Help, my child gags at will.?

Question

My child is 4 and won't eat. We've tried to learn his eating patterns and can't get them. Whenever we place reular table food before him he'll say "This makes me sick" and will gag and throw up. But he doesn't do that with sweets. Is he playing us for fools?

Answer 1

Some kids have big issues with textures. You may want to get this checked out. If he doesn't have texture issues, he's being stubborn. Don't allow him to leave the table until he at least TRIES the food and if he purposely makes himself throw up, send him to his room for the rest of the night with no dinner.

Answer 2

I wouldn't give in  to him. He has learned that if he makes himself sick he gets what he wants. I wouldn't let him have anything other than what you want him to eat and if he gets sick then too bad he doesn't get anything to eat. He is old enough to eat when he is told and if you don't give in to him one night and he goes to bed hungry he will figure out he needs to eat the next day. If you give him sweets you are giving into his games.

Answer 3

Yes, you are being made the fool. He knows exactly what he's doing!

Leave him a variety of foods, like hot dogs, spaghetti, chicken strips, etc., that he can eat easily. Then just ignore the gagging. If you need to, just tell him "eat 4 bites of this" give a lot of encouragement. Tell him when he eats 4 bites of everything, then he can have a "sweet". Then he will know that you mean business. I keep telling my daughter "you want to be big like mommy & daddy, right? Well, then you need to eat!" and she will clean her plate. Put it into their perspective & they will surprise you!