Sara has always been a picky eater! But recently, she's getting even worse. Things she used to eat she flat out refuses to even allow on her plate now. Dinner time routinely involves a meltdown, and her refusing to eat.
I've tried many things to try to get her to eat well and try new foods. I used to bribe her to try them by withholding dessert till she took at least one bite of something new, but it didn't work. One of her doctors recommended making rules for the dinner table, so I did. Rule #1, no crying at the table. Rule #2, you must leave all the food on your plate. Rule #3, you don't have to try the new things. The idea was to put something new on the plate every night, and smaller portions of things I knew she'd eat, and hoping that just having it there and not saying anything about it or making a big deal out of it might encourage her to just try it on her own. It didn't work either, and I've been doing it for 3 or 4 months now.
So this weekend I reached the end of my rope. I told her that she was a big girl and she needed to be willing to try new things. I promised I wouldn't put anything on her plate that I wasn't willing to eat myself, and that I was no longer cooking different things for dinner. She would eat what I made, or she would go hungry. I also told her no more snacks, hoping this will prompt her to eat more at the table. And I also told her on nights she refused to eat or had a tantrum at the table, she would go straight to bed. The problem is, I know that these new rules aren't the answer, and enforcing them is going to be really difficult and take all my patients. But I don't know what else to do.
Anyone got anything that might help? I'm desprate!
We have 'eating battles' as well. Crying at the table gets Abigail sent to her room until she can regain self-control.
ReplyDeleteBecause Abigail has issues with losing weight (as well as gaining it in the first place), along with low iron, and some other smaller things, I have to be ridiculously diligent about getting food in her.
All that being said I still REFUSE to allow her to only eat her favorites all the time.
We do only do small portions of everything on her plate. We have found the bigger her portions are the less likely she is to eat? Why this is I don't know, but it's true none the less. It's good to remember too that children's portions sizes are much smaller than adults.(2 tbsp is a serving of veggies for a little one).
Abigail must try everything, and if it's something new (that she truly doesn't like) she can opt for butter bread instead. But we don't short order cook. Not eating enough dinner (lunch breakfast), means no snacks.
I have a little girl who loves brussel sprouts and asparagus so I don't have to 'hide' much as far as getting nutrients in her. However I will add cooked lentils and raw spinach to spaghetti sauce and put it through the food proccessor because these are things that add nutrition that she might not eat if she could see them. :)
There are recipes online for brownies made with black beans, and if your daughter has other favorites there might be other ways to sneak some stuff in there (if she loves pizza you could also add spinach and blend to the sauce).
Anyway, there is my book. I am by no means an expert. I'm just walking a similar road and doing some trial and error things... :)
Good Luck!!!
Andrea