5 year old only eats 3 things - help!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have suggestions, but my kids are HUGE meals at age 1. So it’s not surprising the 15 month old eats more. Just pointing that out. New walkers expend a huge amount of energy and are growing insanely fast. Mine would eat adult portions and then need more food later. It felt like endless dinner sometimes!

OP. Thank you, this is funny about the 1 year old eating endlessly - my baby is like that, she actively seeks out food on her own and eats ...nonstop. So I cant help but compare, though it makes sense the different growth rates affect the food needed at different stages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

20th percentile? She’s huge! Our 4 year old eats a good amount and she can’t hit double digits. If the dr isn’t concerned and she grows at every check up, you are good. Try to introduce food adjacent to the apples like apple pear, then pear, then another similar fruit. Pasta would be cheese and pasta, then meat sauce and pasta etc. We encourage to try everything even if she doesn’t eat it all and thank DD for trying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
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.

What kid could be convinced to try something dozens of times? I never understand this concept. Kids can see it is broccoli. They tried it before. They do not want it. Maybe a year later my kid would try it again if they forgot about it.

You'd be surprised.

We have a 5 yo who is very picky and absolutely hates vegetables. We accept that a lot of kids are like this about vegetables, but we're playing a long game. So she gets a serving of vegetables on her plate every night at dinner. Each month I select three veggies and prep them in advance for her (I obviously can't prep the whole month's worth, but I will chop up three veggies at the beginning of every week) and I put one on her plate every night in a rotating pattern. So like this month it's red bell peppers, spinach, and cherry tomatoes (I know, not technically a vegetable, but the flavor profile is more like a vegetable and that's the thing we're trying to get her to accept). She sees these veggies over and over again. She has to eat one bite to get dessert, and she loves dessert so she does it even though she usually makes faces and says "yuck" and "disgusting" while she does it.

By about halfway through the month, I start asking for her preference instead of just doing a rotation. The last three nights she's picked the red bell pepper, and while she still tells us she doesn't like it, she has been eating it without prompting. AND she has been eating a whole slice, not just nibbling on the end. She still doesn't like red bell peppers, but she's technically eating them anyway. Just the regular exposure helps.

This is also how we got her to eat cucumber slices, and she'll also eat sweet potatoes. Again, she doesn't eat them happily. But she eats them. We only serve them raw or baked with very limited seasoning -- if there is any browning or visible seasoning on it, she won't touch it, even for dessert. Once we start to see some softening in her disgust, we're going to try pushing the envelope a bit with preparations and get her used to that.

My goal is for her to be familiar enough with vegetables that if she was having dinner at a friends house, she could at least eat a few bites of the salad or carrots or whatever they are serving, without freaking out. I also hated veggies as a kid and now I love salad. It's fine if she also doesn't really like vegetables until she's an adult. She just can't be, like, afraid of them, because it's so limiting.

[Anonymous]

Don’t know if this will help, DC is a food lover and used to avoid veggie, but since he had nose bleed all the time I told him eating veggie would help him and he agreed, and it did helped him so he continued to eat veggies and more variety of food. He also loves to “read” cook book and children story book related to food and would show me the food pictures he think it’s yummy and wants to eat.

[Anonymous]

Keep trying to add different veggies prepared different ways (as a side to the things she likes). After trying a couple of times with some veggies I found out my DC liked the crunch of some veggies so instead of steaming them, I gave them to her raw or lightly steamed. My DC also likes the frozen mixed veggie medley (left frozen, she snacks on them as a finger food).

Also, you can try hiding veggies in others things. Spinach oatmeal muffing were a hit (https://detoxinista.com/spinach-muffins/), especially if you add in a few chocolate chips the first time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Da troof

[Anonymous]

You have received a lot of great advice here. Keep offering foods she likes, but make sure you’re introducing new foods. Be persistent, but don’t push it. Otherwise, this likely is a phase. Lots and lots of kids go through something similar. Overall, 20th percentile for weight is awesome. My child has never gotten above the 9th percentile and her pediatrician has no issues with it, same as yours. I get it is frustrating when it comes to variety of what yours will accept, but your child sounds absolutely perfectly normal, and very very healthy. It will all be ok!

[Anonymous]

Happy Meals !

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
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.

What kid could be convinced to try something dozens of times? I never understand this concept. Kids can see it is broccoli. They tried it before. They do not want it. Maybe a year later my kid would try it again if they forgot about it.

You'd be surprised.

We have a 5 yo who is very picky and absolutely hates vegetables. We accept that a lot of kids are like this about vegetables, but we're playing a long game. So she gets a serving of vegetables on her plate every night at dinner. Each month I select three veggies and prep them in advance for her (I obviously can't prep the whole month's worth, but I will chop up three veggies at the beginning of every week) and I put one on her plate every night in a rotating pattern. So like this month it's red bell peppers, spinach, and cherry tomatoes (I know, not technically a vegetable, but the flavor profile is more like a vegetable and that's the thing we're trying to get her to accept). She sees these veggies over and over again. She has to eat one bite to get dessert, and she loves dessert so she does it even though she usually makes faces and says "yuck" and "disgusting" while she does it.

By about halfway through the month, I start asking for her preference instead of just doing a rotation. The last three nights she's picked the red bell pepper, and while she still tells us she doesn't like it, she has been eating it without prompting. AND she has been eating a whole slice, not just nibbling on the end. She still doesn't like red bell peppers, but she's technically eating them anyway. Just the regular exposure helps.

This is also how we got her to eat cucumber slices, and she'll also eat sweet potatoes. Again, she doesn't eat them happily. But she eats them. We only serve them raw or baked with very limited seasoning -- if there is any browning or visible seasoning on it, she won't touch it, even for dessert. Once we start to see some softening in her disgust, we're going to try pushing the envelope a bit with preparations and get her used to that.

My goal is for her to be familiar enough with vegetables that if she was having dinner at a friends house, she could at least eat a few bites of the salad or carrots or whatever they are serving, without freaking out. I also hated veggies as a kid and now I love salad. It's fine if she also doesn't really like vegetables until she's an adult. She just can't be, like, afraid of them, because it's so limiting.

Glad it worked for you. My kids would not be happy to see the food on their plate. My child easily learned to say no thankyou politely to things she did not like..not to say something like broccoli is yucky. I guess that was my goal. I hate the idea of a no thankyou bite. I am forcing you to keep trying this food you have already tried. I have foods that I do not like (bananas!). I would skip the meal rather than take a bite.

[Anonymous]

I was like that, I eat everything now. Just FYI