Fussy Eating

[Caitlin5115]

Hi All,
I am in need of some advice. I am a childcare manager and give out childcare advice everyday. However when it comes to my own child I find it very difficult.
The situation is Eating habits.

My Daughter is 7 years old and does not eat ANYTHING healthy, homemade, fruit or veg.

I have tried every trick in the book

• Hidden Veg
• Involving her in preparation
• having the fruit & veg on offer as part of her meals
• encouragement with a calm approach
• encouragement with a firm approach
• bribery I have had enough of it and I am really struggling with the strategies that I am using just now, it is breaking my heart as she is getting herself very upset and refusing to eat. What I am doing currently
• stopped all treats/puddings during the week
• not providing her with any processed dinners/all homemade with meat/chicken/fish and veg
• giving her an apple to snack on when she gets in from school however she not even managing a single slice of Apple and the nibbles she's taking are tiny.

Please help!
I'm actually considering hypnosis?

Try reading "First Bite" by Bee Wilson - I think you will find it quite helpful

I certainly give it a read. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

I haven't got answers I'm afraid but just wanted to say that my DD is the same. It mortified me as I love cooking and eat a wide ranging diet myself that includes lots of veg every day.
I tried the things you have tried too. I did find that hidden veg worked when she was very small (really hidden, not just chopped small) but not much else.
I have more or less given in to it. The things she does like that I can almost convince myself are veg (eg baked beans) get served often. She does like about three fruits so each day after tea I present her with a little pot of fruit.
Over the years she had improved slightly (she's 13) and will now eat carrots ( occasionally, with the right thing) but still no other veg.
If I were you I'd keep gently plugging away but as long as you know you're trying I wouldn't make it an issue. I feel my DD was sent to me to teach me a lesson as before I had her I thought fussy kids had been indulged by their parents. Now I know otherwise

I'm afraid to say I starved mine out. There was a point where she wouldn't eat anything but chips, toast, and plain pasta. I'd dug myself a hole by giving in to this, and trying to use bribery etc. In my dds case it was an attention game. I removed the attention and offered what was made and a plain slice of bread to make sure she didn't actually starve. She had whatever we were having. She ate very little for a good week or so. Literally existed on breakfast and three slices of bread for one day. Then realised that this was it. I allowed her to separate the elements of a meal so that she could pick and choose, but otherwise that's it. No wheedling or cajoling, when she whined she was told to leave the table until she'd finished whining. I didn't want to use food as reward or punishment so if we were having desert she was given it same as the meal. But we only have desert twice a week.

She's eats everything except shellfish now. Oh and cabbage. She really does hate cabbage.

But I realise that many parents couldn't do this and that as my dd is nt without any other issues at play it's often not that simple.

Hello what does she eat and enjoy eating for meals?

Obviously try your hardest to sneak in and have available all the healthy food while she is a child but it's just as important to teach her about nutrition and cooking so when she's an adult and making her own choices she knows fine well what is healthy and how to source and prepare the food. She's old enough to understand basic food groups and stuff like that.

My MIL did a great job feeding her kids all the super healthy food when they were kids, hardly got any treats till they left home! But didn't know that mayonnaise had heaps of calories in fact my DH didn't know roughly the calories of anything and was living off pizza and burgers and cheese every single day till he moved in with me. He eats perfectly normally now and makes good choices when he's out as well it's not just that he eats well because that's what he's fed he understand now