So here is the deal, I've been dealing with a lot this last week with my child regarding her eating. She is underweight and refuses to eat just about anything and everything offered to her that has any sort of nutritional value whatsoever. It's gotten to the extent that a feeding tube (ng) will be placed in July if she can't get past her little behavioral strike and EAT.
Ive been stressed to the max over her lack of eating as of course I love her and don't want to see her having to rely on a tube to get nutrition. I understand (with the help of a doc) that kids her age tend to pick something and latch onto it in order to assert themselves and have some control, and while many may choose wearing a particular pair of shoes EVERY DAY, or fight over clothes, or wearing make up etc - Mine has chosen food (likely because her clothes are a uniform so there is no point in fighting there). It's not that she CAN'T eat, it's that she WONT.
I am a firm believer in picking your battles, but honestly my child is pretty much perfectly behaved and respectful in every single other aspect of her life so this is the ONLY battle, and it's a battle over a basic function.
Her big complaint is she doesn't like veggies. She doesn't like them cooked, steamed, roasted, raw, grilled etc. She will eat chicken but it has to be just exactly seasoned how she likes. If anything looks like a spice on it she wont eat it. She will tell me she is starving all day long but when offered food (between meals she is open to have as many cheese sticks, apples, bananas, oranges, carrots that she wants) she doesn't want it. She'd rather starve than eat something she doesn't want.
We have pediasure as backup but Im extremely hesitant to give it to her because I know that she would gladly survive off those alone and I know she needs to learn to EAT.
We dont discuss weight, weightloss, etc around her. I dont do this because I dont want her to get the idea that she needs to worry about any of those things. I also don't weigh in front of her. The only "weight" discussions we have is that she has got to put some on.
She is healthy, and very happy otherwise, just need to move past this hurdle which brings me to why tomorrow Ill post.
I am trying as many things as I can to get her to eat on her own before resorting to pediasures and eventually ng tube. Tomorrow I will be trying my hand at Bento Box Making. I will attempt to make her lunches and dinners look cute, in hopes that it's cuteness will get her to eat. I'd be incredibly happy to just see her take a bite of everything the first day.
I plan to try making Turkey Hotdog Octopus, Flower Rice Ball (brown rice). For dessert I will be giving her 2 mini chocolate muffins that I made using the recipe from The Sneaky Chef (basically, we used spinach and blueberry puree instead of the other liquids to give it a nutritional punch without a battle).
Before you ask - NO, we have NEVER let her eat a ton of junk food. Even before I started eating healthy we have always given her healthy foods. She did get cotton candy on special occasions, chocolate covered raisins, etc but never daily. She didn't know what candy was until she was 2 because we referred to her fruit as her candy. It's not like we let her eat crappy food for 8 yrs and then suddenly are forcing veggies on her.
Anyway - so my food blog will morph into a "please god let her eat" blog for a while. So if you too have a picky eater, maybe you can get some ideas that even if they don't work for us, maybe you will be blessed and they will for you! First post will be tomorrow!
Until then - my hubby is home and brought me flowers cause he's the best! Please excuse that I have zero make up on and therefore look like I have no eyelashes at all and am ridiculously pale (I also just woke from a nap, cause the hubs tucked me in and took over for the day with girly! After a month of single parenting it's been nice!)
Ive been stressed to the max over her lack of eating as of course I love her and don't want to see her having to rely on a tube to get nutrition. I understand (with the help of a doc) that kids her age tend to pick something and latch onto it in order to assert themselves and have some control, and while many may choose wearing a particular pair of shoes EVERY DAY, or fight over clothes, or wearing make up etc - Mine has chosen food (likely because her clothes are a uniform so there is no point in fighting there). It's not that she CAN'T eat, it's that she WONT.
I am a firm believer in picking your battles, but honestly my child is pretty much perfectly behaved and respectful in every single other aspect of her life so this is the ONLY battle, and it's a battle over a basic function.
Her big complaint is she doesn't like veggies. She doesn't like them cooked, steamed, roasted, raw, grilled etc. She will eat chicken but it has to be just exactly seasoned how she likes. If anything looks like a spice on it she wont eat it. She will tell me she is starving all day long but when offered food (between meals she is open to have as many cheese sticks, apples, bananas, oranges, carrots that she wants) she doesn't want it. She'd rather starve than eat something she doesn't want.
We have pediasure as backup but Im extremely hesitant to give it to her because I know that she would gladly survive off those alone and I know she needs to learn to EAT.
We dont discuss weight, weightloss, etc around her. I dont do this because I dont want her to get the idea that she needs to worry about any of those things. I also don't weigh in front of her. The only "weight" discussions we have is that she has got to put some on.
She is healthy, and very happy otherwise, just need to move past this hurdle which brings me to why tomorrow Ill post.
I am trying as many things as I can to get her to eat on her own before resorting to pediasures and eventually ng tube. Tomorrow I will be trying my hand at Bento Box Making. I will attempt to make her lunches and dinners look cute, in hopes that it's cuteness will get her to eat. I'd be incredibly happy to just see her take a bite of everything the first day.
I plan to try making Turkey Hotdog Octopus, Flower Rice Ball (brown rice). For dessert I will be giving her 2 mini chocolate muffins that I made using the recipe from The Sneaky Chef (basically, we used spinach and blueberry puree instead of the other liquids to give it a nutritional punch without a battle).
Before you ask - NO, we have NEVER let her eat a ton of junk food. Even before I started eating healthy we have always given her healthy foods. She did get cotton candy on special occasions, chocolate covered raisins, etc but never daily. She didn't know what candy was until she was 2 because we referred to her fruit as her candy. It's not like we let her eat crappy food for 8 yrs and then suddenly are forcing veggies on her.
Anyway - so my food blog will morph into a "please god let her eat" blog for a while. So if you too have a picky eater, maybe you can get some ideas that even if they don't work for us, maybe you will be blessed and they will for you! First post will be tomorrow!
Until then - my hubby is home and brought me flowers cause he's the best! Please excuse that I have zero make up on and therefore look like I have no eyelashes at all and am ridiculously pale (I also just woke from a nap, cause the hubs tucked me in and took over for the day with girly! After a month of single parenting it's been nice!)
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