Feel like you’re banging your head against the wall trying to figure out why your child won’t eat anything or refuses to eat at all? There are real reasons and ways you can help picky eater kids. Learn how from a feeding expert and mom.
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As an occupational therapist, parents ask me all the time “Why does my child refuse to eat anything?”
It’s frustrating when you try to serve new foods, or worse, when you serve something they’ve eaten before like their beloved chicken nuggets or peanut butter crackers and they refuse to eat!
Most kids will do this occasionally, but some kids are refusing to eat on a regular basis.
What’s going on with kids that almost never seem to eat?
Or, will only eat if you feed them?
Or, the child that won’t eat and is losing weight?
As a parent, it’s scary, confusing, and stressful. You may wonder if you’re just dealing with a picky eater’s preferences that are like shifting sands.
It’s often much more than picky eating – more on that in a minute.
“My 2/3/4+ year old won’t eat anything” – Where to Start
To help kids that are refusing food, we have to start with figuring out WHY they aren’t eating, because consistent food refusal is not a typical part of development.
In fact, when a kid is repeatedly not eating with or without weight loss, it’s a BIG red flag that something more is going on.
It’s time to put on your detective hat and get to the root of the problem so that you have the tools to help your child eat more food, and avoid power struggles at family meals.
5 Reasons Why a Child Refuses to Eat Anything
The truth is that there are A LOT of reasons why kids refuse to eat food. In my experience, as a occupational therapist with a specialized feeding background, I believe that most can be organized into 5 different reasons.
However, we have to be clear that when a child is regularly refusing to eat very little of any food or has only a few favorite foods that they are willing to eat, they may qualify for a diagnosis of Pediatric Feeding Disorder (PFD), which was just added as a diagnosable code in October of 2021.
Another option is Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder, however this is closely linked to anxiety. See more in number 5 below for more info!
This is a good thing because children that are struggling to eat have often been described as picky eaters, which isn’t an adequate definition and leaves kids not getting the help they need.
As you read through the list below, look for signs you’ve seen in your child as a possible explanation. It’s very possible that several of the the underlying difficulties below are present in a child that often won’t eat.
Keeping that in mind, let me explain in some more detail.
#1. Physical or Medical Issues
Although this may seem like the most obvious reason kids don’t eat, it is often the most overlooked, or isn’t explored thoroughly. When kids have a well documented medical condition or are visibly sick, it is obvious that their eating is affected.
But, sometimes there are more subtle signs that are incredibly easy to miss. Two of the biggest culprits are silent acid reflux and constipation. Both of these very common problems for kids can put a halt to eating.
Although acid reflux is common in babies, it can also have an impact on kids much older, even if they weren’t diagnosed as an infant.
Unfortunately, many times it’s because kids don’t complain that their stomach is hurting. Many of them don’t even realize it because they have felt that way for so long OR they are too young to put into words how they are feeling.
Read more about acid reflux in children and to find a few natural remedies.
My older son has struggled with constipation since he was about one year old. I have to carefully watch his fiber intake and when he starts to get a little backed up, his eating is greatly affected.
Every time he doesn’t eat well, I have to ask myself, “Does he need to go to the bathroom?” The answer is usually, yes! Managing your child’s constipation can be a huge game changer in helping them eat new foods.
Read more about severe constipation in children and natural remedies to fix it.
If your child’s refusal to eat is more of a phase, you may want to consider teething, not feeling well, or fatigue as possible reasons for not eating.
And sometimes, if your child is chronically sick or tired, then food refusal or picky eating may become a way of life for them.
I strongly encourage you to see a pediatric GI if your child has any physical symptoms, or if you’ve ruled out the other causes listed here because there could be other possible digestive difficulties. There are many other, although less common possibilities such as:
- Food allergies (3-5% of kids)
- Food sensitivities
- Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE)
- Delayed stomach emptying
- Physical abnormalities in the throat, mouth, or gut
- Tongue, lip, or cheek ties
Some signs that your child may have any of the above medical issues are:
- Eating only small portions
- Difficulty swallowing dry or rough textures
- Dropping a food they used to like such as milk, yogurt, or eggs
- Only wanting liquids and not solid food
- Holding chewed food in their cheeks (pocketing food)
However, each of those signs can have multiple explanations! That’s why that detective hat is important!
It’s a good idea to discuss it further with your doc!
#2. Sensory Processing Causing Food Refusal
For many picky eaters, sensory processing plays a big role in their refusal to eat foods. Simply put, if something feels gross in their mouth or on their hands, they aren’t going to eat it.
The fancy therapeutic term we give for when a child doesn’t want to touch different textures is tactile defensive. And, when they don’t like certain textures in their mouth, or chew/bite/lick everything else but food, it is a sign that their oral sensory system needs some help.
Clues that your child may be refusing foods because of sensory input are: gagging, squirming, or seeming frightened by the sight, smell, touch, or taste of a particular food.
Often, the first signs appear when parents try to feed babies baby or table foods. Sometimes, these reactions start as the taste buds become more developed between 1-2 years old.
And, other times, older kids can develop texture and taste sensitivities that weren’t there when they were younger!
Extreme Sensitivity and Fear of Anything in or Near the Mouth: Oral Aversion
Oral aversion also fits into this category.
If your child has had medical testing, feeding tubes, severe vomiting, or a physical incident in or around their mouth/throat (even from a infancy), they may be scared to have anything come toward their mouth and be overly sensitive in the area.
On the other end of the sensory spectrum, a child may not be able to discriminate food in their mouth well and they will unsafely stuff a large amount of food into their cheeks like a chipmunk.
This helps give them some feedback as to where the food actually is. These kids lose track of the food easily and can’t chew it well. Soft foods that aren’t easily discriminated (think mashed potatoes, cheese, etc.) are usually refused because they can’t manipulate them well in their mouth.
Sensory is often the hidden link in picky eating and food refusal, and while a lot of parents haven’t heard of it before, it’s critical to address it so that your child can learn to eat a variety of nutritious foods at meal times with the rest of the family.
If you can understand why your child is refusing food from a sensory perspective, well, it changes everything. To understand the connection better, read sensory processing and picky eating.
What May Be Causing Chronic Poor Appetite: Interoception
While frequent snack times and drinking milk throughout the day can spoil a child’s appetite for the next meal, some kids never seem to feel hungry or understand what fullness is.
This is related to one of the hidden senses called interoception. Basically, a child with poor interoception isn’t recognizing signs from their stomach that it’s time to eat or to keep eating until they feel full.
It’s like they’re lost in transmission. The good news is there’s a way to improve this appetite awareness! Learn more in our interoception article.
3. Oral-Motor Skills
We take it for granted, but chewing is a coordinated skill just like walking, talking, and learning to read. It doesn’t come easy for all kids. Therapists call the ability to bite chew, and swallow, oral-motor skills.
Signs that your child may not be chewing well are:
- Choking/gagging after the food is already in their mouth for a few seconds/minutes
- Pocketing food (holding it in their mouth)
- Wants to eat soft or pureed foods
- Spitting out half chewed food
- Food falls out of mouth accidentally
- Can’t remove food or crumbs from lips or corners of mouth with their tongue or lips
- Throwing up food that looks like it has hardly been chewed
- History of difficulty breastfeeding
Often, these signs are apparent in young children because they have a hard time learning to eat table foods or even pureed foods. While kids with any of the underlying causes listed could have a difficult time with weight, kids with poor oral motor skills get tired and frustrated.
They give up on eating quickly and may not get on a growth curve.
Some kids will start refusing to eat foods because they don’t know how to chew it or they are scared they are going to gag/choke/throw up again on the food they literally don’t know how to eat.
This can continue into the teen years, although when left untreated, kids may figure out some workarounds.
But, it’s not uncommon for a 12 year old’s refusal to eat to be linked in some way to oral motor skills. Head over to Oral Motor Exercises to learn more about how to help your child improve their oral motor skills.
Sometimes, oral motor difficulties snowball to include sensory defensiveness too, because when a child hasn’t eaten any other textures in a really long time or ever, they become very sensitive to them.
These other textures may seem strange and even uncomfortable when they touch or feel them.
If your child never transitioned well to crunchy table foods, then you’ll want to check out How to Transition to Finger Foods
4. Routine, the Typical Picky Eating Phase, and the Snowball Effect
I strongly believe that structure and routine around food and meal time is critical to kids eating well.
Because for some kids with average picky eating, changes to the meal time routine can help your child reduce “junk food”, come to the dinner table easily, and eat more of what we often consider “healthy” meals.
There are some kids that will manage to eat well with a lack of routine, but by and large, most kids’ eating habits will suffer greatly without a regular routine.
Without a routine, kids can slide into eating a separate meal away from the rest of the family and may not eat much food when they eat alone.
If you don’t have regular meal times, pay attention to how frequently your child is eating. Do you eat in front of the TV often, and/or mostly let your kids pick what they want to eat?
If they don’t have a wide variety of foods, only want snack foods, or aren’t willing to try foods, lack of routine may be the reason for it… or at least part of it.
I commonly see this compounded on top of one of the other 4 reasons kids don’t eat. When there is a problem with eating, we get overwhelmed and start grasping at straws just to get them to eat.
This is another way the bad habits can begin and then play a role in food refusal.
That’s not to say that you’re to blame, I mean our kids have to eat, right? And, we do the best we can with what we know. Don’t feel guilty about choices you’ve made in desperate situations.
I promise you that even with the pickiest eaters, there is a way out of eating in front of an iPad or them having their own separate meals. It is one step at a time and I’ll show you how in my tips below.
Although many kids that rely on a screen to eat often get to that point because eating is difficult because of oral motor, sensory, or medical issues.
The Typical Picky Eating Phase
One other common factor is that some children start off as good eaters, and then between 1-2 years of age, eating starts to go awry. Annoying, upsetting.. yes!
Like it or not though, it is NORMAL for toddlers to go through a picky eating stage as their taste buds mature and they begin to want to exert some control into their lives. Parents, sometimes, get scared when their child that had healthy eating habits is now not eating as well, and will begin to throw routine and structure out the window.
The Snowball Effect
With parents just wanting their kids to eat anything or at least some healthy snacks, short order cooking is ushered in, among numerous and otherwise well-meaning, but sabotaging techniques, and parents are left with a bona fide picky eater months or years later.
Although the intention was in the right place, the lack of routine can lead to long term eating refusal and difficulties.
I call it the snowball effect because the eating difficulties started off small and grew with momentum over time, just like a snowball rolling down a big hill!
To make sure you have a solid routine, grab our free Picky Eating Essentials printable, it includes 9 important steps to improve eating and 25+ food ideas for picky eaters.
5. Anxiety
Most parents I talk to with kids over 5 think that anxiety is the main factor for kids that refuse to eat, and it is often a component. Kids that have a hard time chewing, get stomach aches or worse when eating, or can’t stand the texture of so many foods are scared to put new or different foods in their mouth.
Eating has often not been enjoyable and filled with negative experiences, so yes they are scared. They are anxious.
But, I don’t consider anxiety the main underlying cause unless it goes into clinical psychological anxiety. In which case, kids will often make the following types of statements:
- I’m scared to eat the spaghetti I might choke
- I really want to eat that, but it might be contaminated with germs
- What if there’s poison in the pizza? I just can’t eat it
With clinical food related anxiety, kids often become irrational. And, they often have clinical anxiety in other areas of their life.
This is different than a child saying, “I’m scared that food is going to feel slimy like the avocado”. That is a sensory based fear and is treated differently.
If a child has clinical anxiety and NO OTHER underlying causes that have impacted their eating and are typically over 5 years old, they may qualify for an Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder diagnosis (ARFID), however I see this diagnosis frequently mis-diagnosed when PFD is more appropriate.
If you aren’t sure, get a few opinions and please feel free to leave us a comment below, we answer every one!
What if My Child is Refusing to Eat Because They’re Being Bad?
A lot of people advise parents that kids are being “bad” or that the reason they are refusing to eat is behavior-based. Although behavior plays a role, it is actually a small percentage of kids that actually refuse to eat based solely on behavior.
In fact, with the hundreds of families I’ve treated and the thousands I’ve taught in our online picky programs, I’ve never seen one kid’s picky eating that can be solely explained by behavior.
Now, please don’t mistake me, even the youngest of tykes will learn quickly what they need to say or cry or throw to get what food they want.
All kids go through different stages of development when they are testing boundaries and you can bet they will test it at meal times, too. After all, this is one of the few areas where they actually have some control. But, these kinds of little phases are short lived and aren’t severe.
For kids that have a history of being picky eaters, behavior is a piece of the puzzle, but typically, it has evolved from one of the legitimate reasons listed above.
And, when you address the underlying cause, the behaviors around meals decrease!
What to Do When Your Child Won’t Eat
If you can’ tell yet, here at Your Kid’s Table, picky eating is our thing. We have a lot of resources for parents and therapists working with picky kids.
No matter what combination of reasons are causing your child to be a picky eater, you’ll want to start with not pressuring them during meals while putting a consistent routine in place for them like having regularly scheduled meals with no snacking in between to help them start eating.
Then, focus on specifically addressing the underlying cause, whether that is sensory processing, medical, or oral motor skills.
Once you have a solid routine (grab this free printable to help develop one) and are addressing the underlying cause, you can also use some of my favorite picky eating tips. I love to use dips (even if you think your child hates them, I show you how), fun tools like toothpicks (trust me) and divided plates.
Plus, there are lots of novel ideas like making food fun, and I’m not talking about elaborate food scenes that you spend an hour cutting out.
And, my favorite tip that can make a huge difference is cooking with your kids! I know everyone says that and parents think, “Not my kid”. But, hear me out. I show you how to do it, tell you why it’s important, and give you these recipes designed for picky eaters:
- Pumpkin waffles (added nutrition)
- Bruschetta bar (this seriously is the best dinner for ANY picky eater that likes bread)
- High calorie smoothie
- Homemade chicken nuggets your kid will eat! (my special recipe)
- Not-spicy homemade tacos (check out the very motivating taco truck that can come to the table!)
- Banana sweet potato bread
- Roasted Cauliflower (2 of my kids tried cauliflower for the first time with this recipe)
- Crispy Potato Skins (basic recipe that’s perfect for picky eaters, got one of my kids to eat potatoes with this recipe)
For even more food ideas, head over to healthy snacks for picky eaters and healthy recipes for picky eaters (you’ll find a free printable too!)
If you’ve tried a lot of these tips before and want to dig a little deeper (only use these after you have a routine and positive environment), then you can move on to my heavy hitting picky eating tips. These require a little more thought, but can have a huge impact.
Read about how to get your child to explore new foods and build on what they are already eating with food chaining.
Lastly, to save your sanity, find out how to have just one family meal, even with a picky eater (you can do it!) and how to keep mealtimes positive, even when that seems impossible.
I know you may be tempted to feel overwhelmed at this point, but resist! This page is here (pin it so you can come back). Remember, one step at a time!
Getting More Help for the Child that Refuses to Eat Anything
Having a picky eater, let alone an extreme picky eater or child with PFD, can be extremely overwhelming and paralyzing. I’ve experienced it myself and the worry can take over your life. But, there are a few ways to get help from a professional:
- I highly recommend learning proven strategies that you can use everyday to start improving your child’s eating, this is possible no matter how picky they are! There’s so much bad advice out there, but in my free workshop I teach you exactly what 3 strategies to start working on now. That could make a difference, today. It’s totally free and you can grab a spot in here!
- Learn more about feeding therapy for picky eaters, and if it would be a good fit for your child. However, feeding therapy is often just once a week, which is why it’s important to have those strategies you can use at home.
You might need the tips and link shared here again. Save it to Pinterest here!
More Articles for the Child that Refuses to Eat Anything
8 Tips to Keep Your Child Seated at the Table
Fun Plates, Forks, and Other Cool Stuff that Get Kids to Eat
8 Things You Can Do When a Toddler Refuses to Eat
Are Food Jags Affecting Your Picky Eater? What you need to know…
Alisha Grogan is a licensed occupational therapist and founder of Your Kid’s Table. She has over 19 years experience with expertise in sensory processing and feeding development in babies, toddlers, and children. Alisha also has 3 boys of her own at home. Learn more about her here.
Your place is valueble for me. Thanks!…
Thank you for sharing. It can be frustrating to help your child eat their food. For me, my eldest loses her appetite right before a growth spurt, and once it passes she starts eating like crazy again and asking for seconds or thirds. This started when she was about 2.5 years. She is now 3.5 years. Most recently we’ve dealt with constipation issues with her, so it’s a challenge to decifer sometimes why she’s not eating.
I don’t know if other children go through appetite loss,but I thought I’d share in the event another mom struggles with that.
Thanks that is helpful, and very intuitive of you!
You forget something: also mostly overlooked by most doctors is the reason for most acid reflux cases, stomach pain and all kinds of vague symptoms, namely a FOOD ALLERGY (most common cowmilk). So only the symptom is treated, not the cause, and since most kids overgrow their food allergy after a year, the inital culprit is never identified. Later on, there kids will often get tubes in their ears, and other problems that are mostly not linked to the cause.
Wow, look at all these comments! I’m definitely going to pick this website apart for help, but I have one question for you in the meantime. My almost 4 year old “front-loads” his calories (meaning he eats almost non-stop until about 2 pm and then will not eat after that no matter what. Well, that was the case for about 2 years. I think he has finally gotten through that but is stuck in the habit of it. So eating dinner is still a major issue almost every night. Can you recommend any tips to get him eating dinner? This kid was born in the 95th percentile, and stayed that way. Now he has been 37 lbs for a year straight. Any tips are appreciated! Thank you!
My child has been a “picky eater” since birth, and I’ve never been given good advice how to deal with this. The blame/fault has always been placed on us as parents, when nothing I’ve tried has ever worked. It wasn’t until one of my patients (yes, I’m in medical field, but I think sometimes the pediatricians ignore our mother instincts more so) who was a pediatric therapist, talked to me about picky eating, and the light bulb went off. My child has sensory issues! So, my question is, now that she’s already 7, would it still be worthwhile to try therapy of some kind?
Thanks for your comment, I hear similar stories all the time! I have a whole post now on sensory processing and picky eating, you can find that by searching in the side bar or hitting the article index in the menu bar. To answer your question though, no she is definitely not too old. Just make sure you find an experienced therapist, don’t hesitate to interview the company you go with ahead of time to make sure they will be a good fit.
I just read this site because of my daughter behavior ,i like this site,am having a serious problem with my 1 year 10 months daughter is,i have to force my child to eat,she run alway anytime she sees food,she love drinking water more than food,she can keep all the food in her mouth without swallowing it,but when it to comes to eating fish , meat and chicken she will eat it,she hate vegetables and the only fruits she eat is banana and orange ,she can finish 5liter of water in 3 to 4days ,am worried because she keep losing weight and the doctor said there’s nothing wrong with her,she love yoghurt and water more than anything,please what should i do.
Hey Ruby,
So sorry you are having trouble with your daughter. I’d first work on allowing her to complete some play with the non-preferred foods outside of mealtimes to get her used to touching/engaging with them (this is the first step to eating). We do have a free workshop as well that would be helpful information for you! You can save your seat HERE
Best,
Desiree
Hi Alisha. My daughter is a former 27.5 weeker preemie, she’ll be 5 in April. Up until about a month ago, she was a fabulous eater…especially with veggies and steak. All of a sudden she basically stopped eating. She doesn’t have any particular thing she likes anymore except protein drinks…and all beef hot dogs some days. She’s losing weight and I’m very concerned that she’s withering away quickly. She claims she “hates food” but when I ask her why, she says she doesn’t remember. I know with her being a preemie she’s apt to have sensory issues, but I don’t understand why all of a sudden. Any input would be greatly appreciated!!!
I have to say that is fairly unusual, and my guess would be that either something negative happened during eating or there is something medical going on. She may have choked or gagged unexpectedly on a piece of food, which would have created a negative response and then she started to refuse food. Now she is in the habit and can’t remember why it started. Medically, she could be constipated, have stomach pain (possibly from reflux), a loose tooth that is painful, or molars erupting. Try to dig a little more to see if you can get to the route of the problem but don’t obsess over it. If you can’t figure it out and this continues I would consider having her seen by a GI docotor just to rule anything out more serious. In the meantime, offer her regular meals, including some of her most highly preferred foods. Don’t pressure her at all and eat together talking about other things. I wouldn’t even praise her for eating well, because that can be pressure to. Good luck, I hope that helps!
I didn’t read all the comments, so this may have been mentioned. My kids will stop eating a food if it’s hard for them to get it into their mouths. For example, my son will eat a bowlful of soup if I feed it to him but stop after a few bites if I leave him to it. He will eat a good sized sandwich if I hold it and help him take bites, but will leave it on his plate if I don’t. I decided I don’t want eating to be a test of whether or not he can hold his food! He’s nearly 4 and I’m more than willing to help him finish food he truly likes by holding the item or utensil for him. He’ll learn eventually (and of course I always have him try a few bites himself too).
Also, consider food allergies (and this may be related to reflux). I firmly believe that sometimes (not always) children will refuse a food they know will cause some kind of reaction, whether it’s just digestive discomfort, mouth itchiness, or true allergy.
Yours are great tips and thanks for opening up this conversation! Let’s quit making food a battleground 🙂
Thanks Diane, yes good points to consider! I think if the helping with feeding is okay with you and it is working for your family that’s great!
As a pediatric OT as well I feel this is a very well written article….BUT there is one CRITICAL piece I feel is missing that would make it even better! 😉 Food sensitivities! “You are what you eat” is true and I have spent the last 5 years of my practice educating myself on what is in foods today and how it is affecting our brains, bodies, development etc. and then guiding families through elimination trials. I have seen even the pickiest of eaters turn around sometimes dramatically in only a few months, constipation and reflux stop when milk is eliminated, sleep and diarrhea stop when wheat and gluten are removed, sensory defensive seem to disappear with eliminations, kids begin to eat new foods and enjoy foods, ear infections stop completely after milk is eliminated….I could go on and on. you said that your son’s constipation started at a year and interestingly I hear that often because it’s when most kids start on cow’s milk–timing is everything. I also often hear that ear infections begin shortly after a year. Overall, what is in our food today is appalling. I would highly recommend the book “Cure Your Child with Food’ by Kelly Dorfman for more insight–nope I have no affiliations with it at all, but I have recommended it to many families and then guided them through implementing some of the recommendations with great success 😉 Thanks for this article!…Just wanted to share that with you though as another piece to the puzzle 😉 God Bless.
Thank you so much Bridget for sharing that!!! This post was written a few years ago, and I should update it again to include this. I am much more aware of these dietary issues now. I found Kelly’s book earlier this year and featured it in a constipation series, it was wonderful. My older two boys now only have milk seldomly and surprise, surprise the constipation issues have nearly resolved! I’m curious, did you take any continuing education courses in particular that you would recommend regarding the food sensitivities? Thanks again!
I would like some help thanks
My child is 9 years old she hasn’t eaten or drinking or talking for 5 days now, I just need help
Can you give me a little more information… Have they been sick? Are they a picky eater?
My 6 year old niece came to stay at my house for a couple of days but she has trouble eating and she is anemic as well. I am worried because she simply refuses to eat solid food. For example i ordered pizza and she started crying after we told er to eat it, she continued to pick apart to pizza when we asked her what she was doing she said that she didnt like the sauce so she wouldnt eat it. Another example of this is she doesnt like egg whites even if they are scrambled she will cry and refuse to eat. The only thing she will eat is junk food which we dont allow her to eat but it is really stressful because her nose has been bleeding and i want to know if someone else has this problem with their child.
It sounds like she has some picky eating difficulties. I would get in touch with her parents and see what they normally do. I would expose her to as much as possible, but have at least one food there that she likes. Some kids will not eat eventually, they will go hungry.
My 6 year old niece came to stay at my house for a couple of days but she has trouble eating and she is anemic as well. I am worried because she simply refuses to eat solid food. For example i ordered pizza and she started crying after we told er to eat it, she continued to pick apart to pizza when we asked her what she was doing she said that she didnt like the sauce so she wouldnt eat it. Another example of this is she doesnt like egg whites even if they are scrambled she will cry and refuse to eat. The only thing she will eat is junk food which we dont allow her to eat but it is really stressful because her nose has been bleeding and i want to know if someone else has this problem with their child.
są łatwe odzwierciedlić całość rzeczy ślubnych, sumarycznie spośród bliskimi, jeżeli czekają iż naznaczenie się na nie dostarczy im zaobserwowaną pociecha.
Istnieją diabelnie nieszczere a gdyby racja wówczas potrafię ugadać – stałe.
W 4 trafach na 5 dobitnie kandydaty zostawieniem uregulowań do zbitego inwentarza.
My 4 year old son will only eat ready made meals for 1-2 year old children, and a selected few other foods, he was always a great eater however he developed repeat tonsillitis and as a result had his tonsils removed. After the opp he stopped eating as he in my option associates food with pain? We have tried everything we can think off getting him to spend time with other kids his age at meal times, talking to him getting him to help prepare meals etc.
I consider his issues to be physiological and wonder if any body has been through a similar situation?
Gary, this can happen as well. Kids will have a negative experience and then they get stuck in a rut, as they are scared to branch out. I just did a review on an awesome new book, very easy to read that I think would be really helpful. See the article index in the menu bar or the home page: Helping your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. Try removing all pressure for him to eat other foods, make sure he always has something he likes at all meals, and eat with him so he sees other foods being eaten. Also, serve all foods family style so that he can take as little as he wants and begin to interact with it in a positive way. You may see changes in a few days or few weeks. Anything new is progress.
My 1.5 yo has always been on the picky side. Whenever I would make something new it never was a big hit. And when I seemed to find something she liked, the next time i would make it for her, she wouldn’t take a bite. Well she went through the teething process a bit earlier than most babies so most of the time I would write it off as that. I feel like now there’s always at least one meal a day that’s a struggle. One thing that I find has helped was to not make her so much food at once! I felt like it was necessary to try to have one thing from every food group for each meal, trying to over compensate for the nutrition she wasn’t getting. Well, if I make her only 2 different things for a meal I find that she eats a lot better than if she has an abundance of food in front of her. Hope this tip can help a momma out there! I think it would be a great read if someone did a follow up on this article on tips to help your picky eater for each of these categories!
Thanks Candice for the tip and suggestion. If you are looking for more on picky eating, see the article index in the menu bar… you will find A LOT more strategies there.