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Is this worth a referral to dietitian?

2 replies

Mrsm010918 · 16/03/2026 18:19

I'm debating contacting our GP for DD aged 7 and asking for a referral to dietitian but just wanted to sense check whether anyone thinks this might be anything else I guess.

She's always been fussy with food. Happy to eat pretty much any fruit, will eat toast, cereal any breakfast food really. Dinners are a nightmare though. The list of foods she will eat wasn't very big to begin with and is rapidly decreasing to the point where the only thing she will have now is battered fish fingers (won't eat them in breadcrumbs), and the cheapest frozen kids pizzas from Tesco, she won't eat them from anywhere else. Not a hope of getting her to eat any vegetable other than sweetcorn and she'd rather starve than eat a home cooked meal any of us has made. Incidentally she actually used to live on homemade dinners but it changed when she hit about 2.

We've tried loads of different approaches with it and her meals are not massive in the first place so I don't think it's a case of overwhelm. We've tried the eat until you're full, giving her the specific things she likes and asking her to try new things on a side dish, tried the option of nothing else on offer at all until breakfast the next day (this sometimes works but leads to us having to reheat her dinner at about 7.30). I've tried reducing/eliminating snacks in the afternoon but that led to awful behavior before dinner time. Dinner is usually served up by 5.30 so not massively late, and we wouldn't be able to do it earlier consistently as once I go back to work after mat leave we won't all be getting home until about then anyway.

It's driving us to despair slightly tbh. We have a toddler who eats just about everything so I don't think it's necessarily something we've done wrong as such

I'm not sure what I'm even asking tbh, just wanted a sounding board to see if anyone has any experience of this maybe?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
shellyleppard · 16/03/2026 22:23

@Mrsm010918 my son used to be the same. In the end I said I'm not cooking separate dinners. Eat what we eat or go without. He's now 18 and eats everything!!!? Would your daughter be interested in smoothies/milkshake? That way you can sneak some vitamins in x I also had my sons "safe foods" but a spoonful of our normal dinner x

Thisismyusername1 · 16/03/2026 22:28

My son was diagnosed with ARFID last year. He has a very limited diet but his main issue is he has no interest in food which means he constantly has to be reminded to eat/drink. He has regular checks for his height/weight and I completed a course with other families to learn more about helping him. He has also been prescribed a supplement which he tolerates some days but not others. We self referred and I’ve found it immensely helpful. I understand that not all areas offer the ARFID pathway.

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