Help! What can I do with my picky eater 8 year old?

Question

He has a menu of about 4 things. Hot dogs, Chicken, Steak and PB & J. Will hardly eat anything else. I'm getting so tired of accomodating him while I feed the rest of our family. He doesn't even like pizza or ANY kind of pasta! He is so underweight.
Any other picky eaters out there and what did you do?
Thought he would've outgrown by now.

Answer 1

I started out with this problem, and my biggest fear was how these children would act when in someone ELSE'S home for a meal!! I eventually came to the realization that I was ENCOURAGING it by letting it happen by catering to each child's whim!! Put your foot down, and implement some tough love...you are not running a restaurant, and they are expected to eat whatever dinner is. They need to be aware that there are X-number of other people in the family that are eating too, and they don't get to control everyone else. If they choose not to eat whatever is served, I won't sit and listen to them whine about not liking ____. They go to their rooms for the remainder of the night with nothing. They won't (permanently) disown you over this, and within a month, you will have far less picky eaters on your hands! You just have to have some tough love.

Answer 2

As a toddler, your child may start to refuse to eat some foods, become a very picky eater or even go on binges where they will only want to eat a certain food. An important way that children learn to be independent is through establishing independence about feeding. Even though your child may not be eating as well rounded a diet as you would like, as long as your child is growing normally and has a normal energy level, there is probably little to worry about. Remember that early childhood is a period in his development where he is not growing very fast and doesn't need a lot of calories.
Also, most children do not eat a balanced diet each and every day, but over the course of a week or so their diet will usually be well balanced. You can consider giving your child a daily vitamin if you think he is not eating well, although he probably doesn't need it.
While you should provide three well-balanced meals each day, it is important to keep in mind that most younger children will only eat one or two full meals each day. If you toddler has had a good breakfast and lunch, then it is okay that he doesn't want to eat much at dinner.
Although your child will probably be hesitant to try new foods, you should still offer small amounts of them once or twice a week (one tablespoon of green beans, for example). Most children will try a new food after being offered it 10-15 times.
Other ways to prevent feeding problems are to not use food as a bribe or reward for desired behaviors, avoid punishing your child for not eating well, limit mealtime conversation to positive and pleasant topics, avoid discussing or commenting on your child's poor eating habits while at the table, limit eating and drinking to the table or high chair, and limit snacks to two nutritious snacks each day.
You should also not prepare more than one meal for your child. If he doesn't want to eat what was prepared for the rest of the family, then he should not be forced to, but you should also not give him something else to eat. He will not starve after missing a single meal, and providing alternatives to the prepared meal will just cause more problems later.

Answer 3

I have 3 picky eaters (not including my husband)--This is what I do they each get to pick what is for dinner 1 day a week, they must eat at least one helping of everything on the days they don't get what they want and if they succeed in doing this and are still hungry and don't want more of what I have made--they can then have the pb & j or the bowl of soup or the cup of fruit that I know they will eat. ( I keep all kinds of snacks on hand for those reasons--and not junk food) For example I keep fresh vegies, fruit, granola, yogurt, and string cheese--but they can only have these if they eat whats put on their plates.

Answer 4

I have a really picky eater too. If it's not a chicken nugget then he's not interested. My mom is now making me make him try other foods. At dinner I no longer make him a separate meal and at first he refused and threw a tantrum. I think he got tired of being hungry and is now taking bites or smothering his veggies with ranch. Good luck to you. Meanwhile, make sure he gets fiber so that his system runs smoothly. Oatmeal is a good one to introduce to a picky eater. I would also suggest vitamins.

Answer 5

He won't outgrow it as long as you indulge him. You are allowing him to have control. I hate to admit this, but my sister had the same problem with my nephew. You can imagine her surprise (not to mention her denial) when he ended up in the hospital with mono due to poor nutrition. You are the parent, he is the child. Take control. Serve him a healthy meal and insist that he eat it or do without. Trust me, he won't go without for very long before those green beans start to taste good! Start out with kid's favs like mac and cheese or promise him a special treat only after he eats the good stuff. If you don't do something now, you risk the chance of him suffering from obesity, diabetes or any number of other health issues that can easily be avoided with good, sensible parenting. It is never easy to battle your own children, but they are ultimately the winners. Good luck to you, my dear.

Answer 6

I highly HIGHLY recommend the cookbooks by The Sneaky Chef. You can even sneak healthy food into chicken nuggets. Check out the resourse link. She also provides free recipes you can try on there. They are purees that you make and hide into things. My son is extremely picky. He now eats, carrots, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, zucchini, broccoli, spinach, peas, avocados, blueberries, strawberries, cherries and a few more. The best part is...He doesn't even know it because it's hidden in things like mac & cheese (even the boxed kind!), spaghettios, pudding, brownies, etc. You gotta check it out.

Answer 7

Presentation presentaion presentation, I am a mom of a picky eater and a former chef, you can get them to eat just about anything if it looks cool. I will give you an example the other night I got dinosaure chicken nuggets and ramen noodles, I put a little green food coloring inthe noodles to make it look like grass put the dinosaures on top and added croutons for rocks it was great!!

Answer 8

Why did you START accomodating him to begin with? I never would have allowed such behavior. In my home it was either eat what was put in front of you or don't eat...consequently my daugther learned to eat all kinds of foods. I was taught the same way.

Answer 9

You aren't running a restaurant here, and he needs to know that. Put his dinner in front of him and don't let him leave until he at least tries it. That's what my parents did to me. I hated it, but if it wasn't for them I'd be eating pretty much the same stuff your son eats now.

Making it "look cool" is a bad idea. His dinner shouldn't have to look like dinosaurs in order for him to try it--he should be trying it because you told him to. Making his food look like some sort of artwork will only lead to an even worse habit.

Answer 10

For one week straight feed him only one thing like hot dog. Feed him only that and nothing else even if he wants something else. Make him so sick of it that he'll be willing to try anything else. That's how we got our son to stop being picky. Now he loves friuts and certain veggies.