My 6 year old will only eat wings, toast, oranges, fruit cocktail, chips. How can I get her to eat more?

Question

Just a few details. She has mild Cerebral Palsy. She enjoys pb&j for lunch and she also drinks Pedisure as a nutritional supplement. Her physician at Children's Hospital of Phila. said she is on track weight wise, but her twin sister has branched out with a more variety of foods (hot dogs, chops, steak, etc).

Answer 1

everything she is eating is healthy.If she is on track why are you worried?her taste buds are set to certain foods and that's ok.your child is not and should not be encouraged to be like you or her siblings.keep trying tiny bits of differant foods because children do change preferances but dont be discouraged if she sticks to what pleases her and if she does try something new make it a big happy deal!

Answer 2

My 6 year old is similar. She used to eat heaps more variety when she was younger and has gone off so many things as she's gotten older. I'm not sure why.

We did a couple of things. Don't make a big deal out of it, but have discussions with her on the way home from school about what people at school have in their lunchboxes. If she's interested, put something new in her lunchbox that some of the other kids are eating. My daughter wouldn't eat any fruit at all, but now she eats banana's since lots of the kids in her class eat them and it's "cool". Ask their teacher, they often know what's popular & what's not.

Also whenever she goes to a party, ask her what she ate there. Lots of parents serve healthy foods as well as sweets & junk food. You might be surprised at what she ate and liked.

The last thing we did is to let her help prepare the meals. We could never get her to eat pizza until one day at school they had "italian" day and cooked pizza. She now will eat home made pizza and will also eat ham & cheese in sandwiches because she tried them at school on the pizza & liked them. I've also made sausage rolls with her & she helps me make muffins. All these things can be healthy depending what you put into them. If they help you prepare them, it makes them feel grown up & important, and it's very difficult to not want to try something you've made yourself.

Make it fun & exciting, not a chore. Good luck.

Answer 3

Children that age are often very picky.

First off, consult a doctor before following any advice
here. Safety of your child is more important then what
others think.

Then if your doctor approves, put your child on either a
chewable or liquid vitamin and or nutritional supplement
approved for children.

Once your child starts school and sees other children
eating various different items for lunch, it may affect
how and what they eat. It's not good to force kids to eat
nor to withhold food when you know that there is something
that they WILL eat instead.

This is most likely a phase that they will grow out of in
time. But as said before, keep your child's doctor in the
loop as to what is happening.

Answer 4

Be patient and the fact that she does eat what foods you mentioned is a blessing. The pediasure is a great way to supplement her and if you really want to introduce new foods to her your best bet is to make if fun...the more fun looking it is the more likely they are to try it.. Take a look at www.familyfun.com/recipes and look in recipe section. There is a section all for the picky eater I referenced that below in source. GOOD LUCK P.S.ignore all these idiots who say to let her starve when she had cerebal palsy you have to be much more accomadating to a child with a disablity.

Answer 5

Let her see YOU enjoying other food. I mean ENJOYING it, not eating just because you have to. Then when you are out of certain foods and she's hungry she'll not have much choice but to try something else or go hungry. She may whine or complain, but you are the one in control. Don't let it turn into a control battle, stay calm, offer what's available and let her decide what she's going to do, when she gets hungry, she'll eat. You're willing to peel an orange for her, try slicing an apple or banana so she can have just a bite now and then. make other foods convenient for her. Good luck.

Answer 6

My son had the SAME problem .so what i did was when i made dinner for my family he had to eat a small portion of each thing i made or he couldnt get up from the table...he would wine some nights the first week at least but then he soon learned that wining didnt get him anywhere! so everynight i do this and now he is eating more and more every day!!! He was 6 when we started this as well as your daughter

Answer 7

My 5 yr old will be 6 in 4 months, and he is sooo picky when it comes to eating. If he doesn't like the way it looks, he gives this face and says, "I don't want to eat THAT!" Usually this age is a picky eating age, if you will. Just keep trying to get your child to eat a more variety of things and don't give up. Every once in a while, she'll discover something else that she will eat.

Answer 8

Fix her a meal that included her favorites...Like...for breakfast she can have oranges and toast, lunch can probaly be a pb&j and dinner can be wings, fruit cocktail, and a vegetable. As long as she's getting her proper serving of fruits and vegetables she'll be good to go. Also when she does eat something that she usually doesn't eat make a big deal out of it!
For example: "Susan great job on eating those carrots, your such a big girl, oh my goodness!"

She'll enjoy this and she'll start eating other things as well to impress you!

Answer 9

Serve the same meal on everybody's plate at dinner. Put very small amounts on her plate. Then start eating. No other food is on the table except what is on your plate. If someone wants more of the same, you serve it from the pots on the stove. Take it or leave it. But children should be taught to eat what's on their plate within reason. I basically go along with the first answer above from Brandie.

Answer 10

Make the food look cute -- i.e. sandwiches & cheese cut into shapes, fruit salad made into faces, fruit & cheese pieces stuck on toothpicks like skewers for mini-shishkebobs, and ANYTHING that is dipped (fruit dip, veggies with dip etc)

Also, I find if I let my kids help with preparing the food they are more likely to eat it. Try getting one of those kids cookbooks & let her pick out some recipes that she'd like to try ... it works with my picky eater :O)

But I do also have to agree with the other posters. I don't make separate meals for my picky eater. I don't intentionally fix things that she ABSOLUTELY hates, but when we have something for dinner that she doesn't like too well, she is required to eat at least a small amount of it. After that she may have a peanut butter/jelly sandwich ... but I don't make a 2nd dinner for her. [We tried the 'if you don't eat this you don't get anything else 'til breakfast, but she got sick to her stomach, so we don't do that anymore]

For my kids it was more of a phase that they went through, and as I just kept trying some things over and over ... like meatloaf, pot roast etc., they eventually got to where they liked them more. Don't give up if she tries it once & doesn't like it, because I've learned from my own experience that tastes do change.

Answer 11

All I know is that when I told my parents that my 6 year old is a picky eater, my father asked, "Does she like peanut butter sandwiches?" "Yes." "Then she will survive." As long as she is eating something and the doctor is not concerned she will be alright. Children go through stages in life and just because they will only eat certain foods doesn't mean that they will not eat other foods in the future.