My 5 year old barely eats

[madddddd]

So worried about her and don't want to make food an issue for her so looking for some advice on the best way to deal with it.

She's always been a very very picky/fussy eater, thought she would grow out of it but she hasn't.

She has a handful of meals she will eat, but recently she's even been going off them. I'm at my wits end, some days she will barely eat a thing, have no idea why she isn't starving.

For example today all she's had is

Breakfast- 2 slices of melon and a bite of a pancake

Lunch- a few bites of a sandwich, maybe 2 grapes and a yoghurt choob plus half a box of raisins

Snack after school was 2 more slices of melon

Supper- was chicken supreme and rice but she didn't even touch it, not one bite. Surely that's not enough for her to have in one day? She's not underweight, just very petite and dainty. But worried if she keeps this up she will start losing weight

Any ideas would really be appreciated

@madddddd her school is a mile away and a lot of her friends scoot/walk/cycle to school but she finds it too hard and ends up exhausted and in tears. Trying to build it up slowly but it's frustrating because I know it's down to energy/food at her age rather than inability.

Energy levels could be iron related

I'm wondering if she might benefit from eating little and often, rather than big meals?

I know it's not recommended for teeth, but some people are grazers not troughers, and it would keep her energy levels up.

Does she drink alot?
I feel your pain, I really do. Ive a super fussy one myself, although she is 10 now and slightly better at trying foods without immediately declaring they look disgusting!
For about 2 years all she would eat were jam sandwiches, plain pasta with cheese & nuggets and chips.
The fabled beige diet.

It's a slow painful process, but just don't stress and just offer her food at different times of the day 😊

My dd was like this but school dinners really helped to increase and expand her diet. I think it was eating with her peers that encouraged her. She's still picky but it's much more manageable. I was so stressed about it when she was younger but I think as long as their weight/height isn't a concern then we really need to try and not worry about it too much. I know it's hard though.

I come from a family of five and we were all healthy and quite adventurous eaters as children, so I'd just assumed that a child of mine would be the same, but no. My dd would never eat something like chicken supreme and rice. She will only eat things that are separate - like sausages and chips and broccoli for example. Nothing saucy, nothing too mixed together. I mostly stick to making her things I know she will eat, and every so often encourage her to try something new. She will rarely eat the same meal as me which is a shame as I love to cook and I enjoy eating together as a family, but I am just happy she is getting a fairly balanced diet at the stage!

@BaggoMcoys

She won't eat anything mixed together either. So for chicken supreme and rice- which she didn't eat the other day but does sometimes- it would have to be totally seperate ends of the plate if any rice was to touch the chicken and sauce she wouldn't eat it. She didn't eat it anyway so it's irrelevant 😂 but I can hope 🙄

@BaggoMcoys

Also she won't even entertain going to school dinners has to be packed lunch. She went once and it was pizza on the menu. Teacher said the only thing she took , with all the choices of extra sides etc was one tiny slice of pizza and only had one bite of it. Least if she goes packed lunch she comes back home with what she hasn't eaten so I can kind of monitor what she does eat.

My youngest, although not a picky eater ate very little. He actually had no interest in food other than eating enough to keep him going. The hospital always advised high calorie everything so full fat milk etc. He never really ate sweets or cake but I tried to add calories to all he ate. I did worry about it, but offered him food throughout the day and he seemed ok, if thin at times. He now eats loads and at 14 is a normal weight. I think he sees food very differently from me!!

I put my dd on school dinners and didn't give packed lunch as an option. I was so nervous at first that she wouldn't eat anything, but I'm really glad I did it now. I think the dinner ladies keep an eye on them and there's one in our school who you can speak to if you have any particular concerns. She's really lovely. I understand the worry though but seeing their friends eating the same thing really seems to help.

We always used bread, cheese and an apple as an alternative, but not anything extra that was sweet. As we knew he liked this it usually got eaten if all else failed!

My 20 month old loves noodles of any sort.. pot noodles etc have you tried these.. not healthy I know but she likes it so mummy is happy xx

I find my 5yo DD is very influenced by slightly older girls so I often say "Zoe loves spagetti" a few times in the week then serve it up on Friday and she'll wolf it down to be like Zoe. Probably a bit manipulative but it works!

I recently attended a selective eating course run by OT in my area. One of the key points was that children are very good at regulating their food intake over a week. So although some days my son barely eats a thing, other days he will eat a -tiny- bit more. Maybe try and look at what she eats over a longer period?