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No judgment and no drama on your comments there, Three Wolves. I'd say that you telling us that you recall these "sitting at the table alone for hours" evenings as you being defiant...that really speaks to a very different situation than what a lot of us experienced.
When I refused to eat something, I did not feel defiant.
I felt like my parents were tormenting me just to prove that they had power over me and could make me suffer. That they did not care about me or if I was fed, they only cared about enforcing obedience. That they enjoyed seeing me miserable.
Because I never saw eating a food I strongly disliked as a simple thing I could just choose to do. Being made to choke down something while gagging on it, felt more like being waterboarded. Yeah, it's just psychological, but...still.
I did not sit there crying either, I'd already learned that crying never got me comfort, it got me punishment. But I did feel very isolated and unloved and miserable. And like I could not trust my caregivers, even for something as basic as sustenance. It added to the baggage I've got around food and other things, it didn't make my eating habits better.
I was not allowed to even have video games, let alone 2 hours a day of them. But I don't see how that has anything to do with anything.
I would point to one thing that I don't recall seeing mentioned in this thread. I was diagnosed as an adult with ADHD. I had many signs we now understand, but did not when I was growing up, that confirm this. I function just fine without medication, since I hate the side effects...but as an adult, I'm able to implement accommodations for my sensory needs and balance my own levels of mental stimulation. As a kid, I was not able or allowed to do so, and a lot of things were an uphill battle for me and for everyone involved in trying to raise me.
So if I had a kid today, especially who had issues with texture, color, foods touching, wanting only very bland things...I think I'd at least be on the lookout for other possible signs of a spectrum situation. Does not have to mean labels and drugs, but being aware can help. I had to learn as an adult how to accommodate my own needs without making it everybody else's problem, including my eating habits.
My girlfriend's son is a very picky eater. He is seven years old and only likes to eat chicken nuggets, Takis, Cheez-Its, and Ramen (that I know of); these are obviously not very healthy. I love to cook good, home cooked meals, but getting him to even taste the food I make is beyond my limits. My last meal I made was spinach pasta with shrimp and cheese sauce. This may not be an ideal meal for a seven-year-old, while it was good, he responded with, "It tastes like garbage!".
Just a side note: he had issues with his dad and abuse, so I am very cautious about how I approach him and what I say. He can be running around and laughing for a few minutes and then crying the next, but then back to laughing within an instant.
My girlfriend has asked me to help her get to eat more healthier meals but I feel it should be her that enforces it, and not let him default to the aforementioned food that he will only eat.
Any ideas? I have already asked what he likes to eat, other then the usual, most he will just shake is head no. However, he did eat my home made chicken nuggets.
In the first place, it shouldn't be your job to fix this kid's eating issues. Nonetheless, you're on the right track with your homemade chicken nuggets, so keep building on what's working. Try some ramen dishes with healthy or even healthy-ish ingredients. Use real Japanese ramen, not the insta kind.
Children taste everything more strongly, so limit anything spicy/peppery, etc. as others have suggested.
Don't do anything ridiculous like expecting him to sit at the table until the food is gone.
Hungry children will eat. Food enforcers get what they ask for.
If you only buy healthy food, children will eat it, or starve, and they won’t starve.
As I already said, a dinner table should be a place of sharing the day, not a food battle.
My girlfriend's son is a very picky eater. He is seven years old and only likes to eat chicken nuggets, Takis, Cheez-Its, and Ramen (that I know of); these are obviously not very healthy. I love to cook good, home cooked meals, but getting him to even taste the food I make is beyond my limits. My last meal I made was spinach pasta with shrimp and cheese sauce. This may not be an ideal meal for a seven-year-old, while it was good, he responded with, "It tastes like garbage!".
Just a side note: he had issues with his dad and abuse, so I am very cautious about how I approach him and what I say. He can be running around and laughing for a few minutes and then crying the next, but then back to laughing within an instant.
My girlfriend has asked me to help her get to eat more healthier meals but I feel it should be her that enforces it, and not let him default to the aforementioned food that he will only eat.
Any ideas? I have already asked what he likes to eat, other then the usual, most he will just shake is head no. However, he did eat my home made chicken nuggets.
My youngest daughter absolutely hates eggs. I always have to cook her something else when I cook up eggs. Hopefully, as she grows older, her opinions change.
My youngest daughter absolutely hates eggs. I always have to cook her something else when I cook up eggs. Hopefully, as she grows older, her opinions change.
She also despises veggies.
When my daughter was three, she decided she hated fruit. She's thirty now and still hates fruit. She loved potatoes, tomatoes and any color of raw bell peppers as a child. All are high in Vitamin C so fruit wasn't required in a healthy diet for her. No big deal.
My son is very picky. We had him try lots of foods when he was younger and he's just always been picky. It has gotten a bit worse this year. He's 9 and mY DH and I get very annoyed. He really only wants things like plain grilled chicken, rice, nuggets, pizza, sometimes lettuce...but it's always a struggle. At this point he just doesn't like food. I know that will likely change one day...I just wish he liked to eat a steak...or some meatballs. He's not a red meat guy. I think it's also a texture thing for him. He just likes foods that are dry or something.
My daughter (7) is much better. She will eat pretty much anything especially when we go out to eat. She's into trying whatever we get also.
I already posted about my granddaughter I think, who survived on 1 chicken nugget and 2 bites of macaroni and cheese, for the first 10 years of her life. Now she’s grown up, and is super thin, but a rather adventurous eater.
My own daughter didn’t like spaghetti sauce, among other things, but when we had spaghetti she was fine with a soft boiled egg on it, and I respected that, since it was a healthy option.
Harmony at the dinner table is more important, in the long run, than what kids eat, but I would refuse to provide any empty carbs in place of real food.
I’m not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but if children can help grow a vegetable garden, they will eat what they grow. One of my son’s friends is a vegetarian, with 3 girls. They all eat only vegetables and love them.
I feel like a lot of parents get on a high horse if they have a good eater. Just because you offer good nutritious food to your kids doesn't mean they'll eat it. There's a reason restaurants have a kids menu. I'm all for kids eating things besides nuggets and Mac and cheese
Interesting, to me, is my granddaughter got a wicked case of hives from just sitting on the island where her great grandmother had prepared eggplant. Eggplant is a nightshade and she also rejects tomatoes…. a nightshade. Maybe children’s natural rejections should be respected.
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