I’m sick of fighting

food is one of those things i dont fight.

i cook dinner and most nights he wont eat anything but then asks for something else... i of course say if you are hungry then eat whats on your plate... he refuses so doesnt get any thing else.

he eats rice and pasta and noodles so tonight for instance we had devilled sausages and i did it with rice cause i knew he would eat that. my other boy on the other hand only ate the sausage.

he is older now and i sometimes ask him to at least try a small mouthful of something so he can be sure he does indeed hate it... lol!

i try and alternate between meals i know he will eat - bacon and egg pie, pasta, chippies and nuggets, pizza - and the ones i know will probably get refused.

so in short you are not alone. and there is no easy solution.

sarahs a bit like that too and would live on plain pasta for every meal if we let her, i made the mistake of just letting her choose what she wanted to eat then after a while it didnt work so we have "dinner time rules"

every night i cook us a meal we sit at the table and eat togeather, jett has the same as us also, some nights she wont eat a thing and some nights she will eat non stop,
if she doesnt eat anything the rules are her meal usually gets gladwrapped and thats the only thing shes allowd to eat that night untill bed.
i try and make sure she at least 2 forkfulls of everything on her plate, and if she does then she gets desert.
and every friday is fish & chip night

shes also really active and really skinny.

i make sure she has breakfast every day (which is the biggest battle)
and she has a "snack box" which has fruit x 2, chips & a museli bar in it and that is what she can eat during the day if shes hungry otherwise she would graze all day long!

and shes not allowd anything to eat from 4pm untill dinner which is 5.30-6pm, which i find makes a really big difference in her appetite

but i think the worst thing i did was just to let her choose what she wanted every night as it was a bit stupid cooking seperate meals for everyone, and even after a while when we asked her what she wanted she would say pizza or mcdonalds or something, and if she stayed at her nannas or her dads she would expect them also to cook her what she wanted and ruined many a family dinner party with a tantrum as she wanted nuggets insted of a roast!. it took ages to get her out of the mindset that she could choose what she wanted to eat for tea each night and that she had to eat the same as us and ill admit its a battle and would be soooo much easier some nights to give in to her
anyway thats just my story on the topic
good luck

Right now I'm struggling to get her to eat her lunch!

We have to go out & do something she want's to do & she's still sitting groaning about it!

Although she's skinny, is she underweight for her height or about right? My 5yo is not skinny (nor chubby, for that matter) so if she doesn't want what's on the menu for dinner, she misses out - her choice. She knows if she doesn't accept it, she has to wait for breakfast.

In saying that, we have a policy of getting the girls to finish what's on their plate (a reasonable amount) before having extras but they are allowed to leave one item of choice to one side...e.g. onions, corn, whatever it is they have decided they don't want that night.

I try to keep our meals interesting, varied, and not too spicy. Basically all of our meals (including snacks) are nutrition-based so if they skip one, I know they won't miss out on a lot.

I have an update to this!!!

We have cut out additives, preservatives & at the moment are starting into an elimination diet.

OMG I am loving the change in Alia, last week she ate her lunch 3 times, ate her dinner 2 times, & most noticable this morning has eaten pancakes for breakfast which she would have never touched. I think she's eaten all her breakfast all week too. WITH NO FIGHTS. I am noticing the time we have fights is when she's reacting to something.

I haven't needed to really give her complan this week. Certainly making the shopping cheaper.

This is where I am getting my info from Food intolerance network & their main website. I've read four books written by the person who had issues with her own daughter.

Lea, for sure your daughters treatment will have everything to do with her not eating. Hope she is doing well

I can't believe how happy I am in this post compared to the ones above!

eta: The things she doesn't like tend to be foods she reacts to but then there are somethings she loves which she also reacts to as well so it's difficult.

Edited by Aliasmum

Hi. What made you decide to try elimination? Did she have allergy symptoms?

I wonder sometimes about my girl as she doesn't like to eat and says eating makes her tummy sore.

Fiona, it was a pure fluke! I saw the book in the library "Fed Up with ADHD" & thought I'll have a read while I wait for Alia who was drawing & playing on the computer games. I certainly didn't classify her as ADHD though. I basically read the first page with my jaw dropping. It was Sue Dengates personal story & although Alia is no where near as bad she was almost describing her!

So I got the book out, read it cover to cover that night & the next morning & decided to cut out additives & preservatives. So we did & there was a good change in her. So thought I'd take it one step further as I knew she still got hypo from some things.

Since then I've got all of the books out from the library & read them & have bought the cookbook so I can do the elimination diet properly. I've joined an email groups here & in Oz to help get the most information I can get.

Also I can see when Alia reacts as luckly for me she reacts quickly to things & she also gets the dark allergic rings under her eyes. She also "dumbs" down & we'd hit a road block at school as well so it really was the perfect timing to discover this.

Meow, hate to tell you this but the vinegar is also classified as an additive I was under that impression as well until I got the NZ shopping list to help me buy items for us to eat. Definitely get a bread maker, I usually make bread at home but have been using Pams Pita pockets for her lunch instead.

But Yay for us, just found out that Pams frozen chips are additive free

Vinegar? Hmm. I might have to read those books then.