Problem with Fussy Eater

[vonvon78]

My girl is 4+ this year and she has been a very picky eater. She will only take either plain rice with fishball, pasta (only 1 particular restaurant), plain bread, fried rice (only 1 particular restaurant) or ramen.

Worried about her nutrition intake, I have been giving her Pediasure milk. However, I do not wish for this to be the only solution to resolve this problem. I hope that she can be adventurous in food.

I hope that someone can share your experience and teach me a trick or two on how to manage fussy eater.

Thanks.

 

[mehui]

Does she like to drink juices? U can start off with one fruit (eg. orange) and if she likes it add just a little tiny bit of something green and apple etc. Or at worst, buy her those multi-vitamins gummies?

 

[xsun]

There was a time when my then toddler will only eat tofu,cheese and eggs. So evday he will be eating a variation of these. I rem melting the cheese to put in his porridge or rice. I was thinking oh gosh, he will eat like this for the rest of his life?! But of course this is just a phase.
He used to hate liver. But nw is his fave dish.

So dun worry too much. She will grow out of it.

 

[vonvon78]

Hi Mehui,

Thanks for ur advice. Yes, she loves fruits & juices. Will give her as & when. But I'm trying to refrain from giving supplements.

 

[vonvon78]

Hi sungrapes,

My boy was also fussy but it was a short passing phase. My girl has been like this since she was 2! This phase seemed to be very long. I sure hope it will pass soon. But meantime, I'm hoping that I can help her be more adventurous but not sure how.

 

[xsun]

Well, make sure she is super hungry 1st, then get some new food, maybe like pasta but a diff type of sauce. Or standby fishball seprately cut into small pcs and mix with the new food.

Does she attend preschool.? Cos my son will eat watever is serve cos he has no choice and oso under peer pressure. If she eats well in sch, tat means she 'bullying' u cos she knows u will gv in to her whimps.

Smtimes i buy food for my son n just tell him to eat matter of factly and ignore his fussiness. If he noe im serious then he oso no choice gotta eat.

Another trick is to make the food appealing to her. I make simley face with his food with green vege cos he doesnt take greens.

 

[amayotaok]

Hi vonvon
I agreed with sungrapes.. they will outgrow it.

My son was a vv fussy eater since he was 2.5 yrs old all e way until 5 yrs old...
He was very "smart", he only loves to eat expensive food fr selected restaurants but too bad, we arent rich enough to support his "lifestyle"..haha..

I tried all kinds of methods.. get my maid to try cooking different food (and even to present the food in a fun way, eg funny looking sushi etc)
Also hv tried appleton fr western pharmacy (supposed to increase appetite), tried chinese medical hall herbs... nothing seems to work.
I was pretty desperate then.

Then somehow when he hits 6-7, he starts to eat alot and s'times I cant stop him!

So i guess they will just outgrow naturally so i guess you dont hv to worry so much, just pump them up with vitamins, pedisure (for e moment, no choice) etc.

 

[vonvon78]

Hi sungrapes,

She does eat everything in school but teacher has to also coax her to finish her food & she's always the last to do so. But at home, she will refuse to take. I guess I don't make her hungry enough to want to try new food coz' I will make Pediasure for her when she ask for it. I can't bear to make her hungry leh. Maybe I should be hardhearted enough so that she will try new food.

I tried making 'pretty' sandwiches. All she does was go 'wow....so nice', then she'll take the bread without the fillings.

Amayotaok,

My girls loves expensive food. She will only take the fried rice from DTF. So we will go there once a week coz' that's the only way for me to enjoy my meal too instead of having to constantly coax her to eat.

I sure hope that she will outgrow it soon & surprise me with her hearty appetite & adventurous tastebuds.

 

[amayotaok]

Hi vonvon
When my son was in CC, he is always the last and he is picky abt food. And he always keeps the food in the mouth, s'times up to half an hour!..
Later i realised that he is lazy to chew so tts why. Mayb you can always monitor ur DD if she eats faster with soft food, than those which requires much chewing.

Haha one of my son's favourite is also DTF fried rice!!... there was once i brought him there with my frens and when they saw him ate so happily, they asked me,"Are you sure he has a eating problem?? Sure doesnt look like it.." ...

 

[xsun]

I oso tell him abt ppl in other countries tat dun hv food to eat. I will show him picts frm newspaper or tv prog. Frm age 3, children starts to develope empathy. So this will help them to appreciate hw lucky they r.

My son used to eat bread without the skin. Always ask me to cut off. When he is younger i do it but i refuse to do it once he is older and i noe he just being fussy. So i told him, eat it all or u pack ur bags i can send u to china, then i walk away. Slowly he accept his fate and ate skin. Same with grape skin, apple skin, pizza crust.. Eat or go to china.

I know as mothers we r always soft hearted with our kids. But we must try our best to be objective cos when they grow up, the world will not treat them like we do.

 

[vonvon78]

Hi amayotaok,

Yes, she eats slightly faster with soft food & always keep food in her mouth. Feeding time can be as long as 1 hr, which is very frustrating for us.

Last time porridge does the trick coz' I'm able to put in a variety of ingredients like potato, dried scallop, fish, pork, chicken, pumpkin, or vege into her porridge & she will finish it quickly. Now, it doesn't work anymore, she is sick of porridge.

It is at DTF that my entire family can sit down & ENJOY the food without any nagging or threats given. Of course, we can only afford at most 1 meal at DTF a wk.

Hi sungrapes,

I've ever shared with my kids like what you did. Sometimes it work & she will eat a little more but most of the time, it doesn't matter to her. She's simply stubborn. Don't want means don't want.

Likewise, she always want me to remove the skin of the bread but I never do so coz' once I start, she will expect me to do it everytime.

But I think I'll try to show TV programmes coz' what I did was to tell them. They've never seen it before. Maybe that will have a greater impact. Thanks for the advice.

 

[working_wife]

Hi mummies,

Wanted to get some advice from experienced mommies here. My kids are 16 months old (twins) and they are eating porridge or rice with soup everyday. I am a working mum so cannot experiment with different types of food with them (my mom is the caretaker and only knows how to prepare rice or porridge).

If you can recall, were your kids eating like that too at that age? I wonder if they will become picky eaters because we only feed them porridge or rice with soup everyday and not adventurous when they are this young?

Did you also let your children self feed at this age? I heard that will make them less picky... but sadly I don't let them self feed leh. I still feed them with spoon all the time.

 

[vonvon78]

Hi working_wife,

Yes, my kids do feed on porridge at that age but with different ingredients each time, mixes of pork/fish/carrot/potato/scallop/pumpkin/sweet potato to have different flavours to the same stample.

You can also feed them some bread or pasta. In fact, I think I let my kids try different food each time we dine out. But you have to be careful. Try 1 new food at a time in case of any allergy reactions.

You can let them self feed on biscuits or bread first, then the main meal later.

 

[rorokidul]

Wah, my favourite topic. Just like my son. Love plain rice and pasta only. I just make his milk more concentrated and feed Appelin regularly. But he is a chocolate monster, aiyoh!

 

[agaga]

My gal dislike vege so much when she was younger too. What I do was, keep encourage her, tells her that vege helps her to poo-poo, makes her skin pretty, gives her energy to do every thing. More on coercing and when she refused to, I'll pick up the vege and put into my mouth and said "wah so nice you also don't want, okay daddy and I will finish this good food" Slowly she feels like 'don't want to lose out' [kiasu singaporean lah] then she pick up the habit of eating vege.

 

[rorokidul]

That worked for me when I was young. I remembered hating greens but my father always said that vege will make me pretty. It made me to actually love vege and fruits till now. Don't know wether it will work for my boy or not. Girls are usually vain, like me hahaha....