Poor Elise over the last 6 weeks she has had nearly every food she liked removed from her diet cos they don't like her and she is resisting the new diet with much vigor!!!!
She really only wants potato chips and if you serve up any thing else she spirals into a huge tantrum and I am getting very stressed .
Her current diet consists of baby rice and pears, rice crackers, POTATO CHIPS, banana, oven fries, sliced pear, carrot and some tiny bits of meat. Believe me I have been offering heaps of other stuff and she won't even try it .
What can I do .
I dread every meal and snack .
Claire

You poor thing! It is incredibly stressful.

The hard nosed approach of Nigel Latta in his book says 'hungry children eat' and to just keep offering it. I agree in principle but in practice this just gets a little stressful- my dh is far more willing to put it into practice than soft touch me who feels like a short order chef at times.

there is a good book called 'can't eat, won't eat'. It may be in the public library - it is aimed more at autism but I wonder if the principles are the same for any child?

Hope she comes around for you? Maybe she is still feeling really grotty after her illness and struggling to be 'open' to new foods?

OH dear, sucks doesn't it? I would give her a selection of foods on a plate including some potato chips and see if she gets carried away eating . Good luck! She might still be off her food if she has had a rough patch as well, takes a while for them to come right I have found.

Hi Claire
Just a quick email about the potato chips - do you mean the crispy snack kind (so not fries)?
If so, I'm not sure what Elise can have, but Signature Range have cassava vege crisps - these are GF (I thought so by looking at the ingredients, but it's on www.mfd.co.nz too as being GF). We have the plain flavour - it has cassava flour, canola oil, sugar, salt & spices. Egg & peanut also processed on same equipment. I bought them from Countdown.
But I'm guessing she can't have these either ay..
Thought I would mention them just in case though...
They are YUM!!

I'm an idiot. Just realised the last thing you want to give her is anything similar to potato chips!
I was in a hurry when I did that post about the cassava chips so I didn't read your post properly...

P.S. Anyone got night wakers and currently cursing the neighbours & their fireworks?!

Hi claire
I feel your pain!I cant imagine.
what about distraction? totally differrent situation but when my boys would gag on anything solid finger food wise, one thing that helped was distraction. i started off well meaning & did the 'read a story' thing, 'sing a song with hand actions thing' & quickly progressed to 'watch a dvd' thing lol.our speech therapist for eating problems suggested it & it really really helped.100% un pc but i figure it just gets them over a stage doesnt it & you have other kids to consider too.
other ideas, sit her at the table with you for dinner, teacher her to dip her oven chips into a sauce of what ever veg/fruit puree you want, give her a new utensil such as a fork to get her interested or if shes already doing that, a new exciting plate or spoon etc.
best of luck, tough job you have there.

WoHOOOOO She ate some GF bread.
I am so happy.
OOhhh I don't get to use happy icons much
Do you think I got carried away?
Claire

Great news! Its a hard road finding the edible gf bread

I think you under did that a bit actually, Claire .

When Gem was going through a picky stage we were told to offer her food at a mealtime and give her 20 minutes to eat it. After that time, the food is removed and nothing offered until the next meal or snack time. Breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner. Don't worry about how much is eaten in the short term. Because they aren't constantly grazing it removes the stress of you having to try to find something constantly and they are actually hungry by the time the food is next offered.

As for variety, some of our children have autistic type tendencies towards food. (I am not saying they are autistic!) It has to be the right colour, the right shape or the right texture. They may not tolerate foods being mixed together in a soup or casserole for example. You need to work out what their preference is. For example if she would live on chips - it might be the crisp texture or it might be that it is finger food. Then again it could just be the salt.

Hi, when we had trouble we had picnics on the lounge floor and ate with him, he thought that was pretty cool! Just a thought..and sometimes I tell him its an animal like fetticine is him eating snakes!
SAlly