Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That's a great idea to get creative with sauces. Yes, I can't vilify starches or she'll want them even more. How much input do your kids have for the menu?

If she's going through a juice phase should I let her drink it to her heart's content in hopes that she'll get tired of it? That seems risky. Bad habits are hard to break.

My 12 yr old goes through phases of guzzling orange juice or milk. I once bought a quart of milk and she drank the entire thing in about 30 hours. Her growth spurt phases generally last a little less than a week, I think. It takes me about 2 days to notice she's eating a lot more than usual, and at that point I'll stock up on healthy foods so she's got good options when she wanders into the kitchen.

4 cups of milk on a day and a half (so more like 3 cups a day) is not guzzling. A cup with each meal? Totally appropriate.

PMS?

Sugar and starch cravings might be her body trying to fix its serotonin levels.

You need a doctor ASAP, especially since these are sudden changes at a relatively late stage in childhood. This doesn't sound fully behavioral to me - although I have heard it is normal for early teenagers to suddenly start cutting foods out (just like when they are 18 months to 3 and go through the stage of rejecting foods they ate when they were babies). Still, this sounds different. I think your first stop needs to be a physician. Trust your instincts.

Strange. Take her to the pediatrician for a checkup. If it isn't anything physical, then you need to have talks with your daughter to see if something is bother her and she is just taking it out on you and food.

It's one thing to not want your food, it's another to scream and like a 2 year old about it. Tell her she needs another way to vent her anger than screaming at you, then a consequence if she continues.

Anonymous wrote:She still eats lots of carbs. She just now yells about any non-bread, sugar, pasta and cheese foods. She used to love black beans, soups, berries, yogurt, meats and now rejects them all.

Just a few more thoughts on how to meet her need for carbs. In addition, to pasta/pizza night, taco bar, try baked potato bar. Make vegetarian chili to top. Let her top with cheese. Show her what a serving of cheese looks like, e.g.,:



Make risotto one night: http://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/perfect-basic-risotto-recipe-article

Roast a chicken with potatoes, carrots, parsnips, etc. Roasting veggies brings out their natural sweetness. You can make potato and cauliflower mash too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Yes, it really could be hormone and/or growth spurt related. I remember feeing so randomly emotional at times at that age. Thanks for the idea of taking her out to a restaurant to make a plan. Maybe a doctor visit would be good. At her grandparents' house over break she kept oddly guzzling OJ and I know thirst can be a symptom.

With behavior stuff it's so hard to figure out the balance of just ignoring vs. having consequences for rudeness.

I became a vegetarian at about that age. Meat didn't make me feel good. My folks thought it was a phase and ideological. Turns out, I was working around gall stones and had a bad attack after a few months where even cheese made me sick.

It's the behavior that's the issue. But, with the hormones happening and being hungry all the time, I'd err on the safe side and have her checked out before addressing it with anything but compassion. If there's a way to bring her into the process of figuring this out, that would be best. She's not the problem, per se. Y'all need to work together to resolve this. A shared Google search on elimination diets, celiac, gall stones,...general digestive problems would create a common ground from you both to work from together.

Guzzling OJ seems like something that will suddenly make sense once you guys understand the bigger picture.

GL.

Be aware that if you are going to check for celiac you cannot do a wheat/gluten-elimination diet first. If you do the elimination diet then the celiac test would come back negative even if she has it. When my 8 yr old was going through a lot of unexplained GI issues, her ped. first tested her for all sorts of things via blood and stool tests. Only when those all came back negative did we try eliminating things. Dairy didn't make a difference but gluten did.

Anonymous wrote:That's a great idea to get creative with sauces. Yes, I can't vilify starches or she'll want them even more. How much input do your kids have for the menu?

If she's going through a juice phase should I let her drink it to her heart's content in hopes that she'll get tired of it? That seems risky. Bad habits are hard to break.

You can get whole grain pasta as well as pizza crusts.

If she's on a juice "phase," she can have a serving of juice in the morning, then juice mixed with soda water in the evening. Plan a week day dinner menu together. Meatless Monday (great time for pasta or pizza), taco Tuesday, etc. Bad habits are hard to break, but that's why she needs to learn to cook and have some control over her meal choices.

Anonymous wrote:That's a great idea to get creative with sauces. Yes, I can't vilify starches or she'll want them even more. How much input do your kids have for the menu?

If she's going through a juice phase should I let her drink it to her heart's content in hopes that she'll get tired of it? That seems risky. Bad habits are hard to break.

My 12 yr old goes through phases of guzzling orange juice or milk. I once bought a quart of milk and she drank the entire thing in about 30 hours. Her growth spurt phases generally last a little less than a week, I think. It takes me about 2 days to notice she's eating a lot more than usual, and at that point I'll stock up on healthy foods so she's got good options when she wanders into the kitchen.

The abnormal behavior isn't wanting to eat. The abnormal behavior is crying and screaming about food suddenly. Not sure why a pp is talking about boys vs girls. If a boy did this it would be equally abnormal. OP, please take her to a doctor. Her body is telling her something but she doesn't know what it is. Forget about the behavior for now. The OJ seems very odd.

She still eats lots of carbs. She just now yells about any non-bread, sugar, pasta and cheese foods. She used to love black beans, soups, berries, yogurt, meats and now rejects them all.

Anonymous wrote:That's a great idea to get creative with sauces. Yes, I can't vilify starches or she'll want them even more. ?

Children NEED carbs. If you've been limiting them, you've cut out a major macronutrient that she NEEDS.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Yes, it really could be hormone and/or growth spurt related. I remember feeing so randomly emotional at times at that age. Thanks for the idea of taking her out to a restaurant to make a plan. Maybe a doctor visit would be good. At her grandparents' house over break she kept oddly guzzling OJ and I know thirst can be a symptom.

With behavior stuff it's so hard to figure out the balance of just ignoring vs. having consequences for rudeness.

I became a vegetarian at about that age. Meat didn't make me feel good. My folks thought it was a phase and ideological. Turns out, I was working around gall stones and had a bad attack after a few months where even cheese made me sick.

It's the behavior that's the issue. But, with the hormones happening and being hungry all the time, I'd err on the safe side and have her checked out before addressing it with anything but compassion. If there's a way to bring her into the process of figuring this out, that would be best. She's not the problem, per se. Y'all need to work together to resolve this. A shared Google search on elimination diets, celiac, gall stones,...general digestive problems would create a common ground from you both to work from together.

Guzzling OJ seems like something that will suddenly make sense once you guys understand the bigger picture.

GL.

^^^I've never heard that girls' growth spurts are different than boys'. Isn't it just that girls tend to be done with puberty younger than boys and need to go back down to regular caloric intake?