Help with extreme picky eating

[Eeve]

DDis nearly 9 and has an incredibly restricted diet. In terms of fruit and veg will only eat apples and will eat sweetcorn in a two particular meals.

I feel like it's more than picky eating as she will literally vomit at the sight and smells of "unsafe" food. It's really quite alarming.

Has anyone experienced this or know how to help? She eats almost nothing at school now they have introduced healthy lunchbox policy as there isn't anything she can eat.

I’m pretty much the same as your daughter and I’m 23. The only difference is, is that I don’t vomit at the thought of new food - I just have extreme panic attacks. I stick to the same diet. Don’t eat fruit or vegetables.

My son is following the same pattern as me.

Just don’t force her to eat something new as it will make it worse. Someone tried to force me to eat soup before and I sobbed for hours before, during and after.

I’m not sure what else to suggest, but I can understand how frustrating this must be for you as her parent. Sending flowers

That does sound very difficult to deal with, for both of you.

Has she ever had any help with her anxiety?

DD 16 has an extremely restricted bland beige diet which has gotten worse over the last couple of years but she doesn’t vomit. She can be extremely awkward so I think its a control thing. She now won’t eat meat or fish or any fruit whatsoever but will have the occasional smoothie or fruit juice. In terms of veg she also likes sweetcorn, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli but everything else is beigey or carbs. Pasta, rice, noodles, chips, margarita pizza, white bread, wraps, chocolate and crisps. She does like butter beans so recently she has made her own version of the greek dish fasoli with most ingredients missing and she adds potatoes. She will also eat Hello Fresh pistachio and chickpea burgers if we or she makes them.

Every meal time is a struggle and trying to get food shopping in for her is an absolute nightmare.

Good luck its not easy.

Have you look at Arfid?

I've never heard of that before bwc but it does sound like our DD

You have my sympathy - we actually factored in DD's eating when choosing a school. Not only is she very picky (e.g. there are 2 fruit and 1 veg she'll eat) but she's also very slow to eat.

Have you spoken to the school? You may want to couch it as making reasonable adjustments for a disability. It may also be worth seeing your GP for a referral to a dietitian.

We have spoken to the school - fortunately they are very laid back about the content of lunch boxes (no sweets/solid chocolate/fizzy drinks/nuts, which still allows us to find things DD can eat). They will also let DD eat a snack in the afternoon if she hasn't managed much at lunch time and is struggling to concentrate.

Hope you find a way forward.

Thanks all. I've been trying to find a private dietician but to no avail!

The notion of safe/unsafe food, and distress to the point of being sick would make me question arfid too.

Can she explain what it is that makes food safe/unsafe?