fussy eater.. help!!!

gubby

ok as a granny I should know how best to deal with this problem but I would appreciate feedback or any tips from others.
My granddaughter is 4 and is not, and never has been, a big eater.. she is fine and healthy and her lack of eathing in not a problem. But!! what do you do if she dosent like her dinner and refuses to eat little or any of it. but everyone else at the table has eaten all theirs (including her younger cousin) and are having dessert... we dont want to make a big deal about her not eating dinner, but we cant allow her to have dessert either. we dont want her to feel she is being punished for not eating. but !!!! any ideas???

Nevyn

Could it be that you are having dinner to late in the evening for her ?
This has happened with mine, our 4 year old will snack all day on fruit
and other bits and peices but then decide that a certain dinner is not for her.
So we started keeping track of what how much she was snaking and stopped her in the hour before dinner. Moved dinner time for them forward an hour
and making a lot of lasanga ( which she loves) and freezing portions so that
she can have that for dinner, thankfully eating carots, brocilli and the like
arent an issue.

Hobbes

My Niece is like this too. She will not eat a lot of foods. Attempting to make her eat them just makes her throw them up in most cases.

No idea why, Sister has had her brought to the doctors over it and one stage she was on vitamin suppliments as well. My sister made a list of foods that she will eat and generally cooks up a seperate meal for her.

Sis is forever trying her with new foods to see what she will and won't it (no real logic to it). My niece isn't as bad as she used to be. I'd say she will eventually grow out of it.

me and the biz

I'd say she will eventually grow out of it.

i was about to say that too... but the second post about moving dinner forward makes some sense. try keeping a diary of all she eats for a couple of days, then you'll see if she's simply too full by dinner time from eating snacks and the like

causal

gubby wrote:

she is fine and healthy and her lack of eathing in not a problem.

That seems to be a paradox?
If she's fine and healthy then she must be eating enough of the right foods, which means there is no 'lack of eating'.

It seems you're saying that she has a small appetite, as opposed to being selective about which foods she will eat.

Does she have a slow metabolism; does she have frequent regular physical activity; does she consume between meals?

causal

up for anything

gubby wrote:

we dont want to make a big deal about her not eating dinner, but we cant allow her to have dessert either. we dont want her to feel she is being punished for not eating. but !!!! any ideas???

It's not a good idea for future eating habits to reward clearing your plate with a nice dessert. She probably has a smaller appetite then the other kids and it will build up a lot of resentment in her when she sees them getting dessert and she is refused any because of something she physically cannot do. When my kids can't finish their dinner I have to bite down firmly on my tongue so I won't say clear your plate... My husband and his 3 siblings all have weight problems which are firmly rooted in their childhood and their mother drumming into them the concept of not wasting food. All of them cannot rest easy until they clear their own plates and everybody else's at the table as well. I have seen my sister-in-law eat to vomiting point because she can't bare to scrape bits of uneaten food off plates into the bin. She solved that by getting a dog.:D

I've been told by dieticians (my kids are extremely faddy eaters) to let the child determine the size of the portion, so long as they are getting a relatively even spread of the food pyramid.

Jesus Trash Can

she is fine and healthy and her lack of eathing in not a problem.

My daughter used to be very picky so I just put less and less on her plate, (a full plate is a daunting experiance for them). I then built up the portions very gradually. Eventually, and without making an issue out of it, she was just eating "normal" portions. There is no one size fits all rule with food but this worked for me with no stress or argueing.