9 year old dd told me today 'I don't really like food....

[huffythethreadslayer]

I just eat it because I have to.'

After years of alternating between trying hard to expand her food range and trying to be relaxed about things, I just feel like giving in.

I pointed out she must like SOME food, and she proceeded to give me a list of the blandest, most colourless food in the world:

Wraps/plain tortillas
Bread - preferrably with no butter
Cucumber
Pasta - no sauce...plain
Cheese
Chicken - grilled or roasted and sliced
French fries (not fat chips so much, so not much range here)

I wouldn't enjoy eating that lot either! But she gives me no room for manoevre. If I try to give her food with sauce or mixed food, she retches. She cries. She looks terrified.

I'm at the end of my tether. What do I do now???? How do I tackle that one???? I just want to cry right now

My DH says exactly the same thing.
He says he would prefer to photosynthesise than eat, if he really had a choice.
It's difficult for the rest of us to understand, but I suppose that some people genuinely don't enjoy eating in the same way we do.
Try not to worry about this. My DH eats a wide range of foods, a healthy diet. Sometimes he actually looks as though he's enjoying it too!
Continue to give her foods she likes and to introduce new foods.
She's still only 9, so there is plenty of time for her to increase her range.
So long as she's eating healthily enough, it's not a huge problem if she chooses bland items.
She might surprise you in time.

I think you should see someone about this. It's really not normal to retch and cry at the prospect of a new food when you're 9 years old. It's not just a case of 'not enjoying eating' what you're describing is more a 'phobia'. Her list of acceptable foods is not only bland but, if that's really all she eats, then she is very short on a lot of important vitamins and minerals. Disordered eating takes all forms and the longer it goes on and the more entrenched the bad habits become, the harder it can be to treat.

I would go and see the doctor and ask if there is anything they can offer in terms of behavioural therapy. I'm sure you've done everything reasonably possible but there does come a time when you have to call in the experts. Good luck

Wow...two completely diverse views here and both suppot the way I feel at different times.

The 'leave it - she'll grow out of it' thing belongs to my more chilled moments...the 'bugger...I think she's got a real problem' affects me more regularly.

I have mentioned it to my doctor in the past, but he says she's obviously healthy (she's never ill...not even colds or tummy bugs), she looks healthy and she's got plenty of energy, so no alarm bells are ringing for the medical folks. I guess I haven't told them how worried I am about things and that she is becoming more averse to trying new things, rather than less, which is the most worrying aspect of it all really.

I do manage to get fruit down her sometimes...vegetables occasionally too, well, carrots, though not much else. Fruit wise she'll have melon, appple and grapes (green, not red for both the grapes and the apples!). She'll eat red meat at a push, but only a couple of mouthfuls really. I bought lamb for later this week, and I'll put it on her plate in bite size chunks in the hope it'll encourage her to eat it.

GOD...this is endless. Thanks for your responses. I will call in at the docs just to put my own mind at rest to ensure there's nothing else I can do from here and to see if anyone out there can help at all.

We're in Sheffield and we have great medical training facilities...maybe someone somehwere would appreciate the chance to work with someone foodphobic....

Keep everything crossed for me and thanks again.