Picky EatersFollow

Feed her Hot Pockets, preferably the ones that contains the food groups you want her to have. That or make pizzas with those toppings on them, most kids will go for pizza despite whats on it.

I really like this idea, it didn't work for us though. We went as far as letting her choose the toppings and make it herself (two things she's likes doing), and it was a no go. Won't touch cheese pizza either, pasta without sauce only...

Give up on her and focus your energies on the other one.

Also ask if there's something about textures that's causing her a problem. Depending on the fruits she'll eat it could also be as simple as her preferring soft textures because of some kind of dental problem she hasn't articulated. Perhaps even a loose tooth that feels funny when chewing harder foods.

If this doesn't reveal other problems, there are a couple ways to sneak some veggies into other foods that are mostly undetectable. Try cauliflower mashed into mashed potatoes or parsnips made into chips(there's a Good Eats episode about it). Since she's eating starches, perhaps try blending some quinoa into some rice. There's another Good Eats episode about making peas into a burger-like patty. Perhaps molding the same recipe into nuggets might inspire the child to eat it?

We just get them to try some of what we're eating and on occasion, they actually will. Then, when we find something they like, we add it to their "meal plan" as well.

My son now tries just about everything we eat and then we need to scramble to get him a plate of it or we're losing our meal to him. My daughter we haven't had nearly as much success with, but on occasion, she will try something new.

I disagree on the timing. Try every few months. My kids suddenly like veggies they always hated out of no where. They both eat broccoli cooked or raw which is not typical of a 6 and 5 yr old. 3 months ago, my son only would've eaten cooked and my daughter not at all.

My kids won't eat anything they don't want to eat. Don't compare. Just do... I barter fruits and veggies because that works.

Do what works for you!

My kids generally offed little resistance when we came across something they didn't like. I like to think the fact that we have no pop in the house and never, ever go to fast food places has helped to keep them open to new foods.
Ultimately hunger will break stubbornness.

Next time ask her if it's the way it tastes or the way it feels. My son gets really hung up on textures of food. I assume you've tried both raw and cooked vegetables?

I can appreciate the texture issue. I think raw tomatoes are terrible, but love all tomato sauces, tomato soup, sundried tomatoes :P

I'm not a parent. So my example and thought are of mine...
I put some of the blame of me being obese on my parents. The reason? When I was a kid and said I didn't want to eat "it", I didn't get to leave the table until "it" was gone. Even if I liked other parts of the meal, and gladly would have rather have had more it (and maybe was gave more), all food on my plate had to be gone. "They" say not chewing your food for a decent amount of time leads to being fat. I 100% believe this. So as child I would power through all the crap I hated to eat more of the stuff I liked, in the end I over ate and by the age of 8 my parents were getting stuck with a child who was twice as big as everyone else at every age. I blame another part due to living out of town all my life. I was only physically active at school, once that was over it was a 40min bus ride home to due homework and write out "spelling words" hundreds of time for the rest of the night. If I was given a break I watched TV or played video games. As I got older and into high school I did try and play football, but sadly I injured my knee and gave up one it due to the pain I was always in. So I would go home and play video games.
Did they learn their lesson? I have to say yes, because both my younger brothers got away with not eating every thing and could say yes/no to foods. They grew up "normal" size and healthy.

Enough about me . . . more on help, maybe. My parents actually took in some foster family (they were my fail cousin's kids) for some time about a year ago, and they were omfgpicky when it came to food. If she is old enough to say "no", ask why she doesn't like it. "Because I don't" should not be allowed.

Lets use the hotdog. Is it JUST a hotdog and nothing else? Maybe try slitting it and adding a sliver of cheese to it? ketchup? mustard? Bread? (protein, dairy, fats, and grain if you need to see it that way). One kid would not eat meat w/o ketchup. Actually you could put ketchup ON anything and he would then eat it. It was kind of gross (green beans and ketchup... Pizza and ketchup...toast and ketchup). However he was only give so much, maybe 2 servings worth and that was it.

She likes chicken nuggets from McD's? Will see eat chicken nuggets that are home made? Like Tyson's? If no, is it because they are not from McD's? Have you presented store bought ones to her IN a McD's box/bag? This was also a trick my parents used, and I know others out there have.

I say 1st you need to figure out what she likes. Is she at the age where solid foods are the "new" thing? Maybe her food needs to be pureed? There is all the vitamin drinks out there if you re worried about that, maybe she likes one?



It is that primal part of us. When it was time to run for safety, the young could go go go.

Edited, Nov 7th 2012 6:53pm by Sandinmygum

So anyway, the wife decided yesterday afternoon to bargain with her some more. We got her to eat a peanut butter sandwich, which is progress. (She's almost 4 btw, since it's come up).

We've at some point tried about every different type of food we can think of in the veggie and meat category. The "not from McDonalds" nuggets don't go down as well, she'll take a bit or two out of each one and that's it. Still it's something though. The only other thing we've had luck with in the meat dept. is some fish she caught herself. We've fried, baked, broiled, breaded, sauced, etc. various things, but no go on any of it.

As for veggies, we've about run the list there too. Peas, beans, lettuce, squash, many various Asian veggies I can't remember the names of, corn, carrots, spinach, onions, and probably a lot more. We've tried cooking, steaming, raw, with some kinds of sauce (for the ones it usually makes sense with), no go.

At this point we're continuing to just keep putting different things in front of her and encouraging her to try it. Being disappointed when she doesn't eat it, and excited when she does. Thing is I'm positive she's caught onto our game by now. I don't think either of us really wants to go down the "you have to eat it and you're not getting anything else until you do" route again, since it seems she can hold out way longer than we feel comfortable letting her go without food.

Kids...

Now where did this gray hair come from?

This. Now that my kids are in the last years of their childhood, we've let them set their own time table for eating as well. Now it's more a battle of getting them to clean up after themselves when they've made a meal.

Bribing can SOMETIMES work with the kids, "Eat this and tomorrow you can get mcdonalds" would work with my daughter. Tricking them to eat something works too. My stepson used to not want anything but chicken, I got him to eat duck, turkey, and pork by saying it was chicken. He is still a picky eater but is better than he used to be. My daughter CAN be picky but I have got her to eat things like catfish, calamari and even poor little thumper in a stew. My stepson picks up his eating habits from my wife, she is a kinda picky eater, my daughter seems to be picking it up from me and I will eat damn near anything at least once. But I wouldn't worry too much, at 4 they will be stubborn about food one day and then a week later want to eat it.