I came up with this plan, and it seems to be working, so I thought I'd share.
The background:
My son, almost 4, is an extremely picky eater. He is also a major grazer. If you've read the book "Raising Your Spirited Child," he's highly "perceptive," aka distractable, highly active, and highly sensitive. So he won't eat anything that doesn't have the right texture, he can discern minute changes in the tastes of things, and he has a hard time sitting still long enough to eat a full meal. The main thing driving me crazy the past year or so is how he sits down, eats two bites of the lovely nutritious meal I prepared, and declares himself done. Then a half hour later, usually when we're about to leave the house, he is hungry again. I end up giving him something less nutritious and getting really frustrated about it. Sometimes I can save the meal for him, but he can't really eat oatmeal in the car, refuses to eat cold leftover eggs, etc. I tried so many things- just letting him eat whatever/whenever, nagging him into eating a full meal, bribing him with dessert. All had major drawbacks.
So here's what I did. I ordered a huge poster of the human body, with organs and stuff. All the organs come as stickers that you can put onto the body. I contact papered the body parts, and attached them to the body with velcro. The poster went up in his room. When I make a meal for him, I put the bare minimum portion on his plate, like half what I'd normally put. The rest goes onto a platter on the table. To earn a body part, he has to clean his plate. If he wants more food after that he can have whatever he wants from the platter (ie if he wants to just eat bread after having finished his plate, that's fine, but he can't take another piece of bread until he's cleaned his plate). After the meal, I bring out the bag of parts, and he picks one. He puts it on the poster, and we talk about how what he ate is helping him grow that healthy arm, leg, liver, etc. When the body is filled up, he gets a "healthy Jamie" sticker- picture of him, also contact papered and velcroed. When he earns three healthy Jamies, he gets a trip alone with me to the indoor playground he loves. So far it is working GREAT. It doesn't get him to eat foods he hates, but it does encourage him to sit and eat the full meal without popping up every five minutes. The best is when he eats a real breakfast and I send him to preschool knowing he isn't going to ask his teacher for a snack immediately upon arrival. I'm so happy about it!
I can't quite believe it's come to this- typing it out, it seems so anal and control-freaky. I just couldn't deal with letting things go on the way they were. I felt like I had to choose between being a short order cook constantly on call, or letting him fill up on carby crap like pretzels all day. I really think that a lot of it has to do with his being so active- he needs this motivation to stay at the table long enough to really fill up. And he's enjoying it, and learning about his body and nutrition at the same time.
Just thought I'd share, in case anyone else is dealing with similar issues.
The background:
My son, almost 4, is an extremely picky eater. He is also a major grazer. If you've read the book "Raising Your Spirited Child," he's highly "perceptive," aka distractable, highly active, and highly sensitive. So he won't eat anything that doesn't have the right texture, he can discern minute changes in the tastes of things, and he has a hard time sitting still long enough to eat a full meal. The main thing driving me crazy the past year or so is how he sits down, eats two bites of the lovely nutritious meal I prepared, and declares himself done. Then a half hour later, usually when we're about to leave the house, he is hungry again. I end up giving him something less nutritious and getting really frustrated about it. Sometimes I can save the meal for him, but he can't really eat oatmeal in the car, refuses to eat cold leftover eggs, etc. I tried so many things- just letting him eat whatever/whenever, nagging him into eating a full meal, bribing him with dessert. All had major drawbacks.
So here's what I did. I ordered a huge poster of the human body, with organs and stuff. All the organs come as stickers that you can put onto the body. I contact papered the body parts, and attached them to the body with velcro. The poster went up in his room. When I make a meal for him, I put the bare minimum portion on his plate, like half what I'd normally put. The rest goes onto a platter on the table. To earn a body part, he has to clean his plate. If he wants more food after that he can have whatever he wants from the platter (ie if he wants to just eat bread after having finished his plate, that's fine, but he can't take another piece of bread until he's cleaned his plate). After the meal, I bring out the bag of parts, and he picks one. He puts it on the poster, and we talk about how what he ate is helping him grow that healthy arm, leg, liver, etc. When the body is filled up, he gets a "healthy Jamie" sticker- picture of him, also contact papered and velcroed. When he earns three healthy Jamies, he gets a trip alone with me to the indoor playground he loves. So far it is working GREAT. It doesn't get him to eat foods he hates, but it does encourage him to sit and eat the full meal without popping up every five minutes. The best is when he eats a real breakfast and I send him to preschool knowing he isn't going to ask his teacher for a snack immediately upon arrival. I'm so happy about it!
I can't quite believe it's come to this- typing it out, it seems so anal and control-freaky. I just couldn't deal with letting things go on the way they were. I felt like I had to choose between being a short order cook constantly on call, or letting him fill up on carby crap like pretzels all day. I really think that a lot of it has to do with his being so active- he needs this motivation to stay at the table long enough to really fill up. And he's enjoying it, and learning about his body and nutrition at the same time.
Just thought I'd share, in case anyone else is dealing with similar issues.
Good job!
