7 Year Old Picky Eater What To Do?

Question

My son is a very picky eater, and very wasteful. He takes food that he knows he won't be able to finish and then wants to waste the rest. At dinner he will ask what we're having and if he doesn't want it he just says he doesn't want dinner and he starves for the night cause I refuse to give him snacks and cater to his every whim. This is how I have been doing things, when he can't finish what he gets himself it gets covered and he can heat it up at snack time and finish it then. At dinner if he doesn't want what I have made he can choose to go hungry. I thought he would have learned his lesson by now, but he continues to do these things. Do I force him to have at least some dinner or do I let him continue to skip dinner?

Answer 1

Does he complain of tummy aches?  My 4yo was a fussy eater and complained of tummy aches all the time, I decided to put him on a gluten free diet and I noticed his appetite improved greatly and no more tummy aches, he now eats most of his meals and asked for seconds.

Answer 2

I have one like this.  I tell him that he doesn't have to eat his food, BUT he has to stay at the table and there will be no snacking until we have our next meal.  Sometimes kiddos get a nervous elbow and before they know it they've eaten what they said they wouldn't.

Answer 3

I am a 30 year old female, and I am a picky eater to this day.  I am much better than I was when I was younger, but I special order most foods.  The theory is that some people have more sensitive taste buds than others.  As long as there is a healthy alternative, ie peas for spinach, or some other like item....then why go thru all the hassle.

Answer 4

I think what your doing is great.  You're not giving in and giving him a second dinner.  You're sticking to your rules.  I am very guilty of giving my children a different dinner so I don't have to hear the whining.  I wish I stuck to my guns more like you do.  But there is hope....  My 7-yr-old son is also picky, but he is getting better.  He actually ate green eggs and ham at school today and loved it.  (Never tried eggs for me).

Answer 5

If he gets hungry enough, he'll eat pig spit.  You're too enabling by trying to please him so much.

Sorry.  Let him skip a meal and feel the grumble.

If it grumbles MORE he'll grumble less.

Answer 6

You're actually doing very well by saying he can't have snacks, sticking to your guns, so I see why you are asking the question.  If you're concerned about him becoming underweight, then you might have to give in and make sure he's got healthy food that you know he will eat on a regular basis, even if it means not eating the same thing as him.  But if there aren't any issues like that, I would buy a good child's multivitamin and after that, continue what you're doing.  Very few kids in Western society are starving and some kids really just don't eat as much as other kids.  

My sister's oldest boy was like this. He seemed to pick at food for a couple of days and then when he was hungry, he'd eat a huge amount.  He is still a bit of a picky eater but he's also a college athlete and was never malnourished.  I mean, this is a kid who refused to eat spaghetti!

My own 7-yo daughter is fairly picky but she also struggles to maintain her weight (this is partially because she's in a sport that trains five days a week).  I was in the habit of enforcing meal times like you are doing but found I had to relax them a little because she wasn't getting enough food.  They can definitely have a very strong will when it comes to food.  But what I did was stick to my guns about dinner, but in the meantime, I made sure she had a high calorie snack after school - not necessarily something unhealthy, but something with peanut butter, or butter, or cheese - something that packed in the calories and that I knew she would eat. That way, if dinner ended up being something she would push around her plate, I knew she was getting enough calories that day.

Good luck ~

Answer 7

you need to do what the lady on the movie mommy dearest did...except don't beat your kid with a wire close hanger, just make the child sit at the table until it finishes, don't give in and let the child go to there room or something else.  And for the waste, make the child's plate that way they have less control and you have more control over what it eats.