My DD is 5 and is a long-term picky eater. She had extremely large tonsils as a toddler such that she couldn't swallow. They were removed when she was 2. We saw an NHS dietician as by this time she was severly underweight and we were introducing solids back into her diet. There was very little that she was prepared to eat, but we were advised just to always offer what we were eating ans never make a fuss.
3 years on.....
She's an incredibly pickyeater. She will eat very little fruit - dried mango, dates, banana. Nothing else. Vegetables she will eat parsnip or carrot but ONLY if it'sbeen roasted in honey until it's virtually toffee. She won't eat any "wet" food e.g. stew, and she won't eat meat except for perhaps one chicken nugget.
Today was a fairly typical day at home ashe ate:
One quarter of a piece of toast (not including the crust) with a bit of chocolate spread.
One small wholewheat biscuit
Half a cheese sandwich (not including crusts)
Another plain biscuit
One fish finger (not quite finished), a few pieces of gnocchi.
I tried to push the issue a bit this evening and insisted she try her vegetable (peas tonight). She agreed to eat 8 peas if I held the spoon and she could.sit on daddy's lap. She threw up.
She ammo never says more than this, and sometimes much less. She is no heavier than she was when she was 3.
What do you do with this kind of picky eating???? We have been doing the "not making a fuss, just make sure food is always available" route andI really don't feel its working. We all eat at the table for meals (sometimes not DH) and I make sure each meal has a little bit of something she'll definitely eat and at least 1 vegetable. The dietician we originally saw said as long as she isn't constipated (she isn't, because I insist she eats dried mango each day, the only thing she'll touch with a decent amount of fibre) and she has her vitamins then we just shouldn't worry. But SURELY there is a way to improve things???