5 yo is getting more and more picky about food!

[Punchy Kaby]

I aim to prepare some NT meals, I've cut out grains and sugar for myself and I aim to make dinners for all of us grain free. 5 YO DS is starting to refuse to eat the foods that I make. He used to eat just about everything I made. This past week he refused pork and beans, beef stew, salads (which he used to eat at every dinner), meatloaf, omelet. I think one problem is that he gets fed at school and it's a SAD diet.  In the past week he has refused to eat dinner 3 times, very unusual for him.

We try to address what it is about the meal that he doesn't like, but he just turns up his nose and says 'eeww, gross, yucky!' He won't even take a bite. We have recently stopped our policy of eat veggies=dessert, we just don't have any dessert in the house. We do serve fruit at the end of a meal, do I let him eat it if he hasn't eaten any dinner? We don't serve snacks and we never force him to try anything. He does get snacks at school and he get crackers, cookies and other junk that is not ever in our house.

I just don't know what to do about this situation. DS is a healthy weight, I am more concerned about his teeth and small jaw and about his getting colds all the time.

[joybird]

I think it would be darn near impossible to get my 5 YO to eat nutritious food if she was being exposed to any junk foods or SAD type things during the day.  I'm pretty sure she would do the same thing you're describing.  When they eat sugar or white carbs very often, everything else really does taste gross to them.  I knew a kid who took it so far that he would only eat white food.  White.  That was it.  It went on for THREE YEARS!  You could try doing things in fun shapes or giving them interesting names but that might not cut it . . . Is there any way you can send food to school with him?  Its more work/hassle but completely worth it, especially when I think about how early eating habits set the stage for their preferences later on.

I really only let the kids eat fruit between meals but I will give them a small spoon of honey after dinner, or a small healthy 'cookie' made with almond flour, coconut, honey.   I would probably not let them have fruit instead of dinner unless they were actually sick or something.  I'd save the dinner and heat it up for them later if they got hungry, which they would.  ;)  

Also, I really think kids that age need snacks, or more smaller meals throughout the day.  Three big meals might be too much and too far between.

[mama1803]

Have you considered a zinc deficiency?  That is always my first thought when I see questions regarding picky eaters and/or kids who are frequently ill.

Zinc deficiency is quite common, particularly in children.  Only about 30% of zinc is actually absorbed.  Loss of appetite is actually one of the more common signs of deficiency.  As zinc is critical to immune system functioning, a deficiency can also be signaled by frequent illness. Because zinc controls our senses of taste and smell, insufficeint zinc levels can affect appetite.  I suffer from a heredity condition that results in low zinc levels.  I have experienced loss of taste and smell for several weeks at a time and I can tell you from my own experience that trying to eat (even when hungry and you know you should eat) is very difficult when food doesn't taste or smell like anything.  It is truely a weird sensation.  People with loss of taste and smell will often gravitate toward SAD type foods because the only ones that register any taste are those that are excessively sweet or spicy.  My personal experience is that foods have a bitter taste when zinc is low--this can make even favorite foods really unappetizing.

I have found that supplementing with zinc will restore taste and smell within days and appetite returns fairly quickly.  I have also found that supplementing with zinc was the thing to break our seeminly never ending cycle of colds and sinus infections.

HTH

[herent]

My 8 year old son who has always been a picky eater and always sick with colds has been alot better this year since I cut back on his sugar intake and now takes a daily vitamin (which includes zinc).  I know for myself that when I eat sugary foods I crave only sugary junky foods so maybe making homemade lunches and not letting him get the sugar and carb laden lunches will help with his food choices at home.  I've made great progress with my sons diet recently by offering a large variety of different foods just to see what he likes thats healthy and several things I thought he would never eat , he actually likes broccoli, homemade hummus not the storebought kind, seaweed the kind you get a trader joes, and get this, fried chicken livers! of course heavily breaded but he thought they were chicken nuggets, we bread them in seasoned whole wheat flour and fry in coconut or olive oil.  At our home if they won't eat there dinner we save it for later and when they get hungry thats what they can eat.  We also serve snacks during the day but mostly healthy ones veggies, fruit, cheese, yogurt and sometimes we serve crackers too cause kids are kids, I try to make sure they are not too close to meal time so dinner isn't ruined, we also have dessert every once in a while and they definately don't get it if they don't eat some of there dinner.  Your son of course might just be going through a stage so just keep offering the good food and he will eat it when he's hungry, I usually try to make at least one thing at dinner time that I know my kids like, but healthy of course.  Hope this helps a little.

[Punchy Kaby]

I wouldn't be surprised if DS had a zinc deficiency. I am looking into some vitamins for him. I hesitate to send a lunch with him to school, first because DH is not 100% on board with making healthy lunches and he is the one who gets the kids ready in the morning. And second, he goes to a small private school and all the kids get what the school serves.

I talked to DS and asked him to help me menu plan and come o the store with me and pick out something new to try each week. He used to eat everything I made!