OT: Anyone else have a picky eater?

[belle&beast]

A lot of so-called picky eaters are people with sensory issues; )

I'm so glad you mentioned this! I am a speech pathologist and now I am working with preschoolers but in the past have worked with infants and toddlers and many have sensory issues that affect feeding. I think it would be beneficial to discuss sesnory integration with your pediatrician and if he/she is not helpful, call your public school corporation. An occupational therapist or speech therapist may be able to help you help your child to enjoy new and healthy foods. In Indiana children under 3 years are referred to Indiana First Steps, and once they are 3 they are served by the preschool staff in the public schools. These programs are free or very inexpensive. It breaks my heart when kids with sensory issues are undiagnosed and continue to have difficulties as time goes on.

 

[dolphinrescuegirl]

"Oh, and don't you love the books and magazine articles about picky children? Tell them brocolli is a tree and they'll gobble it right up! Yeah, right!!"


When my sister was 2 she thought they looked like trees and thats exactly the reason she wouldnt eat them! She was scared of trees at the time.

 

[Grendalynn]

This is an interesting subject that hit close to home for me as well. I feel better knowing that its not just me living with this everyday challenge. I know my grandmother always said, "They'll eat when they're Hungry", She was a big Swedish immigrant who had very strong beliefs. So I have to remind myself of that almost daily. Its not that DS3 wont eat - its just what he eats is challenging.

DS6 will eat anything you put in front of him: Lobster, Rare Steak, Steamed Clams, any salad, vegetable, chicken, pasta, eggs and bacon or sausage, venecin, Moose meat, - he even recently put down some steamed oysters at a Super Bowl party! Nasty!

That being said - DS3 has a limited menu of what he WILL eat! The only "meat" we can get into him are the trusty chiken nuggets and the only "Beef" is in your all american Chef Boyarde Mini Raviolis!! No beef of anysort, no sandwhiches, fish sticks or anything! The ocasssional bite of aBeef Tereyaki from the Chinese restaurant or tempura chicken/shrimp. Vegetables are a non issue - he will eat most any vegetable, same goes with fruit, yogurt, cheese and milk. The poor kid gets a PB sandwich everyday at Pre School.

This Drives my poor dad crazy! He is one of those old school typed of people who always said to us as kids, "you eat what's put infront of you. (Like it or not.)" I feel like a bad mother when we go there for dinner and he asks Mimi fopr a bowl of ceral!! As kids - we were not permitted to leave the table until our plate was clean! To this day, I am a member of the clean plate club! LOL Its by Dads fault I eat so much!! ha ha Thanks Dad for pudge Butt

We did not do anything different with DS6 and DS3 growing up. It drives me nuts and I find myself preparing 2 meals a night - one for DH, DS6 and I and another one for DS3. Although now that I read about this "sensory" issue, that I now have to do some research on, it makes sence. DS3 never liked the token baby food type things... baby cereal, mashed potatoes, certain baby foods... I hope to high havens that he grows out of this. The poor kid will be on Iron fortified flinstone vitamins for the rest of his life!! LOL

BTY - he is a very healthy, active 3 year old that is above average in all weight and height classes. Must be al the vegetables!!?? Anyone have any suggestions on how to concquer this??

 

[Accentuate+]

This won't help with a kid who has issues other than "I don't want to try that" or "I'd prefer something else" but my mom's tactic was that if I didn't want to eat what she made then I was more than welcome to have something else....but I had to make it myself and "it" was a bologna sandwich.

Know this won't help with the very young and that sometimes it's a deeper issue than "I just don't feel like eating what mom made" but when I was faced with eating what was in front of me or making my own tired old baloney sandwich I'd only turn up my nose at dinner if I REALLY hated it. There wasn't much I hated then and I'll eat darn near anything now.

As long as they're healthy and eating something they're probably fine. I wish I was pickier.