolved. My son was hyperactive and a strict diet greatly improved his behaviour but if my grandson is not eating foods with additives I wondered if a lack of certain food groups could manifest its self in other ways.

Hi masticmick. This thread is 4 years old so you probably won't get any one posting from the original conversation

You might have more luck if you start your own thread with a title that is relevant to your own situation.

My son age 5 was the same. I'm sure he had a food phobia! Even the dinner lady told me when he started school 2 years ago that he doesn't eat and that he had phobia around food! He's slowly getting better now. He still won't eat vegetables but will eat most things such as chicken pie, roast pork, pork katsu etc. I think I stop nagging him to eat and laid off the pressure. However my daughter age 3 is becoming very fussy. She was a good little eater but slowly becoming fussy and won't eat her usual food. I'm hoping this is a phase as I can't be dealing with another fussy child. It's very stressful. I'm ignoring her but it's does get to me.