Not sure where youre from but watched a programme on tv last night about this called SuperNanny. She helps families with issues. Last night was specifically about this.
Hope this helps
Make up paper plates with 4 food groups - protein, carbohydrate, vegetable & fruit. Divide the plate into 4 sections and put a choice into each eg, chicken gougons, carrots, noodles & melon. Make two plates for each mealtime and give the child a choice of which plate they want. If they will not decide, you decide for them. Make up a placemat - laminate one if possible and put a plate shape in the centre. On the four corners have a box - one for Protein, one for veg, one for carbohydrate and one for fruit. Make dinner etc and place the meal on the centre of the mat. For a bite of each food group the child earns a small sticker to put in the corners. Once they have a sticker in each corner they can have a treat - game with mum, walk in park etc etc. Families should eat together at meal times and keep conversation light and humerous, not mentioning meal or having 'food' conversations. Having explained the 'rules' beforehand, the child knows what is excpected. If they choose not to eat then ignore it and when everyone is finished, clear the table and leave it till next meal time. Children of this age will not starve themselves. Do not give anything between mealtimes and remain consistent, firm and do not engage in bribes etc. Reward good behaviour, encourage healthy eating with all members eathing the same meal at the same time, plenty variety.
Within a few days this boy was eating small portions where before he would scream and be sick at the sight of a sausage on the plate in front of him.
Hope this helps - sorry its long but I wanted to share what worked on TV.
I agree about Supernanny. It was amazing, but the mother was making such a fuss about the dinner and almost bullying the child into eating that mealtimes were the most stressful event going in their house and obviously the mother had got into such a state about insisting that he ate, that the child became phobic about eating or even looking at food.
I am very luck in that my 3 children eat very well and will try anything, so in that respect I don't have any experience with fussy eaters.
I have however seen friends with similar problems to yours and they have ignored the behaviour and if they are not eating, they have not made a scene about it, but just cleared the table once everyone has finished, but without saying anything about their childs lack of eating.
If you could get hold of a copy of last nights Supernanny then I am sure it would give you lots of ideas and reassurance. Good luck.
Hi there - I have a fussy eater, although not to your extreme. But it's not uncommon for my 20 month old to leave the table without eating more than one or two bite. And then refuse to eat anything later, and so go to bed without eating at all. Here's what we did:
Cut out all snacks in the afternoon. We even went so far as to tell the daycare that she is not to get a PM snack. If the other kids are having something, she gets 1/2 an arrowroot, but that's IT. This helped a bit.
My husband and I are "late eaters", and always have been. However, our daughter always eats great at daycare, where she does what the other kids do, but not great eating on her own. We have made an effort to change our eating habits, and make a meal to eat together. This has improved things immensly. She will usually take a little of what I'm eating - provided it comes off my plate and looks like what I'm eating. This isn't an ideal permanent solution, but until she gets used to eating - it works.
We've also decided to choose our battle. We can't make her eat vegetables in her high chair, but she will eat them straight out of the pot on the stove. GREAT!! We stand in the kitchen and she eats her veggies, cause they're a treat - then we go have dinner in her chair.
You can't fight everything. Sometimes ours likes something one day but not another. We make things that she likes, and if she doesn't eat, we've come to the realization that she's just not hungry. Oh well.
