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Original poster

Going out of my mind!! 7 Year old who eats nothing but rubbish!!

130 replies

Coathanger · 05/09/2006 22:22

OK, I am at the end of my teather now. My 7 year old DS is stick thin (although average height) and falls ill at the drop of a hat, and all I can put it down to is his crappy diet. But I have tried all I know to get him to eat healthier.

His diet literally consists of:

Breakfast - Coco pops or toast
Lunch - bread roll with only butter (hates all sandwich fillings), crisps and a banana or apple
Dinner - rotation of beans on toast, chicken nuggets, burger, or fish fingers, all with smiley faces or chips.

The only veg he will eat is carrots, buy he will eat fruit if he's in the mood (apples, satsumas, grapes, bananas)

I make homemade burgers with carrot hidden, but other than than he eats nothing else I can smuggle veg into. He doesn't eat any "saucy" foods to make with hidden things and he will not try anything.

He does eat sweets occasionally but he doesn't fill himself up on crap during the day. He literally has 3 meals and if he comes home from school hungry he has fruit.

Has anyone got kids similar? How do you get on? HAs anyone got any tips? I've tried bribary, threatening, ignoring, a new tastes diary. I just want him to eat the same as the rest of the family.

By the way I have 2 other sons who will eat and try pretty much everything. So what did I do wrong this time?

OP posts:
misdee · 05/09/2006 22:51

no, you didnt do wrong, but you havwe to stop giving in to him.

i'm giving up.

i have one fussy dd1, one with serious food issues and septacular vomiting at meals, complete with heaving sound effects. and one dd3 who eats so well its hard to believe she is from the same family.

dd2 has lost weight as she refuses most foods, but she is slowly trying new stuff. she put brocolli in her mouth recently, she has tried pork, she has tried beef, has tried corn on the cob, apples, peaches, kiwi, melon. ok she didnt like them ,but she tried it. i make sure she eats a good bowl of cereal or toast in the morning, make sure lunch is somethign she will eat (sandwiches, or a bagel, followed with a banana) but main meal is non-negoationable.

misdee · 05/09/2006 22:52

chocolate cereals are banned in this house btw.

Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 22:52

I do make my own beef burgers for him, and I have made chicken nuggets but he doesn't like them A health visitor told me once to ignore it. Just carry on, and eventually, under the impression he is in charge he will start to branch out. It worked for all of about a day then it stopped again. The result was a like of carrots, wow!! what a result !!!

I know there has been a million and one threads started on this subject, and I know the responses are the same but right. But if you knew how sad I am about this. He is a bright, handsome, loving boy, one of three apples of my eye, and the last thing I want to see is him ill just as much as seeing him sobbing at the dinner table. He doesn't have temper tantrums about it, he literally sobs. Its heartbreaking.

I feel like the worst mum in MN history right now.. I have done wrong by my son

OP posts:
Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 22:54

Sorry Misdee, I do appreciate your advice, and I realise I am probaly making this out to be more than it is, compared to others situations. I admire your calm and ability to deal with what you have to.

OP posts:
misdee · 05/09/2006 22:56

i know it can get you down, so many times ater dd2 has gone to bed after one forkful of food, i have cried. but she is getting better. i used to offer her other foods instead as well. but i just couldnt dealwith it anymore. its 'like it or lump it' in this house, that goes for dh as well lol.

soapbox · 05/09/2006 22:57

Coathanger - I'm afraid you'll have to try a lot harder than this if you want to go down as the worst mum in MN history

I wouldn't worry too much about what has got you to this point - it really isn't hard to have a fussy eater afterall!

What is important is what you intend to do from this point forward. You;ve had some good advice on this thread as to how to do that

Yes, you need to get tougher, but pick your battles carefully - perhaps as Misdee suggests only picking on one meal a day to sort out at the beginning. Or changing the products he will eat for slightly healthier versions or as MarriedW2 suggests - take him shopping with you and let him choose 2 new things that he hasn't eaten before which he must eat that night.

Don't talk yourself into being a failure or your DS might start treating you like one

Marriedwith2 · 05/09/2006 22:57

i blame myself too. ds1 has a serious bowel condition and then i got glandular fever when he was one and just gave him processed jars etc coz i was too exhausted to do anything else. so that just enhanced his already fussy beginnings and now its out of my hands. tbh he does eat weetabix and shreddies, loves milk, loves those pots of pureed fruit you give babies, ceral bars (organix ones) wholemeal bread, and i do give him organic chick nuggets, fillet ff's and good sausages...it's just sooooooo boring!!! you can't help but blame yourself, its what mums do!

Marriedwith2 · 05/09/2006 23:00

i go through phases of crying about it but i have almost resigned myself to the fact that this is it fow a while. one day he may be brave enough to try a carrot. i will shout from the roof tops when he does!!!

Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 23:01

marriedwith2's point there has made me think. I have Crohn's disease, and I had a major flare up when he was about 18 months old, and this meant I ate very little, not through choice, I love food!! Do you think seeing me like this at such a impressionable age made an impact?

OP posts:
littleshebear · 05/09/2006 23:04

Coathanger,it may take a long time for him to branch out and try new things - like years, perhaps. I have never made an issue of ds2's eating, and we have always eaten together as a family, so he has seen what we are having and perhaps had say, plain pasta with fish fingers and peas when we were having sauce with it. It is only really this past year that he has started eating potatoes, or stews and mincey type dishes. He still prefers plain, "dry " food, and he'll still only really eat peas as vegetables, although he's started to eat more raw veg like peppers and cucumber.

I have to say that I would personally never let a child go hungry, or expect them to eat something they didn't like. I would have cried or been sick as a child if I had been forced to eat a wide list of foods. I vividly remember a nasty dinner lady making me eat cabbage at school and how distressed I got. I eat relatively normally now!I personally think a gentler approach is more appropriate.

Marriedwith2 · 05/09/2006 23:05

i'm sure it does you know and there's nothing we can do about it. ds1 has seen me pander to him and keep him dairy free for a year and stop him eating certain thing because i was worried what it would do to him and having glandular fever was just exhausting. dh didn't come home until after tea and i ate when he was sleeping so he never saw us eat.....makes you think.

Marriedwith2 · 05/09/2006 23:06

i'm for the gentler approach too but sometimes it all gets too much. thank goodness for forums like this! off to bed now. good to meet you all.

kimi · 05/09/2006 23:07

coat hanger, i think he has to have a diet of McDonalds and fruit shoots and nothing else before your a bad mom

Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 23:08

Certainly does Marriedwith2.

Right, as of tomorrow, DS1 is going to turn over a new leaf, whether he likes it or not. I will not be hard, I will not make him eat something as long as he has tried it and genuinely dislikes it. Wish me luck!

And thank you for all your help. It has all been very constructive. It is all getting abit much now, so I suppose I am a bit defensive.

OP posts:
Pinkchampagne · 05/09/2006 23:08

Hi CH. (BT btw!) You are not the worst mother on MN because I take that crown!! I have been a horrible beast of a mother & my DS's had microwaved jacket potatoes with cheese & beans tonight!

Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 23:09

Oh deffo no Fruit shoots or frequent McD's here. At least I have that right, eh!

OP posts:
Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 23:10

HI PINK CHAMPAGNE!!!!!! (liking the name BTW) At least it wasn't crap food! And you ain't a bad mum, no way!!

OP posts:
Pinkchampagne · 05/09/2006 23:11

You should have heard me yelling earlier!! I AM the worst mother on MN!!!

Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 23:12

That there is fightin' talk!! I think there is a competition brewing.

I'm the worst mum!!

NO!! I am..!!!

OP posts:
Pinkchampagne · 05/09/2006 23:16

Yesterday I made them a meatball & mash ready meal because we had no food in the house. They both refused to touch it & I started to get cross & tell them to just try it. I then tried it myself & it was SO bad that I said "Okay, I will whip you up beans on toast!!"
I get the crown!!!

chipmonkey · 05/09/2006 23:16

My ds1 was like yours. He grew out of it.

Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 23:18

Thank you Chipmonkey

Pinkchampagne - you have made m ereally laugh and I know I shouldn't but I just couldn't help it!! I must say, if I put a ready meal in front of any of my kids they would all say "what the hell is that?" DS1 coz he won't eat anythig, and the other two coz tey enjoy home cooking too much

OP posts:
VeniVidiVickiQV · 05/09/2006 23:23

Hey Coathanger...

sorry you are having a pants time. Its difficult trying to deal with these things and keep the harmony elsewhere....

Trev sends his love though

Original poster
Coathanger · 05/09/2006 23:24

Hi VVVQV Thanks but...

WHAT THE HELL IS TREV DOING WITH YOU!!!?????

PMSL!!!

OP posts:
Pinkchampagne · 05/09/2006 23:26

Who's Trev???!!!!

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