5 year old only eats 3 things - help!

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old daughter eats very little, and she only eats a handful of things - rice, pasta, waffles, apples, cheese...that's pretty much it. She doesn't eat veggies or meat. She is much tinier than my other two girls, last doctor visit she was 20th percentile or so on weight which surprised me because she is super tiny, probably the smallest kid of all others her age that I see. The doctor wasn't overly concerned but I worry they aren't grasping the severity of the situation. Basically the 15 month old eats more than the 5 year old - i am not exaggerating here. I am worried about her development and health ... should I see a specialist? Who do I even see and where do I find this specialist?? Help.

[Anonymous]

What have you already tried with the 5 yr old?

[Anonymous]

I personally wouldn’t worry at 20th percentile if the Dr is not worried.

My daughter is small. I was small and sometimes I wasn’t hungry. I’m glad my parents didn’t force me eat.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn’t worry about the percentile, some people are just small.

What does she do when you put some other kid of food in front of her? My guess is she eats those 5 things because you give her those 5 things? And if you gave her something else she’d have a melt down? Just start small. Put one of those things on her plate along with whatever else the family is eating.

[Anonymous]

Get outside help find a nutritionist to help you introduce new foods.

Honestly, this is pretty normal for a five-year-old. Many only eat white foods like pasta, rice, crakers, french fries etc...

She's probably feeding off your cues of anxiety cut it out.

Take her to the grocery store have her cook with you change the narrative.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried fish ? Tuna, salmon, tilapia, etc. ?

Maybe chicken tenders or chicken fingers would appeal to her.

Maybe a fruit salad with tuna on the side ?

What have you tried ?

[Anonymous]

Protein shakes ? Or other highly nutritious drink supplements ?

[Anonymous]

I’d be worried about nutrition. She’s just eating starch, apples, and cheese. You need to get her to try different things. Maybe you could try getting her to drink things - even if they’re nutritionally worthless, at least it will open her to trying things (yogurt smoothies, fruit smoothies, even hot chocolate).

Could you use starch and cheese as a base? Rice and cheese with some refried beans where the cheese is melted and gooey? Pasta with a cream sauce, maybe a little bacon? Chicken and waffles with syrup? How about a grilled cheese?

You might try calling your pediatrician and just discussing the problem. (Don’t do it in front of your daughter if you think he’ll blow you off; you don’t want your daughter arguing that the doctor thinks it’s fine). If he doesn’t take your concerns seriously, you might want to look for another doctor.

Seeing a nutritionist might be another option.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

My son had a friend who was very limited with food growing up. I swear my son ate 2x as much. They both were successful hs athletes, They are both about the same size now as young adults.

[Anonymous]

(1) Give her a multivitamin and make sure it has iron in it.

(2) Feed her the food she likes to eat, but incorporate one or two servings of vegetable and/or meat (or other protein like eggs) into every meal. Make sure every meal has a protein she will eat in it (we relied a lot on rice and beans, yogurt, pancakes, cheese for this) and serve her the broadest possible variety of fruit you can get away with (she eats apples but what about berries, grapes, citrus, etc. -- the more variety of fruit the better this comes to mimicking decent vegetable intake). Really focus on each meal having several components and keeping serving sizes small, as this will encourage variety in an otherwise limited diet. She can ask for seconds but only after she's tried everything on her plate.

(3) Regarding trying the small servings of "unacceptable" foods on her plate -- be really understanding about this. Explain that you aren't trying to force feed her and she only has to taste it, so she gets the flavor and texture. She can tell you she hates it -- that's fine.

(4) If tasting is very hard to do, try incentivizing her with a small sweet treat after dinner. We liked to use a small piece of chocolate because it's very decadent but not loaded with sugar or all the crap that is in candy. We aren't weird about sugar but kids who eat like this get a lot more natural sugars that kids with broader palettes (because they eat more fruit and baked goods) so we are trying for balance.

(5) Try incorporating smoothies and muffins into her diet and sneak some veggies into them. Start small -- throw a couple leaves of spinach or kale with a fruit smoothie. Make cinnamon muffins but include some shredded carrot or zucchini. Don't just make zucchini muffins -- she'll sniff it out and won't eat them. Just sneak in a little. Then start increasing the amounts in the smoothies and muffins as she acclimates to the flavor and texture of them. My kid had/has a superpose for vegetable texture and flavor. So start very small. With time she'll acclimate and this will help her develop a taste for these things, and eventually she'll even be able to eat like raw carrots or salad. But it could be years. Lots of kids won't eat salad until their taste buds develop a bit more to embrace flavors other than "sweet". And the texture thing can take a long time to acclimate to as well. This is a long game.

(6) Let her know that the main reason you are doing this is not because you enjoy torturing her, but because having a really limited diet will make it hard for her in the future to do things like sleepovers, drop off birthday parties, travel, and other things where she won't always be able to ensure that her limited list of foods is available. Explain that learning to eat foods that aren't your favorite, or even that taste "gross" to you, at least in small amounts, will ensure she doesn't go hungry. It will also make her easier to be friends with. Give her examples like "what if when you are older, all your friends want to go out for pizza, but you don't eat pizza and WON'T eat pizza -- they might be less likely to invite you." It sounds mean but honestly, its' practical, and these conversations were part of what helped incentivize my kid to be a little more adventurous with food.

(7) Finally, keep it in perspective. Very picky eaters can be really stressful, but a lot of that stress comes from the expectation that a "good" parent would be able to convince the picky eater to not be picky. Since you have other kids, you know: this is not the case. Some kids are just more sensitive to tastes and textures, have a much more sensitive "disgust" trigger, and have more fears around unknown and unfamiliar foods. I was this way as a kid (and I eat very normally now), and my kid was/is this way. But just stay the course. It gets better with time. Don't be afraid to feed her the food she actually enjoys -- rice, pasta, waffles, apples, cheese are all totally fine foods and if she's eating mostly that and you are just introducing other foods on the margins, she's okay. Adding in smoothies, incorporating some veggies to her baked goods, doing the multivitamin, and just continuing to encourage trying new things will help balance it out.

[Anonymous]

Take a look at this:


https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/16/477660671/breaking-down-the-science-of-picky-eating


It can take dozens and dozens of exposure to a particular food before a child might be willing to accept it. Most parents don't realize this and give up on various foods way to early.

We are still working through this with our children(5 and 8) but from what I have seen, their pallet is much better than their peers and we are at a point where we, for the most part, don't need to prepare special dinners for them, they eat what we eat the vast majority of the time, which also has the benefit of making dinner prep and time easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t worry about the percentile, some people are just small.

What does she do when you put some other kid of food in front of her? My guess is she eats those 5 things because you give her those 5 things? And if you gave her something else she’d have a melt down? Just start small. Put one of those things on her plate along with whatever else the family is eating.

Presentation for kids like this matters a lot. Prepare her plate so the first item she sees, and the thing there is the most of, is a food she likes. Make sure any new items are pretty small. Like quarter a baby carrot. She will be more likely to try it if it's clear from the start that you don't expect her to eat a full serving. Even if she doesn't eat it, a willingness to sit down to a plate that has an objectionable food on it can be a victory when you are dealing with a severely picky eater.

[Anonymous]

You said said she’s 20th percentile for weight, but what’s her height percentile? Has this percentile decreased the last 1-2 years or staying the same?

[Anonymous]

Nutritionist

[Anonymous]

Mix in a mild tasting fish with her rice.

Buy frozen SteamFresh rice with mixed vegetables.