My 3 year old sons is such a picky eater. HELP?

Question

My son will be 3 on Nov 19 and he weighs only 29 pounds. I offer him 3 balenced meals plus a ton of mid day snacks each day. I give him very diluted juice (90% water) and milk. He HATES meat except for chicken nuggets. He won't eat a vegatable to save his life but thankfully he likes fruit. His favorites are pb&j,chicken nuggets, grilled cheese,waffles,cereal, mac and cheese and sometimes I can get him to eat pizza. The doctor says that if I offer him 3 solid meals a day not to worry, he won't let himself starve. I would like it if 2T pants would fit him around the wast and stop being too big. What can I do??

Answer 1

Jennifer:
This may sound a little mean but you asked so here goes.
You 3 Year-old should not be determine his menu, you are the adult and you are in charge of what is made available. You should not make this a power issues which it sounds like it already is. But sit down and tell him here are the rules...

1) We eat as a family at the table. I will be making one meal you may eat it or not as you chose but I will no longer make you separate meals.

2) You will not be get ANYTHING to drink until 1/2 of your food is gone. If you do not eat, you do not get a drink. (The reason for this should be obvious, kids will fill up on low nutrient drinks long before more nutrient rich foods if given the option to do so.)

3) When we go to the grocery store you may not ask for ANYTHING until we are ready to leave, If you have not asked you may pick one item as a reward for your good choice of behaviour. If you choose to not behave we will leave the grocery store immediately and will come back some other day when you may choose to behave (the first time, go shopping when you do not need groceries, wait for him to ask, then leave without saying a word. Just pick him up out of the cart and drive home in total silence, this will be more effective than you can imagine.)

4) Stop offering him snacks, you may give him one mid-afternoon snack but that is it. You are producing a child who will be having a hard time when he gets to school. Help him get ready now for pre-K.

My kids are 20 and 17 and when they were 3 and 5 I setup these rules and my kids straighted out there shopping behaviour with ONE trip. We never had food issues since we never gave them the choice about what to eat, but my kids will eat almost anything and will try everything at least once.

Good Luck, remember your the parent, your child will lots of friends over a life time but only one mom and he needs her to set limits.

Answer 2

Continue what you are doing and do not worry. My nephew, until the age of 6, only ate bread. Sometimes he would eat pizza or chicken nuggets or spaghetti noodles with nothing on them, but mostly just white bread. He was healthy so the doc said not to worry.
Now he is 7 and eats a variety of foods.
He even likes to help cook different foods.

Answer 3

If it makes you feel any better, my son is mildly autistic, and your son eats WAY more than mine does! My son will eat any fruit known to man (my saving grace) - other than that, all he will eat is bagels with cream cheese, and plain pasta with butter. And thats it! My pediatrician told me not to worry about it, he's healthy, growing and thriving..... for my piece of mind, I give him a multi-vitamin every day. And I just keep trying new foods on him in the hopes he'll try one eventually. As my son has gotten older (he's 5 now) I can reason with him a little better. If you are still concerned, there are therapists that help with eating issues. You can ask your dr. for a referral. Good luck!!

Answer 4

OMG! Your son eats more than my son did at 3 yrs old. My oldest (now 5) ate, and still eats sometimes like a chicken!
My son now weighs under 40 pounds, he is skinny but all legs! My son has alot of energy and burns it all! I never worried about his eating habits because I said to myself, thank God he is never sick, thank god he drinks all day and he eats fruits....Some kids are picky, like my son & your son. As long as there is always food out and they drink liquids, I wouldnt worry. My son changed his eating habits around 4 yrs old. I noticed he started eating more BBQ food like Chicken and sausages......PB&J = only half a sandwich, he still wont eat a full sandwich. grilled cheese= just this yr and only cause I feed it to him. mac & cheese= rarely. Pizza, chic nuggets & waffles and fist sticks and white rice are mainly his diet. He will eat any fruit , which is healthy!
Give him time and he will impress you!
I've had fighting matches with my son and Ive begged him to try new things, I have bribed him with $$ and toys, he would scream & cry & throw a fit!
One day out of the blue , he said I want BBQ sausage, then the chicken followed.
One day (a few months ago) I actually bribed him to eat one stuffed pepper...I couldnt believe it. He ate the pepper too!
He like schiscobob BBQ style too.
Dont worry, its normal!

Answer 5

I have the exact same issue with my soon to be 4 year old. He will not eat anything with any kind of meat in it. (except chicken nuggets) I put food in front of him and if he wants his dessert afterwards, I make him eat what I made. I try to bribe him by eating the dessert in front of him and sometimes that works. Your son will grow out of this just like any other phase, and the foods you mentioned will actually give him the nutrition he needs. Good luck!

Answer 6

Your doctor is right, of course, he will come around. You can try pureeing veggies and adding them to the mac & cheese. Also, I would try giving him these veggie gummies http://www.gummybearvitamins.com/products/. They help give kids the vitamins they miss when they aren't eating a balanced diet. You could also try some Special K protein water (check with the doctor) but that would be a good way to get some protein in him. Good luck.

Answer 7

My 3 year old is the same way. He is 32 pounds and will be 4 in about 3 months. I offer him food and if he doesn't eat it there is nothing I can do. Sometimes he cries if I offer him food. I give him vitamins and try my best.

Answer 8

Don't feed him what he wants if he won't eat what you initially give him. The doctor is right, he won't let himself starve. Do you want him to be a picky eater for the rest of his life?

Answer 9

Here are a few suggestions you might try.

Try to cut down on the snacking, so he'll be hungrier at mealtimes.

Take a careful look at your life, and see whether it is too hectic to relax and prepare food and eat calmly. Cut out errands or activities so you can set a more peaceful tone.

Insist on sitting through meals together.

Involve him in food preparation. Give him cookie cutters and have him shape the cheese, bread, lunch meat and tortillas into children or animals or something. Let him choose the shapes and use them to tell a story. Have him decorate with raisins or peas or fruit slices, etc. Be creative! If you peel and slice fruit for him, he should be almost old enough to chunk it up with a plastic knife. This will also help him feel he has more control over his meal.

Give him choices before you prepare a meal, so he feels like he was part of that process too. Should we have peaches or apples with lunch today?

Some children who are very picky tend to fill up on drinks, and have no room left for the healthy food. Offer drinks toward the end of the meal.

Some children who are averse to vegetables need to see them on their plate a dozen times before they'll taste on their own. Don't be discouraged. I require that my children have "one bite" of any new food. Often, they'll really like it.

My children love to eat the vegetables that they grow in their gardens. I grow easy things like cherry tomatoes, parsley, yellow squash, snap peas and basil. They enjoy going out with a bowl to harvest and then wash and serve or use them in cooking. Some vegetables do just fine as a houseplant or patio plant.

Instead of goldfish and pretzels, put cherry tomatoes and sliced raw broccoli and baby carrots on the table. Let him know he can eat them whenever he's hungry.

Another trick to getting children to like vegetables is to eat them frozen. Frozen blueberries taste like popsicles. Frozen peas are sweet and unexpectedly flavorful. Frozen corn is also very good.

Look to the example that you are setting. Are you showing him "favorites" and "dislikes" with respect to food? Do you eat a diversity of healthy foods? Work hard to set a good example.

Do a lesson on "healthy foods" and talk about how many servings he needs of each of the types of foods in different food groups. He is old enough to help you paste together a chart with examples cut from magazines. When you talk with him, use the words "healthy foods," My children know they won't get afternoon snack or dessert or treat if they didn't eat all of their "healthy food." I make portion sizes small so they ask for seconds if they like it, but I don't serve them ice cream if they haven't eaten their broccoli with supper.

Consider teaching him about "red light", "yellow light" and "green light" foods. As you shop, point out that you are getting these fruits and vegetables, and that these are "green light" foods. This means that you can eat as much of these as you would like in a day. Point out that you are also buying some "yellow light" foods, like lunch meat and yogurt and pasta, which means that you can eat them, but need to limit portion size. Then point out that you are only getting one "red light" food, say ice cream, which you only eat seldom because it is not one of the healthy foods, but is a nice treat.

Try giving him meals on character-printed paper plates. Some children will eat more to reveal what is on their plate.

Good luck to you!

Answer 10

Well I'm 16 and speaking from experience, forcing your child to eat something they don't want to eat won't work. If I didn't want to eat it, I didn't eat it no matter how my parents threatened me. Eventually I started trying new things. Just don't force it on him.