Toddler not eating, help!

Hello everyone!

I have a three and a half year old son who is a VERY picky eater as is
(will only eat bland stuff like potato products, wheat krackers,
wholemeal bread, breakfast cereals etc). Over the past few days I
haven't been able to get him to eat anything, when I ask him what he
wants, he just asks for more milk, when I ask him if he wants this or
that, he says "no thank you!" and won't eat anything I put down in
front of him. Yesterday he DID eat some of a wholemeal dinner roll
(which he has never eaten before, he usually eats bread in sliced
format), which I was pleased with, but I tried him with one later in
the day and he only ate two bites before he discarded it.

At mealtimes I put the same stuff on his plate as I eat, he knows the
names of the foods, but he won't put them anywhere NEAR his mouth and
always complains and runs away when I try to feed them to him. A
couple of months ago I made some progress as he ate some fish
(children's shaped fishies) and turkey (again, shaped in breadcrumbs),
but now he won't touch those.

I have both a nursery nurse and a health visitor who pay visits and
have both said I just have to persevere and not give in to his
demands. It's just SO hard as I worry that he won't break this pattern
and he'll end up with major eating problems.

My son isn't underweight and he'll tall for his age, so he's obviously
doing well considering what he eats. I give him a daily multi-vitamin,
which I hope is helping.

One last factor, which I hope isn't an issue, but fear it is, is that
my housemate and I have been doing some arguing lately. It usually
happens when my son has gone to bed, it doesn't wake him up and I HOPE
he doesn't hear it. BUT the other day an arguement broke out while my
son was awake and he witnessed some shouting and my housemate throwing
something. My son then micked that, copied some of the shouting and
then threw something. I feel so terrible about it and I've informed my
housemate that I shall find somewhere for my son and I somewhere else
to live if that sort of behaviour continues. However, the situation
which was causing the stress between the two of us has been resolved,
so it hopefully won't happen again and if it does, I won't hesitate to
find somewhere else to live.

Anyway, I just wondered if anyone here has had the same problems and
can give me any tips on what to do, it would really mean a lot.

Feel free to email your answers to me, as I sometimes have problems
accessing Google.

Thanks all,
Naomi

Naomi wrote:

I have both a nursery nurse and a health visitor who pay visits and
have both said I just have to persevere and not give in to his
demands. It's just SO hard as I worry that he won't break this pattern
and he'll end up with major eating problems.

I agree with them. One thing you need to keep firmly in mind is that,
at that age, it's extremely unlikely that he has an eating disorder, nor
is it likely to be anything more than a phase. Were this a teen, of
course, there'd be major cause for concern, but it that age he's simply
not going to starve or come anywhere close.

My son isn't underweight and he'll tall for his age, so he's obviously
doing well considering what he eats. I give him a daily multi-vitamin,
which I hope is helping.

All the less reason to worry. His weight is okay, he's taking his
vitamins, and you've said he willingly drinks milk. He'll be fine.

--
Mike Rosenberg
http://www.macconsult.com Macintosh consulting services for NE Florida
http://bogart-tribute.net Tribute to Humphrey Bogart
Toyota Prius fans: Check out alt.autos.toyota.prius

Thanks Mike :-)