Great Grandaughter will only eat one thing!

[WittyFawn]

Need advice please, my 5 year old great granddaughter will only eat 2 things for dinner at night; pizza or fish fingers, she won’t even eat many chips. Will eat cereal for breakfast and some sandwiches for school lunch etc but only 2 things for every dinner meal whether at home, at our home or goes out to eat. She is tall but skinny and seems ok health wise. Her parents and my daughter - her grandmother don’t seem worried about this. Just curious to see if any parents have had similar experiences and can tell me do they try
more foods as they get older? Her older brother eats a good variety of food.

Sounds fine I know many kids like this. Your title is misleading she doesn’t only eat one thing.

Sounds very similar to my 6 year old albeit he probably has 3 things he’ll eat for dinner. Is it great? Of course not. Do I make food a battleground? No.

She does eat a mixture of things, perhaps not a big variety but it is more than one thing. She may grow out of it or she might have food issues but if her mum is ok with it for now she's probably working through it ok

None of your business, is it.

and actually it appears she eats 5 things: cereal, sandwiches, pizza, fish fingers and chips.
I guess the sandwich is just not a slice or two slices of bread - I expect it has butter ? and a filling ? unless of course it's a cold fish finger sandwich...

So much for 'it takes a village'.

I know of a lad who would only eat breadsticks and tomato sauce. Occasionally a cream cheese dip. Not much else really by any stretch. Out for meals his mum had to take breadsticks etc with her for him.

Dr said “let him eat whatever he will eat and dont force him.”

Hes still a picky eater but hes 19 now, tall and nicely built. Just leave the kid and her parents to get on with it.

So she eats:

Pizza
Fish Fingers
Chips
Cereal (and milk I presume)
Sandwiches (which obvs includes fillings)

I think you are worrying too much. That is a lot more than the "one thing" your title suggests.

So strange that you don’t think a grand parent could be worried

People saying “none of your business” are a bit rude… she’s worried for her great granddaughter! As long as she isn’t being unkind to the child or her mother, she is allowed to be concerned. It doesn’t sound like a great diet.

Does she eat any fruit or veggies? Or take vitamins?

I'd say when she's at yours make sure to have plenty of things on offer that she can just try a bit of. Don't overwhelm her by putting big plates of unfamiliar foods in front of her or pressure her or watch her like a hawk at meals. And obviously do try and supply some of her 'safe' foods.

Otherwise just hope she does expand her palate as she grows.

Cereal, sandwiches and two different mains at dinner isn't the most varied diet but its not dangerously restrictive. So don't make it into a big deal.

I'm sure if her parents feel like they need support or guidance from professionals then they will seek it.

I’d probably just let her parents deal with this in the way they think is best, and I’m sure they’re doing whatever they can to tackle it themselves

No, the op is clearly being a bit of a knob. Complaining she ‘only eats one thing’ as the literal title, then there’s a list of the things she actually eats. And then basically goes on to say no one cares but me so how can I make her eat more? Great gm needs to butt out. Her actual parents clearly haven’t asked for her opinion, let alone her ‘help’.

Honestly she is fine and least she is eating something, my dd is in her 30s at at 5 she lived off potatoes, chicken yoghurt and tuna sandwhiches,

There are lots of threads on here about food refusers. Sounds like her parents have a healthy attitude.

Your title is VERY misleading ~

She's eating cereal (which is fortified) and presumably it's served with milk

Sandwiches with a filling (and hopefully the fillings are varied)

Pizza which hopefully has more than tomato sauce and cheese as a topping

Fish fingers

There are probably occasions that you're not aware of when she's having other food too . . . one of my DGN's would only eat a narrow selection of food at home but would eat whatever her friend was eating if she went on a playdate or sleepover

Obviously this isn't an ideal diet and I'm not a dietician but I think she's probably getting more nutrition than you feel she is

The pisspoor parenting brigade is not missing a beat on their phones/computers I see.

Toddlers starting on solids should gradually be exposed to all kinds of flavours and textures. That’s when they are fully open to the discovery.

But feeding them fish fingers and pizza from birth hoping they will magically wake up one day and try artichokes is low.

My dd had a very small list of food she could eat at 5. We had to get her chicken tenders from a particular restaurant even. If we missed a day, they worried about us.

she has a condition called ARFID. It is not the same as picky eating. She will literally starve rather than eat unsafe food. Our goal as parents is to get enough calories into her during a day and to try to balance her nutrition over any given week.

she was eventually diagnosed as ASD when she was 9.

the feeding advice we get from doctor’s is very different from that given to typical children. We are told ways to increase calories. We are told to give her chocolate for breakfast just to get her to eat something so she can learn at school. It is a serious disorder and weight loss is a constant battle.

She is nearly an adult. She is very aware of her condition and try’s not to draw attention to it in groups. She is in control of trying new food and she does try to expand her list. The list of things she will eat how is bizarre, but it works.

she is very skinny to this day. That isn’t a good thing. It would be worse if we did not treat it properly. Developing anorexia by turning food into an issue of control is a very real risk , though we are past the highest risk age.

And yet her brother apparently eats a great variety of food? It couldn’t possibly be an issue with the child? It’s definitely that her brothers getting excellent parenting, but the same parents to her are ‘piss poor’?

My DD1 put the veg DGD doesn't like on the plate with the things she does like, no pressure to eat hoping one day she will. DGD eats things one day then won't like it the next🙄 eat somethings for mum, different things at dads ,will eat different things at other ppl houses. We just go with flow but clamp down on sugary snacks only one treat a day.

Four words from me OP
Stay
Out
Of
It

Some kids are more food adventurous than others? Dear God! Thanks for pointing it out, never noticed.

For the other ones, the right exposure to different foods at the right time can make the fussiness disappear or reduce it greatly.

I m not even pointing out that feeding a kid pizza or fish fingers, even if that’s what they want, is ruining their health, metabolism and future. Top parenting.

Hopefully this will expand as she gets older. I was the same age when I heard someone talking about "fussy eaters" and for some reason thought that would be a great way to get attention and spent a year being REALLY fussy, before reverting back to my normal habits.

Meh - you can't really tell - different kids have different issues.

DD1 - ASD/ADHD ate everything - never a problem.

DD2 - severe asthma - very limited diet mostly bread, porridge, yoghurt, mashed potato and banana. Would not eat a single vegetable - wouldn't drink any milk after age 7 months. Very worrying time because she was being treated for failure to gain weight. But 20 years on she's a "cook from scratch" vegetarian who eats a lot of lentil casserole, glazes tofu and forages wild mushrooms!

Aside from health issues, have you purposefully tried your best to expose your kids to different flavours and textures early in their childhood?

There’s a difference between being lucky and good parenting.

There are a lot of countries that do without kids menus, where kids eat like adults, where kids eat their veggies and nutrients, etc. British kids don’t have less sophisticated taste buds than other children, they are simply let down by their parents.