my niece is 4, basically raised on worse than S.A.D., she is a really picky eater, wont even try most stuff that doesn't look pretty much exactly like something she already knows and loves, and they have pretty much just catered to her picky-ness only making her foods that she will eat without protest... cheese makes up most of her diet, she loves it...fish stick and chicken nuggets are a big part too, and french fries, and toast with butter, sugar and cinnamon, only, wont even nibble it otherwise, although lately ive been able to get her to eat her toast with honey and cinnamon, by just making sure she doesnt see me making it, she keeps saying my toast is better than the toast mommy makes...lol... the one time she caught me though, she refused to even try it... hmmm oh, btw, WOOHOO! this is the 9,000th thread posted in this forum...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

oh and dont even get me started on her addiction to those flaming hot cheetos...her favorite, she even likes the habenero ones, but prefers the flaming hot...and no, I dont buy those for her...ever...lol...

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Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

There have been way more posts that that, occasionally the site crashes and the entire archive gets eaten. It's sad. We lost some REALLY great stuff the one time...



Ok, there are MANY tips and tricks parents can share w you on hiding veggies in foods. Can you provide a list of what she does like so I've got something to work with? If it's really horrid PM it to me and I'll message you back

Here are a couple tips for starters:
Kids are more apt to eat something they helped to grow. If you don't have garden space start with sprouts. A chia pet is GREAT for this (buy your own seeds, the ones in the chia pet kit may have been treated with nasties). Or, find someone who eats eggs and ask them to save you some shells if they can crack them mostly into half. decorate the outside of the shells with her (faces, make characters) fill w dirt and seeds, grow and when their "hair" gets long, give them a hair cut, with your teeth! Fun, right?

Kids also love to eat things they make themselves. Get her to help w food prep, make a fruit salad together, set out some colourful fruit and let her pick the ones to go in, help you hold the knife, arrange the fruit, spoon into the bowls, serve it up. Stay light and playful and talk about how delicious it will be while you're prepping, etc etc etc. You know how to cater to their sense of fun... She might like to help pick out foods at the grocery store too, fave colours, shapes, this one instead of that one, etc. Just avoid the garbage aisle, if you have time to make a special trip w her so you are ONLY shopping in the sections with the "real" food and going again later on w/out her to get other stuff.

Some kids won't eat a thing they have tried and liked if they find out there was something in there they didn't like. You *can* sort of work on this a bit. I have a rule, food must be honestly sampled before "I don't like it" is acceptable. If after a taste kiddo really truly doesn't like it they don't have to eat it (that time, I will serve it again at another meal), I am very specific about this and I stick to it so they know they can trust me on it. It's the One Bite Rule and it works.

Smoothies are great. Let her see you putting in her fave fruits, sneak in some baby spinach etc when she isn't looking. Disguise w banana (it has a very strong flavour that overpowers everything) and serve to her is a special cup (one she can't see through with a straw she also can't see through, they make plastic ones with Dora and stuff on them and even though I hate plastic if it gets her to drink her special "MilkShake" it's a good thing). Also, use language here. Start off by calling it a milkshake, change it to shake, change that to smoothie shake, eventually you'll just be saying smoothie and you'll have changed the way she thinks about it for life.

Special plates, bowls etc can also help. Let her choose a set of her own special, magical dishes that will make all food taste the very best! Remind her of this special, magical quality when next you try toserve her something she doesn't love. "Oh No, you haven't tried it from your 'special, magical' bowl yet, it makes food taste so yummy!"

Whatever you do, don't pressure, don't make a big deal, don't try too hard to talk her into it, be fun light and easy, act like it isn't killing you to see her refuse every single good thing. Just say "Ok, we'll try that again later" and move on. And do keep trying the same things over and over again. Put a bit of salad on her plate every dinner, put fruit and veggie sticks on her plate every breakfast and lunch. Seeing them and getting familiar with them is step one to accepting them. Ignore her if she eats them, ignore it if she doesn't eat them. Act like it's NO BIG DEAL!

I could tell you a thousand other things. Any specific questions?


Oh, BTW That Is a S.A.D. diet. That's why it's so damn sad.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2010 01:40PM by coco.

Curator Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> oh and dont even get me started on her addiction
> to those flaming hot cheetos...her favorite, she
> even likes the habenero ones, but prefers the
> flaming hot...and no, I dont buy those for
> her...ever...lol...


LOL. Um. I have to say..I haven't eaten those in months..but those things are pretty awesome.



Does she eat fruit? That would be an easy place to start by getting more and more fruit into her. Take her apple picking or something..when everyone else is picking from the trees and eating things..chances are she's going to want to try it too.

Is it just you trying to get her to eat healthy or are her parents? Sounds like they just need rule changes if she "protests" so bad they cave. Coco pretty much covered everything.. no "I'm not eating that" and "No I don't like it" until it's been tried.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/01/2010 06:47PM by BackAgain.

Agree with coco and BackAgain's advice. Also, model! If you eat lots of fruits and veggies, especially smoothies and frozen "whips," the kid will wanna emulate your behaviors and this may be the best way to get her to broaden her palate. I must admit that I am surprised she hasn't been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, because her diet has her on a trajectory straight for that and it's beyond frustrating. Good luck, dear.

I think coco covered the essentials, she is the parent to go to on this board.

I am trying to do the same for my step kids, 4 & 7 now, to get them to be off the sugar and junky food that they like, so I can relate.

Does she like nuts? my kids will eat almost any kind of nut.

The only things I would add would be so go slow and if you don't have it around, she will get used to having the healthy things and ask for them.

One thing that has made an impression on my kids is the constant conversations of what foods are healthy and what are not. Our 4 yr old ate a whole bunch of chopped onions the other day because she asked if they were healthy, and we said yes. Turns out she really likes raw onions! Yes.

must say, all those tricks have worked for other kids ive taken care of in the past, but not her, she is HIGHLY intelligent, only 5 years old and was able to remember her dads new phone number after only hearing it once, and she likes to see EVERYTHING, so if something looks even a little bit off to her, I can get her to try it usually, but its always "I dont like it uncle" after her first try... fruit is the only thing good for her I can get her to consistently eat, she doesnt like nuts in their whole form but loves nut butter... but yeah, the opaque cup trick doesn't work with her (she actually has a dora one already!lol)

Her parents diet isnt much better than hers, just more variety in it, but a simple rule change wouldn't do anything, I tried the whole "you dont get anything else till you finish this." thing once, thinking, like with my nephews, she would cave in under an hour...it was almost her bed time and her stomach was grumbling, and she had been sitting in the same spot for over an hour (NEVER happens with her, even if watching cartoons...) and she just did not look good, maybe I was weak, but I couldn't hold out any longer, made her a grilled cheese sandwich, it was at least on home made sprouted bread and cooked with olive oil instead of butter, plus was able to sneak some spinach leaves in it, she was so hungry by then, it was close enough to her favorite... none of this really matters though, I wont have her for much longer now...thanks for all the advice though.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

You know what darlin'? All the care you've shown her and the great example you've set for her with your own habits will have more of an impact than you know. You've done something wonderful already honey, never you fear. She's got you in her corner now and she knows it and she loves and respects you and that's no small thing.

If you mix vegetable juice with something that they would normally eat (sugary drinks) she might eat juice. I know mixing sugary drinks into juice seems like an abomination but if she is going to drink it anyway why not add a little juice? I would start with 5-10% juice and give it a new name. For example don't call the pink apple juice with beet juice added "apple juice" anymore, it needs to have a different name or she will insist on eating the true apple juice.

Similarily, I've tried adding dried vegetables to pasta with little success and they'll insist on eating the "real pasta". I think juice is the best method of coveyance for vegetables.

Since she likes fruits, she would probably love frozen berries, the only problem with that is that berries tend to stain things when little kids eat them. This might upset the mother if she gets blueberry handprints on her furniture.

yeah, I was making her "ice cream" out of just frozen fruits, she loved that...

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh, mirror in the sky
What is love?
Can the child within my heart rise above?
Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?
Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Most kids love frozen grapes and I got these raw crackers from my health foods store, but they're also available at "goraw.com".... The pizza ones are the best in my opinion. My friend has four year old son and he loves them, and all he usually eats is peanut butter cracker sandwiches (those oranges crackers with PB in the middle that come made as sandwiches).