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Low weight picky eater (8yo boy)


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Hi all, its day 4 and things are going great for the adults in the house. For myself, no headaches, no fatigue and no need to kill all things. Not even craving issues yaa! My hubby is doing well and being really supportive too. Even though he is struggling with the food, my darling son is being very supportive of me.

 

The issue, as I mentioned, is food. Here is his history. Born with GERDS he couldn't have solids until he was 10 months old. His pediatrician basically told us get whatever we could into him because he was always in the 5-10% weight range for his age and height. He is a picky eater, so that involved ALOT of PBJ and sweet stuff (honeynut cheerios... pancakes... muffins.. desserts). His go to veggies are limited to carrots, broccoli (steamed with soy sauce) and destringed celery. His one and only LIKEd fruit is an apple.. sweet ones only like Fuju or Gala. He will tolerate grapes and bananas.. but GAGS even thinking about anything he doesn't like and makes himself throw up due to stressing about it. He is also a grazer, eating what I can only describe as "kid hand" sized portions every 2 hours or so. I have seen toddlers eat more at one sitting than my kiddo (this includes dessert btw.. he usually is happy with a couple bites or a small cookie).

 

He is now 8 and his weight has finally begun to creep up. He was actually up to 20% yaa! I am concerned that with his limited likes.. and his reaction to food ( I KNOW its mental) that he will loose weight on this program if I don't introduce fake outs. I really don't want to though =/ He is trying super hard to be compliant too.

 

Has anyone else gone through this with a picky low weight grazer? Any suggestions on TASTY compliant food that will get him to eat more?

 

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There is no rule for kids on not introducing "SWYPO".  You could probably do high-fat smoothies (include as much veggies as you can manage and only enough fruit to make it palatable), banana-egg pancakes etc.  These are all fine for KIDS.  Take a look at the article about folks who need to keep weight on during Whole30 and see what you can adapt. 

 

You could also consider trying some dips like sunshine sauce or homemade mayo w/ hot sauce stirred in (like a buffalo sauce) and see if that increases his desire to eat more veggies/proteins.

 

Browse around the Whole30 for Kids section of the forum, there are lots of discussions in there.

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I surmise that the longer you have him off of wheat, dairy, corn etc and that eventually his hormones will rebalance and he will find himself hungrier for more natural foods.  Those PB, cheerios, cereals, toast etc have probably messed up his appetite signals and to be honest, he's probably a little sugar-addicted. Maybe it'll take longer to get to balance as he is grazing but he'll get there eventually and every day that he is not eating well-marketed but nutritionally defunct "products", the better off you are getting him for now and the future.  You'll get there and so will he. :) 

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I'm on Day 4 as well! I don't have kids myself, but my boyfriend has a 6 (almost 7)-year-old son who is with us half the time. We're not going to have him 100% on the plan, since he wouldn't be on it at his mother's house, but I'm going to do my best to hold strong in having him only eat what we eat for dinners, or any other meal that we all sit down and eat together! He's very, very picky, and although eats mostly sugar- and grain- or dairy-filled foods, he doesn't eat much of it, so is a tad underweight. Whenever he sees anything new, he downright refuses to try it. Tears are usually involved, and if he DOES like something that we convince him to try, he pitches another fit, because he doesn't like that we were right and he was wrong  :)

 

He is slowly getting better and has started to like new foods as we continue to introduce them to him, especially thanks to the vegetable garden! He loves trying the zucchini that he helped grow (he won't eat much, but he'll try it). Another method that has been helpful is that he isn't allowed to have seconds of anything unless he cleans his WHOLE plate. So, at breakfast, if he wants more bacon but has barely touched his scrambled eggs (which I've started adding sautéed veggies to), the answer is no. This gets him motivated to eat more on his plate, balancing his diet (and he usually won't want the extra bacon after he's eaten his eggs)! I also tell him all of the benefits to each healthy food ("these carrots will help you see the baseball better when you're batting!"), and that helps a bit. 

 

Tonight is the first night we'll have him since starting the Whole30, so I'm easing him into it with a familiar recipe - BBQ Chicken. I considered giving him his usual sugary BBQ sauce, but instead I'm going to use my compliant recipe, and use a little less spice in his version. Hopefully it goes well! 

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A trick I've seen and even utilized a few times is letting the kids pick one or two new (for them) things at the store for veggies and fruit. Actually, the last time i went to the store my daughter picked up some berries to add to her meals. (we used to get them more often but both of us stopped eating them as much).

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Ladyshanny the muffins are a huge success! Thank you so much. He loves them. If he could he would eat them for dessert. I gave one to a playmate of his who was visiting and hungry and they loved it too!

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Well he is getting to be a lot less picky. He is now eating fruits and veggies he wouldn't touch before. He loves tuna salad now, and he is asking for seconds almost every meal! It is so nice to see him changing. YES, he misses the goodies. However he is loving all fruit smoothies, and trying new things. Never thought I would see the day my kid WANTED cherries or blueberries or strawberries!

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