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A friend of mine who had ( notice the past tense !) an extremely fussy eater 4 year old absolutely swears by Annabel Karmel's books. She said it saved her from a nervous breakdown when her daughter was refusing to eat pretty much anything. It might work for you.
Hello..not sure if this is the right forum to post to, but I will give it a try. We have a very picky 5 y.o. who isn't crazy over meat NOR vegetables. Any thoughts of good dishes that might entice him?! I am about ready to lose my mind over this. All he likes is: PBJ sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, cereal, sliced bananas, cheese pizza and of course sweets if allowed.
Thanks.
Sounds like me when I was a kid. Try more fruits like apples but be sure to peel and slice them. Same goes for oranges. I refused to eat veggies as a kid but when I look back on it now, I imagine I would have liked potatoes and parsnips had I been willing to try them. Try putting cheese in a baked potato, that might interest him since it sounds like he likes cheese. And tell him parsnips are sweet.
As for meat, I wasn't a big meat eater either but I did eat it because I had to - my parents were willing to back off on veggies but not on meat. At some point, I do think parents need to just say "Don't like it? Too bad, you're not leaving the table until you eat it". That's what my parents had to do with me a lot. But also try adding other flavors to entice him - I loved Lawry's Seasoning on chicken and always looked forward to Thanksgiving for the gravy. Maybe try a grilled ham and cheese sandwich since he already likes grilled cheese but make sure the ham is sliced very thin.
And don't forget mac and cheese - if he likes cheese, you'd think he would like that.
Cook nothing but meat and vegetables for a few weeks, and if he doesn't want to eat, he can starve. As long as you deny access to other snacks as well. Food is good when you are very hungry.
Baked sweet potatoes, in the oven at least 2 hours, 400 or more. Very, very sweet and soft, very much like pumpkin pie filling. Some sources say serving for serving, sweet potato is the most nutritious vegetable. Be sure to put foil under them, they can drip a sugary substance that can be hell to clean out of the oven. Eat the peels yourself, the kids will probably draw the line there. Tasty and tender, plenty of nutrition there for you, too.
Hello..not sure if this is the right forum to post to, but I will give it a try. We have a very picky 5 y.o. who isn't crazy over meat NOR vegetables. Any thoughts of good dishes that might entice him?! I am about ready to lose my mind over this. All he likes is: PBJ sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, cereal, sliced bananas, cheese pizza and of course sweets if allowed.
Thanks.
children won't let themselves starve. stop cooking for him and start cooking for you and whomever else you cook for. If he misses a few meals, he'll be fine - he won't hurt himself. When he gets hungry, he'll eat what you've cooked. As long as you're willing to cater to him, he'll be willing to demand it.
Hello..not sure if this is the right forum to post to, but I will give it a try. We have a very picky 5 y.o. who isn't crazy over meat NOR vegetables. Any thoughts of good dishes that might entice him?! I am about ready to lose my mind over this. All he likes is: PBJ sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, cereal, sliced bananas, cheese pizza and of course sweets if allowed.
Thanks.
Be thankful that he doesn't like meat. The things that he does like seem good to me, partricularly the pizza and bananas. Make sure that there's plenty of cooked tomato in the pizza. Try him on scrambled eggs if possible. Sweet potatoes or yams sound good as well. He might also like a date and banana sandwich or peanut butter and date. Just get pitted dates and slice them. But don't worry; he'll do fine. I say all of this as a former and current picky eater.
An easy treat I just remembered.
Peel a yam and cut it into slices about one inch thick. Boil them until soft Spread butter and brown sugar on one side. Put it under the broiler for two to four minutes. Good.
Last edited by Happy in Wyoming; 09-20-2010 at 03:42 AM..
I've raised a bunch of kids, and some were picky and some were not. My advise is to be reasonably tolerant, but do not cater to the pickiness too much. Never make an issue out of food or every meal will become a battle. We always made our kids have a "no thank you helping" of everything, and allowed them to choose one or two things they didn't have to eat. They chose things like liver and brussels sprouts, etc.
Cook good wholesome balanced meals. Let him eat, or not, and don't let on that you care in the slightest one way or another.
Cook nothing but meat and vegetables for a few weeks, and if he doesn't want to eat, he can starve. As long as you deny access to other snacks as well. Food is good when you are very hungry.
True, there's an old saying "Hunger is the best sauce."
When my boys were little they were both very picky eaters, but of course, didn't like the same things. Everyone liked something different. I was about to pull my hair out. When I spoke to my pediatrician about it, she told me to do as some have recommended here. She told me not to cater to them, and that eventually they would get hungry enough to eat. She told me just to make sure they took a good multi vitamin everyday. There were lots of nights they would just pick at the food, but no one ever starved. I did make sure they got a decent breakfast everyday, even if that did mean catering to them a bit. I just couldn't let them go off to school without eating. I also did the renaming of dishes that someone else mentioned. It was amazing how well that worked. For example, we didn't have meat loaf, we had "pizza loaf". The loved "pizza loaf" and ate it for years. Then one day DH walked in the kitchen and didn't realize one of kids was in the room. He said, "oh yum, meat loaf". That was it, after that, noses were turned up every time meat loaf was put in front of them. Anyway, as they grew up, they outgrew some of the pickiness.
I really do think not catering to picky eaters helps them. I have a nephew who has really been catered to his entire life. His mom (SIL) has really just cooked him whatever he wanted, or let him prepare his own meals. (single working mom, only child still at home). He spent a couple of weeks with us last summer (he was a freshman in high school). It was amazing to see how picky he was. All he would eat were sugar coated cereal (which I refuse to buy), PB&J sandwiches with the crust cut off, frozen cheese pizza (no delivery) and chicken nuggets.I don't think he ever even tried any of the food I cooked. We were really concerned because he wasn't eating anything at our house. He told us he liked Chinese food so we took him to Pei Wei, thinking maybe he would finally eat something.After we get there he said the only Chinese food he really liked was fried rice, so that's what he ordered. All he did was pick out the few tiny bits of scrambled egg and eat that. He never ate one grain of rice. Then, he says he doesn't eat rice, just the egg bits. Of course when I asked if he would eat scrambled eggs for breakfast, he said "no" he didn't really like much of it, just the little bits in the fried rice! Another time we went out and he ordered a PB&J off the kids menu. He was upset when it came with the crust on it, so he pulled it off then wouldn't eat it because it didn't have the kind of jelly he liked! Turns out he only likes a specific kind of jelly, not the kind the restaurant used. Both my sons, now college aged, say that peer pressure in high school will force him to eat more things.
They both say that now that he's in high school he will be out in more social settings with friends and it will be too embarrassing for him to continue to eat like a 2 year old. I will say that will all of my attempts to get my kids to eat when they were younger, I really think it has been peer pressure for them more than anything that has caused my kids to really broaden their food horizons. My method of just not giving in to them kept them from starving when they were younger, but peer pressure has really taught them eat all kinds of things.
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