Help me with my 7 year old DS

[frillynat81]

I've posted before regarding his weight.

My issue now is his eating. He has always been fussy but now getting worse. Example - was given toast with jam the other morning but wouldn't eat it because it wasn't completely smoothly (it was smooth jam!!!) spread. He's also stated to stop eating things he ate about 2 or 3 months ago.

Also, he thinks he's fat. He's a naturally slim boy so I'm finding this worrying. He will grab at his stomach and say, "look, fat". It's upsetting.

Is it time to take him to the GP?

Hi,
my guess (having had a FTT chronic reflux-suffering non-eater who is now cured) is that anxiety and emotional power has naturally grown up around food and so he uses it - maybe without even knowing - to test you.

If you are sure he's a healthy weight then you can afford to try strategies used by mums who never had to worry about DCs feeding habits. Be bold. If he doesn't like the jam, say: 'that's what there is today.' Leave him to it and if he doesn't eat it, take the plate away with no fuss and offer food at the next meal. If he says he's hungry just say, 'Hmm, so am I. Looking forward to lunch,' so he knows he can't say no to food at breakfast then have something different half an hour later. (It took me years to pluck up the courage to do this. I gave in all the time. Much easier to say than do if you have a child who used to be underweight.)

Are you eating healthily in front of him? Again it took me years to do this. I couldn't face food when DS was small and never ate in front of them - not for years. So they had no role model of a grown up enjoying food. If he grabs his stomach and says 'fat' maybe ask him where he gets that idea. he may have seen it on tv or seen someone at school do it. It's worth explaining to him that he isn't fat, and that what he's grabbing is skin, which he needs, not fat which feels and looks different.

Unless there is a real problem with food, I'd avoid the GP as this turns it into a big issue, and the more attention he gets for playing up about food, the harder it will be for the habit to be broken.

As DS got older, i found it easier just to explain stuff to him: you don't have to like this food to eat it. It's good for you and you need veg so eat some and then you can run off and play. He now knows the difference between food he really can't stand and food he just doesn't much like, and knows he doesn't have to eat the first lot but does have to try the second.