Help with a fusst 4 yo......PLEASE!

[SnowFrightBoooooo]

I have a lovely 4 yo ds but he refuses to eat ANYTHING!! He can live off marmite sandwiches and cereal for days and im at the end of my tether.....any suggestions gladly accepted....

.

really need help here.......

This is such a hard one, my DS1 is 9 nine now and has quite a varied diet but it was hardwork.

Just trying to think what I did??

1} expanded on the food that he was eating, for example, adding something else to the sandwich, tiny bit of lettuce, or cucumber, raisins or dried fruit in cereal or a different sort of cereal mixed in.

2. sent him once a week to eat school dinners with other children rather than his lunchbox so that he had to cope with choosing and eating his food.

3. Leaving bowls of grapes and orange segments round the lounge, he would eat them without thinking.

4. Hiding food in food iykwim

5. Making food with him, cakes, pizza.

6. Making pies, and cutting the pastry into a shape of a foot or a hand. The first time I did this I gave it to him and he said "Whats that!!!" When I told him it was a foot pie, he thought it was brilliant.

As well as this I got cross which didn't work at all, and also lectured him about fruit veg, etc etc. Now that he is 9 he understands that it is important he eats 5 fruit and veg a day even though he hates it!

I know how frustrating it is but try not to worry too much.

Thanks. Feel so hopeless with it at the mo!
will try your methods and see how it goes!!

I sympathise entirely. 3 yo DS is very picky and refuses to try new things. Only successes I've had have resulted from him seeing things on TV. Watch Big Cook Little Cook with him and get him interested in cooking what they've made. And always taste what you're giving him yourself to make sure he's not actualy justified in rejecting it - I couldn't understand why DS wouldn't eat Scooby Doo pasta in tomato sauce when he likes Spaghetti rings - I tasted it and it's utterly vile! Also try some shaped cutters to make things look more interesting.

I know what you mean about the spagetti shapes! im sure they were never that vile when i was a child......

will try the shape cutters. but he likes things, just refuses to eat anything. its like a control thing. he knows its the one thing to wind me up....and have tried to be patient and calm but after an hour of just sitting there i lose....