my 6yr old junior has always been a fussy eater since she started eating - but over the last year or so has just been getting worse and worse.
i cook meals she loved last week - yet this week she refuses to eat it .... i cook food she declares she loves that day - yet she picks it completely to pieces and refuses to eat any morsel that is not exactly perfect (in her eyes).
we have a reinforced rule in this house that if you don't eat a reasonable amount of your dinner, you don't get anything else to eat that night ... so she often goes to bed hungry and asking for something to eat (i refuse to give her anything else to eat and explain "again" that it was because she didn't eat her dinner).
neither of hubby or i are fussy eaters and are often enthusiastic about what we are eating.
we also have a rule that she has to try everything on her plate and if she doesn't like it she doesn't have to eat it - but it has to be tried - and i make sure that there is enough of her (supposed) favorites to give her sufficient to eat.
even the promise of chocolate icecream, if she eats enough of her dinner, is not enough - and she loves chocolate icecream. so when told she won't get icecream because of not eating, the evening often ends in tears/screams and her being sent to her room.
is sooooo frustrating. the only vege she will eat is carrot and corn. is currently off all fruit. meat is a on/off food (very tender but well cooked steak and boiled sausages only!). likes her carbs of pasta and white bread. can eat/drink dairy until the cows come home.
now - she's not undernorished, is tall for her age, intelligent and i suppliment her with kiddies vitamin/mineral tablets ... but it is so frustrating having her like something one day and hate it the next - and picking her food to pieces to pull out the tiniest speck of green/red/brown.
any suggestions? i know, in the scheme of things it's not a big battle, but if she's every going to go to a friends or restaurant for dinner she needs to learn to just eat her dinner without the fussing. the fussing is also driving her dad to distraction.
i cook meals she loved last week - yet this week she refuses to eat it .... i cook food she declares she loves that day - yet she picks it completely to pieces and refuses to eat any morsel that is not exactly perfect (in her eyes).
we have a reinforced rule in this house that if you don't eat a reasonable amount of your dinner, you don't get anything else to eat that night ... so she often goes to bed hungry and asking for something to eat (i refuse to give her anything else to eat and explain "again" that it was because she didn't eat her dinner).
neither of hubby or i are fussy eaters and are often enthusiastic about what we are eating.
we also have a rule that she has to try everything on her plate and if she doesn't like it she doesn't have to eat it - but it has to be tried - and i make sure that there is enough of her (supposed) favorites to give her sufficient to eat.
even the promise of chocolate icecream, if she eats enough of her dinner, is not enough - and she loves chocolate icecream. so when told she won't get icecream because of not eating, the evening often ends in tears/screams and her being sent to her room.
is sooooo frustrating. the only vege she will eat is carrot and corn. is currently off all fruit. meat is a on/off food (very tender but well cooked steak and boiled sausages only!). likes her carbs of pasta and white bread. can eat/drink dairy until the cows come home.
now - she's not undernorished, is tall for her age, intelligent and i suppliment her with kiddies vitamin/mineral tablets ... but it is so frustrating having her like something one day and hate it the next - and picking her food to pieces to pull out the tiniest speck of green/red/brown.
any suggestions? i know, in the scheme of things it's not a big battle, but if she's every going to go to a friends or restaurant for dinner she needs to learn to just eat her dinner without the fussing. the fussing is also driving her dad to distraction.