World's fussiest eater

[Wils0106]

Hi,

I've just joined to maybe get some advice, or maybe I'm just hoping I'm not the only parent to the world's fussiest eater. Also apologies if this is in the wrong section!

My daughter recently turned 4. She happily eats breakfast and will eat lunch which is usually waffles/pancakes that you pop in the toaster. And of course she will eat her bodyweight in snacks if we let her (which of course we dont). But this kid will absolutely not eat a hot meal for dinner. She will simply look at her dinner and decide she doesn't like it or doesn't want it. I do put some bits on the side that she will usually eat like sausage. Tonight she decided she didn't want any of it. I don't let her snack after 3pm as it will ruin her dinner but she still refuses. After refusing her dinner she'll ask for snacks. I'm sure she's hungry, why will she not just eat a little bit? Or even try her dinner?! I'm losing my mind. I'm certain that she's going to bed hungry. And I do tell her that if she doesn't eat her dinner she'll have to wait until breakfast before she can have something and she's perfectly happy with that. It feels so pointless even making her any dinner.

If you've been in this position can you please give me some tips?

What dinners are you making her? My youngest will go on hunger strike as he has tons of sensory issues around food as well as allergies and the paediatrician/ dietician/ occupational therapists have all said not to make food a battle, and to have a non-confrontational attitude towards it. Could you try a plate with sections, and serving small portions formed into different shapes with cookie cutters? We were also given the advice to make sure that at every meal there is something on the plate that they are guaranteed to eat. Then have a "no thanks" plate next to theirs at the table that they can put the unwanted food on. And have all discussion about food as observations rather than value judgements- so not "mmm this is tasty" or "this is healthy" but "oh this apple is so green" "this toast is so crunchy" etc.

Dinner doesn't have to be 'hot food', are there any healthy cold foods you can give her?

Another possibility might be to see if she'd eat more of a 'main meal' at lunchtime.

What does she eat at nursery?

Just the usual sausage & mash, pasta with different sauces, spag bol etc. She used to eat these but now won't touch any of them. There is 1 meal she will eat which is home made mac&cheese but it's green as I put blended spinach in it. I try not to offer this too much because if she goes off this meal I'll be out of options.

Some really good advice in your response so thank you. I'll definitely give these tips a go

I'm just worried as a got meal is usually how I'd hide veggies. She won't eat any veg otherwise. I've not thought about healthy cold foods. She's so awkward I don't think she would go near it. We've tried swapping dinner and lunch but it didn't work she just skipped lunchtime food and waited for dinner time when we gave her something lunch like

She's at preschool so we have to provide packed lunch. She won't eat cold pastas or wraps so pur only option is sandwiches (using sandwhich thins). She'll have cheese, ham or jam sandwiches. Will have a couple bites and moves onto other things we pack like cheese and crackers, yoghurt, raisins. She might have a couple blueberries/raspberries. She likes bananas so she'll have a banana at snack time