That's yukky

[Vonda]

Hi all

Can someone please explain to me why when children get to a certain age they can know they don't like food without even tasting it? I can present Jo with her dinner and if she decides she doesn't like the look of it then nothing on earth will persuade her to eat it (or even taste it).

Any ideas would be helpful because she cannot live on peas and sweetcorn, stew and yoghurt for the rest of her life!!!!

Vonda

[banana]

Hiya Vonda.

I experience that whenever I have my little brothers round for dinner or I go to my mums and we all sit down for a meal. Ususally we bribe them to eat it - not the most mature way to do things but hey, sometimes we're desperate.

I dont know if you have tried this but I saw it on a programme and it really worked. Make faces/shapes/houses/flowers etc... out of the food. Anything you can think of that would catch a childs attention. It makes it look like fun to eat their dinner, its just a little suggestion I thought you might be able to try - I know its a lot of hassle to make bloody pictures out of food on a plate but it worked on the tv programme.

Hope she becomes more adventurous with her food soon!!



Lana x

[Vonda]

Thanks - I might give it a try. The problem is at the moment is that she examines whats on her spoon before she will let me put it in her mouth! Usually she looks like I am trying to poison her or I have dug up some worms out of the garden. I will have to perservere.

Vonda

[wendabell]

vonda,
dont worry hunny my 18month old is exactly the same.The plate goes in front of her and she just turns her head away from it.
I do the pretty shapes on the plates for all my kids even making patterns and faces out of the food using ketchup to make eyes and a smile etc.
This is my third no including my step daughter fourth time of going through this stage and i finally learnt not to pander to their whims.i dont make them a different meal,i dont bribe them,and i am learning to ignore their behavior..a little child psycology their im afraid but it works.The more i get wound up over them not eating the more they love playing the game of winding mummy up and it really is a game for them as they get loads of attension.So the way to do it for me is to ignore it when they dont eat and carry on with my own meal.I praise up my other kids for eating so well and wow you can have pudding after that,but i ignore the one not eating.Eventually for me they do get the message and join in.
Dont worry to much about them not eating either,kids go through patterns during growth spurts of eating like a horse and then not and as long as they are full of energy,not loosing weight and lethargic they are fine.
I found with my kids that they love fruit though and will eat that alone if i let them.Also kids have different taste buds to us older gits.So their experience and taste of food is quite different to how we experience it.(got that from a course i did many moons ago) so when we say mmn thats yummy it isnt always how they percive it.
Just dont worry too much at least your lil un loves sweetcorn.

[susie]

Hi,

I have to say I agree with Wendy, I know its so hard when they don't eat but the more you make of it the more they do, I often find with my youngest ( who is 19 months) that he shakes his head no when I put his plate down and tries to push it away but if we just ignore him he starts to eat, the other night he started to eat and we all gave him a big clap, my daughter was cheering! he then cleaned his plate. Also maybe try giving her lots of things that she can feed herself, as they get so independant. I also find that if I give him a spoon in each hand he is so busy trying to work out what to do with them he doesnt notice me sneaking food into his mouth! Anyway Vonda hope some of this helps you to at least see you are not alone ;D little monkeys huh?

Susie
x

[Veritee]

I know how worrying this can be - as my child was considered to be a 'failure to thrive' because she would not start to eat ( turned out to be a heart problem) and weighed so little on the centime all the way though.

And of course as you all know she is 16 next month, a little small still for her age but I think this is how she is meant to be I guess that’s a lot better than overweight for her age - loves her veg and salad( something she would not touch at all until about 12 but I kept on with it, did not get upset but offered her some with every meal)

I also had a good friend whose boy would not eat anything but sausages and bread from at least birth till about 11. Luckily he loved apple and orange juice and milk so again he is now a strapping lad of 14, who is a bit fussy but eats most things.

I do know really how much it can upset you when they do not eat the nutritious meal s we offer them.

But we can only do our best and offer them good food as we can not force them to eat anything and to try would be worse.

But I would follow everyone’s advice and offer them good food

(don’t offer them rubbish very much– take a tip from Jamie Oliver – but I know we all can not avoid chicken drummers, Mc Donald’s and fish fingers sometimes)

But do not make a fuss if they do not eat it.

I know it does not seem like it at the time but this will be the best way in the end.

And actually I have to say that peas and sweetcorn, stew and yoghurt is an absolutely balanced
diet!!

I can’t fault it and I do have some training on nutrition.

done probably like Wendy as part of my work as a carer as I used to work with severely mentally and physically disabled children and I did the nutrition course as part of this work.



It seems contain every vitamin, protein, carbohydrate, fibre and even in the yogurt some healthy bacteria, and I am sure you give her fruit juice and hide some extra veg in the stew

(one trick is to lightly cook extra veg, mash or food process the ones she will not normally eat that are good for her and stir it into the stew just before it is cooked so it becomes part of the sauce)

I know how frustrating and worrying it can be - but it seems a perfect diet to me - boring to cook and eat for you but perfectly OK for her.

If you had said she lived on beef burgers and chips , I might have different.


But as to why they 'fix' on certain foods, I just do not know?

But I think Wendy may have hit on something here as I also remember learning that children have a completely different taste experience to us.

But this does not explain to me why Indian/ Pakistani/ etc kids will eat curry, west Indian afro –Caribbean childen will eat rice and peas, spicy fried chicken and Ackee and Saltfish etc while I have tried to feed all this to Caja as I love it and she still will not eat it at all

All the best

Veritee

PS I am sure you know all this and you have Time to advise you who has experience of more than one child - I just thought it might be useful for others who might read this and be worried about there children not eating stuff - it is something that worried a lot of mothers.

[Vonda]

Funnily enough, Curry is another thing that Jo will eat. In fact she loves it. She will eat a few things but she is getting really fussy. She takes one look at what's on her plate and decides then and there if she likes it or not.

She does like fruit and I get requests for grapes most days. So I suppose in a way she's not too bad but I do get concerned about mealtimes. I am not prepared to make her something different every day just so she will eat it. Surely she should learn to fit in with the family and not the other way around? I can only eat stew so many times in a week!!!!

love Vonda

[time]

One of my girls HATES pasta and so if i am doing a pasta dish then i do her something different but other than that we all eat the same, after all i cant cook 5 different meals at each sitting. Even the baby eats some of our food (roast dinners,casseroles, stews etc just mashed up).

Saying that one of my girls is a royal pain when it comes to food and frequently refuses to eat. My approach now is just to say fine but nothing now until the next meal. A lot of it is done for attention i think.

My girls love anything with rice in it, chicken tonight is a firm favourite - have you tried jo with that yet? Another one is the curry which is pretty mild and i hide a multitude of veg in it - so much so that my dad once said it was more like stew in curry sauce! Even my eldest will eat mushrooms in curry and spagetti bol because she dosent realise that they are there. She otherwise wont eat them because "they're dirty"!

Hope it helps