Hello!

My daughter hardly eats anything besides meat she wont eat vegetables and hardly any salads please help have tried hiding the veg in meals nothing works and she takes over 2 hours sometimes to eat a meal


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  • Fussy eating is so common.
    First of all I would in general if your child is growing, is she healthy, does she pee & poo, is she happy. You’ll be surprised on how little food kids can live.

    Don’t make it into a power battle.
    Respect your child’s appetite — or lack of one. If your child isn’t hungry, don’t force a meal or snack. …
    Stick to the routine. Serve meals and snacks at about the same times every day. …
    Be patient with new foods. …
    Don’t be a short-order cook. …
    Make it fun. …
    Recruit your child’s help. …
    Set a good example. …
    Be creative.


  • Try looking into occupational therapy as she might have texture sensitivities. Good luck


  • This topic has suddenly popped up in the “you may be interested “.
    My only suggestion if you haven’t found a solution is : There now pasta that comes in different shapes. Maybe they will fascinate your child to the extent of eating them even if you initially allow it as finger food.


  • I’m having the same problem. I just keep offering and hope for the best.


  • you and I are in exactlly the same both. I am at my its end trying to get my 5 year old daughter to eat anything. If het nan makes it its fine she’ll eat it but if I cook it, she wont touch it.
    Chciken nuggests amazingly enough are no problems


  • why not look at things like the vegie chips and the v8 fruit and vegetable juice to get her used to some of the flavours then you can start to introduce other foods


  • In our house the kids have to eat what is put on the plate, if they don’t like one thing they can leave it. If they don’t like more than one thing they have to eat half of both. Then they get to make some choices about what they are eating and they feel that they have some control.


  • This is a difficult one. Try making sauces that are pureed with veggies. And serve with pastas.


  • i had this same problem but she said she cant leave into she eat her vegs.. maybe try giving the veg fisrt and say no meat till you eat this


  • I have this problem with my son but only eats vegemite sandwiches so I took him to the doctor as I was starting to get very worried that he was not getting the nutrition that he needs but the doctor just smiled at me and said he is a healthy active boy and when he is ready he will eat .So me being a helicopter mum I had to make sure he was getting all the vitamins he needs so I found a good kids multi and I now just supplement with that .I have now had many different pweoples opions and most older mums tell me tghe same thing .


  • have you tried making a face out of meat with vegies as hair, eyes, nose and mouth, let her make her own face if she wants to, Our kids loved this.


  • Have you thought about seeing a speech therapist to see if there is any problems that may be affecting her eating habits. You’d be surprised at how often this happens


  • maybe things like lasagne with veg through it. or meat patties with hidden veg. things she cant pick veg out?? thats a hard one. getting kids to grow there own veg sometimes helps with wanting to eat them.


  • We’ve also had the same issue with our son who is now 7 and grew up eating meat with the occasional cucumber. As they grow older it is easier to convince them to try and eat vegetables if you give them good reasons to and they understand how it benefits them.
    We’ve used the following reasons:
    – you will get pimples and we showed him a picture of someone with extreme acne which freaked him out
    – you will become stronger (or prettier whichever suits their personality)
    – “if I can eat it, there is no reason why you can’t eat it”

    We’ve also let him eat with his friends or cousins of a similar age who enjoy vegetables which encourages him to eat as well. It helps that he has a competitive nature so wants to do what his friends can.

    He now tries more vegetables and only recently took a liking to mushrooms, broccoli, lettuce and beans. He doesn’t enjoy lots of it but it’s a big leap for us so we’re just letting him eat small portions and we will gradually increase over time.


  • My eldest was the same until daycare did activities about eating habits and started a vegetable garden in their centre, she now talks about how vegetables makes her grow big and strong! Loves eating salad and fruit now.


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