MY CHILD IS THE WORST EATER! Competition!

[morningpaper]

Roll up, roll up.

Who's child has eaten the worst today?

My three year old has eaten the same today as yesterday:

• 2 bowls of cornflakes without milk
• 1 piece of toast
• 1 sesame snap
• mouthful of chicken
• glass of grape juice

Only water to drink. And this is when she is perfectly HEALTHY! (Although I've noticed that she's fallen off the bottom of the height charts again, ah well, at least she will never have to worry about towering over her boyfriends.)

I am only here to try and persuade a few people to chill out about it
because it is normal, and a phase, and getting worked up about it is counterproductive
imho...

tut
spoilsport

I agree with you harpsichordcarrier, I don't bother DS with my frustrations as it is counter productive imo.

just thought I'd pop into this one on my way to the land of nod!!

Today GS has eaten;
2 weetabix
1 cup of milk

one small philli sandwich
14 cherry tomatoes
1 christmas biscuit (his name for shortbread)

sweet and sour chicken
rice
2 small kiddy yoghurty things.

in case you haven't guessed .. he's obsessed with cherry tomatoes at the moment and can distinguish between normal ones and plum ones, He eats them like sweets and we have to actually fight him for them when we want some

There was one of these child physcologist blokes on 'This Morning' the other day dealing with a 7 year old who would only eat boiled rice and a certain brand of sausages.

He told mum to back off and leave him to it. He's developing ok so no nutritional problems and within a few weeks the lad was trying other foods through choice.

Said that the more we try to force them the harder it makes it to get them to eat what we want them to. TBH I let DS eat what he likes as long as he's getting some of all the food groups somehow I'm not that bothered. He hates fruit and stuff so I worry about vitamin c etc but he loves ice lollies so we make our own out of pure juice and he scoffs them down.

Don't worry Harpsi this thread is convincing us all to chill out a bit more

all these toddlers thriving on chocolate buttons is v. reassuring

Oh blimey, there I was thinking dd (3.3) was a bad eater and now she looks pretty good! Yesterday she had:

Cup of milk for breakfast, a bite of toast, half a pear
Half a bean burger, 3 bits of broccoli, 2 baby corn, ketchup for lunch
2 Linda McCartney veggie sausages, most of a small tin of Thomas spaghetti shapes, half a slice of bread and half a babybel for dinner.
Cup of milk at bedtime.

I guess the only thing I always worry about is the total lack of variety. And the refusal, ever, to eat breakfast.

Cod, I'm totally against the offer of dessert to encourage them to eat a meal. I think it undermines the enjoyment of the main meal and is too close to the wrong kind of bribery to me. PLUS of course, as you'll see from dd's intake yesterday, my dd has no interest in puddings!

DD has an approved list of things she will eat without a fight.

These are:
toast
egg yolk
eggy bread
tomato soup
cake, crisps, biscuits
grape juice
hot chocolate (occaisionally)
spaghetti with no sauce

After a fight, and under protest, she will also eat:
baked beans
fish goujons
cocktail sausages

If she ate the variety of foods listed on this thread I would be delighted. If I force her to try a mouthful of something new she gags. Anyone else have a child with such a restricted diet?

Things eaten without a fight by DS1:

Hard boiled egg - if the yolk is soft he scrapes it off.
Bread and butter
Jam sandwiches
Micro chips
Plain Hula Hoops
Mini Cheddars
Chocolate buttons

how old is ds1 pfer?
my dd is 6

just out of interest did these toddlers eat well as babies...just seeing if there is a link, because my 24 week old dd is a terrible milk drinker....hope this doesn't mean i will have a picky toddler too...feel like i have already paid my due

twirlaround, my dd's 3.3 and is very reluctant to try anything new and the amount she'll eat is very small. If I give her some apple juice before a meal that's it really. Full up. Fortunately for me the foods she will eat are all pretty much good. The only 'junk' she eats are crisps (only barbecue or marmite flavours however!) and she does like icecream and the odd After Eight mint. I vary her menu about 4 or 5 times a week. I might just give her a boiled egg and some toast or some cheese on toast or pizza and chips. No matter how many times these things are offered up she always refuses. And goes to bed hungry.

forevermore, my dd was b/f and a 'speed feeder' i.e. 5-10 mins and she was off again. She's never been very big but she's not tiny either. She seems to be one of those kids who live on a little bird's diet.

twirlaround he's just turned 4.

I think the most annoying bit is their outright refusal to even try anything else, even though you're pretty sure they'd like it if they did. I gave up a while ago, as long as he eats something I'm happy, make sure he gets some 'goodies' by way of vitamin supplements and fish oils etc. Can't be doing with the arguements and crying at mealtimes. Puts me off my food!!

it's bad when they go to school and eat nothing at lunchtime

My school complain to me and say dd should bring pack lunch. But all she will eat in a pack lunch is crisps and raisins, and on a good day 2 bites of bread and butter

Somehow my dd is fairly normal height and weight and more healthy than most but I worry about long term problems she may be storing up . I do the fish oil & vitamin supps too

Forevermore, DD2 was an awful milk drinker, never ever had a pint. She is the world's best eater!!

DD1 was a good drinker, she was the worst eater for years! It is only since DD2 has eaten that DD1 will try new foods.

twirlaround it so worries me that dd has no breakfast then goes off to pre-school for the morning where she also eats zero. She looks exhausted when I pick her up. But hey, HOW is your dd maintaining her weight? Does she drink much milk?

kleist - ds often goes to playschool hungry, but he'll eat lunch when he gets home. He hardly eats anything some days but he's not thin either. According to mum my bro. survived on one packet of crisps and a pint of milk each day for about 6 months - she took him to the docs who said don't worry, he's fine, he'll eat when he wants to - he's got quite a gut on him now!

kleist - my dd maintains her weight mainly through crisps and biscuits!

I give dd hot chocolate made with milk with marshmallows floating on top at night or in the morning if she will have it - have you tried that?

Oh what a great thread......Has made me feel so much better!
My DD eats about 10 foods in total, she is 2.11 and eats practically the same most days. I have tried and tried to give her different things to no avail.She will not touch any meat whatsoever, wont eat beans, cheese, egg or potatoes other than chips (which she has occasionally)She NEVER eats before 11am, mosts days its noon.
A normal day would be ;
Jammy sandwich (wholemeal bread)
2 yogurts
apple
banana
maybe grapes or raisin
One pasta dish abot 4 nights a week!!! This has chicken in the sauce so I stick with it
Maybe cereal or a fruit bar occasionally
Chips peas and carrots.
Occasional choclate buttons
and thats it!!

She is a big milk drinker though, will drink a good 8oz in the morning and the same at night.
I know you'll probably say cut this out but I've tried, she didnt eat anymore and it just made her miserable.

Hi everyone, I like this one! Ds2 is another fussy eater and has the tiniest appetite (he's 5.5). Announced this evening that he's a vegetarian (his class teacher is one and ds1 announce the same thing 3 years ago when he was in that class, he however soon chaged his mind when he discovered he wouldn't be able to have Sunday Roast!).
Anyway DS1 is fairly small and skinny but has enough energy to power the national grid and is pretty bright too so I try not to worry too much but i still find myself despairing at his diet.
I remember watching a programme with Robert Winston afew years ago in which he said that modern humans eat far more than they need beacause we are still genatically conditioned to binge in times of plenty so that we have a good store of fat in times of famine and the energy to live a much more physical life. Perhaps this means that our fussy kids with small appetites are just further evolved

Forevermore, my DS fed every 1.5 hours, 24/7 until he was 5 months old and I introduced solids. He used to eat like a horse as a baby, loads of brekkie, healthy snacks, big meals, rice puddings etc and then he hit 2 and went on hunger strike!