picky eater!?

Question

I have a 4 year old that is a picky eater how do i get her to eat with out bribing to give her candy or a cookie after shes done? no rude answers please!

Answer 1

my son is the same way. his doctor told me not to worry, to let him eat what he wants to except at dinner. he has cereal or a waffle for breakfast and usually a peanut butter sandwich for lunch. i knew someone who's son ate a peanut butter sandwich for every meal for 1 year then one day he just decided to try something else. for dinner for my son i give him whatever everyone else is getting. i tell him all he has to do is try one bite. he usually does. give your daughter what she wants eventually she'll get tired of it and want something else. think of interesting ways to phrase things. for example: my son won't eat a grilled cheese sandwich if his life depended on it, but he likes pepperoni pizza so one day i told him that if he would like i could make him a pizza sandwich. so all i did was make a grilled cheese sandwich with pepperoni and he loves it. if you're having trouble with veggies and your daughter likes juice try V8's Vfusion. every 8 ounces is a full serving of veggies and a full serving of fruit. my son loves it. i just tell him it's strawberry juice. don't worry, as long as she's eating and growing good she'll be fine. also if she sees that you're not bribing her or begging her to eat she might try something new. what you're doing now is giving her attention and control. kids only have control over 3 things eating, sleeping, and pottying and they know it.

Answer 2

You always want to try and stay as positive as possible about trying new things. We had a contest at our house where the kids got a star for eating atleast 2 bites of a new thing/or something they may not be crazy about. After 7 stars, they got to choose a family activity. I have also found that making a kid's food fun helps. Try making a smiley face out of their food. Kraftfoods.com has a lot of cute kid friendly recipies.

Answer 3

Don't starve a child! Give her kid-friendly foods. Don't give a lot of spicy, oniony, garlicky foods if she doesn't like them.

Kraft foods has plenty of kids recipes. I signed up on their website, and get a free magazine full of recipes every month, but I also get tons of coupons too.

My youngest son is 4 1/2 & he likes to help me in the kitchen sometimes. Usually just stirring, but he likes that he can help. And, he's more apt to try out new things, when he knows that he helped with them!

In the summer, we grow a large garden. My son likes to help pick the vegetables from it. If you don' t have a back yard or unable to get a garden, I would suggest having her help pick out the fruits & veggies in the store.

Bribing a child with food may cause overeating later on. Having a dessert at night is ok - there's lots of healthier desserts out there, that my kids like better than store bought cookies! But usually we just have fruit, or applesauce as dessert. I buy regular applesauce, and my kids sprinkle their own cinnamon & sugar on them.

Answer 4

i just required that they have 2 (or even 3) bites each time i served the food they hated, and i didn't make a big deal about it. now they eat broccoli, caesar salads, scrambled eggs, stuff w. onions in it, etc! also, i would always offer a social bribe of sorts--i'd say, it's ok if u don't like it right now, when you get to be a bit bigger, you'll like it just like i do. emphasis on being a big girl partly means eating lots of different foods and enjoying them. good luck!!

Answer 5

my daughter was the same way, slowly and surely is the best course of action, trust me, i had to figure this out when i was 16. limit her access of sugars and candy all the time, or cut them out all together. she realize that if she doesnt eat good food, she'll always be hungry, which is torture for a child. my daughter is 7 now and she really doesnt like sweets, that makes me happy cuz she is so friggin healthy. and shes gonna be a healthy woman.

Answer 6

never bribe a child. just sit the child down at the table and dont let her get up until she eats, especially if she is denying good foods that are good for her. otherwise she will use that to get what she wants.

Answer 7

my niece only eats gumbo and hot dogs... no matter what her mom does she will not eat anything... as long as she is healthy, and gaining weight i would not worry about it... she might start eating different things once she starts school.... until then i would give her the foods that she likes, within reason, when shes hungry she'll eat!!!!! Good Luck...

Answer 8

give her two choices and only two...say would you like carrots or corn...and that will mean she thinks she has to pick one of them and she will;
if she won't eat at meal times, then she won't eat at meal times...
let her know that she has to eat when you eat, eventually she'll get hungry and realize she'd better eat what you provide for her...and no, that's not mean...if she's hungry she'll eat...
but, make sure she's not refusing to eat some things because she's allergic to them...
and...I totally agree with jennygirl

Answer 9

Make eating fun for her. Check at www.ragu.com they have some good ideas. just click on recipes and type in kids.

Answer 10

use the if you won't eat it, you won't get to eat at all, so even if she hates it, she will eat it (after a while she may start sneaking her favorite food during the night). also if this works, fix her favorite food sometimes.