Getting My Child To Eat...
I don't really know what I'm looking for by asking this. Some help and advice, if anyone has any, as I am at my wits end.
My daughter is 5 years old and it is very difficult to get her to eat properly. She will eat, but not at set times and usually it's hardly anything. This morning, for example, I managed to get a small yogurt down her, but nothing else. I offered and made her cereal and toast, but she just pushed it away and said she was "full up".
She was always a chubby baby, up until the age of about 2 or 2 and a half. So much so that we had to take her to see a dietitian. Now she's gone completely the other way, and every meal time is a battle which often ends in tears and frustration. I have tried the obvious tactics, like giving her her favorite things at meal times, and also involving her in preparing them, but the majority of the time she will just push the plate away without even trying it, before saying her usual "full up".
I wouldn't say she is majorly skinny, but I do think she looks different (thinner) to the other girls in her class... although, she is very tall for her age, so perhaps that's down to her height?? I have also noticed that she shoulders feel very boney.
We had a family meal on Sunday and she literally did not eat anything, despite my whole family trying to encourage her. My Dad says I nag her too much and that she'll eat when she's hungry, but surely that can't just be as and when she feels like it? She would live off grapes and yogurts if she could, but I just find it extremely difficult to get her to eat a proper meal.
Her lunchbox comes home with mostly everything still it in. She will have a quarter of the sandwich I make her, some grapes, the yogurt and that's it. I just can't understand how she's not hungry?!
She has started saying over the past week or so that she has a "bad tummy", when she goes to bed at night. She has no other symptoms of having a bug or anything, and I honestly wonder if it could be hunger pangs?
Should I be taking her to the doctors about this, or is there anything I can try that I haven't already mentioned.
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, as I really don't know what else I can do. Thanks :)