Help my 7 Year Old Will NOt Eat

Is he underweight?

ignore the trolls who can’t respect a child’s well-being.

Many children also have SI issues which affect their eating - hypersensitity to textures, in particular. we came up with a list of foods acceptable to both of us - grated cheese (mild cheddar only), smoked turkey breast from deli, roast chicken, cucumber sticks, carrot sticks, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with no crusts, etc. These are individually packaged for her lunches. Heaven forbid things touch! We also give her a mulitvitamin daily. I save the battles for other things.

For dinner, she eats with us, whatever we are eating unless its spicy. At dinner she has to eat some of the protein and some of the veggies.

Find some basics you can agree on, those get eaten first. After that, let him have the snacks you can agree on -popcorn, whatever. The junk I can’t stand - poptarts, junk cereal is for weekends only.

The lack of appetite and subsequent weight loss was probably the hardest side effect for us to deal with. My dd was not the typical child that looses this side effect within 3 months of taking the medication. She didn’t eat much for years. She lost significant weight and basically stopped growing for about 18 months. She only grew 1/2 inch during that time, and she was in 2nd-4th grades, not the norm at all.
We did several things. First, I limited the junk food, yea, at least she’d eat it, but what the good is a bunch of empty calories nutrition wise? Her body couldn’t use them effectively to grow and develop. That meant that everyone in the house had to cut back, not a bad thing anyway. Second, I looked for higher nutrition snacks that she would eat, things like meal replacement bars, shakes, celery (or another vegie) with some peanut butter and raisins, cottage cheese with fruit, vegies with dip, cut up fruit, etc. (she didn’t like everything). I added Carnation Instant Breakfast or a Meal Replacement Drink mix to her milk (with some powdered chocolate milk mix to make it taste better) with everymeal to boost her calorie and nutrition intake. (Some people have had success with drinks like Pediasure or Boost) I offered her small meals throughout the day, and let her eat late at night when she finally did start to get hungry.
We did have to resort to medication to stimulate her appetite. It was that or take her off medication, which wasn’t an option at that time. So she took a med called Periactin for a little while. It’s a mild antihistamine that is also used for migraine headaches. It has a wonderful side effect of stimulating appetite, even at very low doses. She took 1/2 to 3/4 of the recommended dose, we eventually had to go to liquid b/c the pills are so small we couldn’t split them into fourths with any bit of accuracy. She had no effects from the med other than an increased appetite, so much so that we had to give it to her in the morning b/c she would get up and eat at night. We had started with once a day night time dosing hoping it might also make her tired as antihistamines do, but it had no effect on her sleep at all.
My dd is now taking Concerta, and eats very well with no other medication required. Good luck.

I think sneaking in shakes in between meals works best.

Leave enough time before the next meat that it isnt interfering with his appetite-soon as he walks in the door from school for example

What kind of shake? Well, I would certainly start with the healthiest version you can afford(some use Pediasure slightly frozen) and move down in desirability if you have to. My son wouldnt touch the better stuff. We use the plain chocolate kind you find in the milk section-I figure with a daily multivitamin it’s about the same end result. I also would pick my son up from school and drive through McD’s for a shake.

I know of many women(NOT me)who werent gaining weight in their pregnanacy and this was the OB/GYN’s recommendation-shakes!!!!! I figure it cant be all THAT bad!

I posted a long time ago asking about protein intake. It DID seem many of ‘our’ kids shunned protein. Which makes me think they REALLY need it.

I hadnt thought of the SID connection but boy, that makes sense.

So at meals I push the protein and yes, I definitely have the best luck with easily chewed non-lumpy, non-grainy, non-textured foods(Im writing down mmmmm’s list) I also give him the option of a peanut butter sandwich if he doesn like what we have(crust removed OF COURSE)

BTW I dont know the exact hours the adderallxr is working but I felt my sons appetite was depressed the entire time even if I took him off it for weekends. Now, an entire summer was enough time to get his appetite back, but personally, the ‘feed him in the morning’ type advice never worked for us either

I’ve been buying that Ensure high protein drink for my depressed daughter who is not eating. She likes it.

Interesting that you should mention that his food cannot touch. My daughter has been the very same way since she was little, and she’s not ADHD. She also will not eat the crust on bread.

writing down our food list? yikes, we jokingly call it the white food diet.
add apple quarters - peeled, watermelon with no seeds, crisp bacon slices (a treat), black california olives, meatloaf (if not often), green pepper strips, caulifower forets (occasionaly with ranch dressing dip),ramen noodles (dry or wet), homemade chicken noodle soup (or campbells hearty), and believe it or not-oatmeal!

But the idea is to develop what works for your family and then push those for snacks. grated cheese and a plain flour tortilla =quesadilla snack instead of potato chips or cheese balls after school. Raw veggies seem to be easier than cooked.

I am grateful that she avoids a lot of very high fat - nothing creamy, no chocolate, no mayo, no ice cream, no cakes. Her sweets are straight sugar - gum, jolly ranchers, gummy worms. The idea of candy seems to be better than than the actual candy-her halloween bag sits for months and gets thrown away. But the processed junk food -chips, pop, junk cereals, cheese balls could go on forever.

I figure age will take care of some of it - I figure by the time she’s dating she will be able to choke down a veggie or two. Hard to have a candlelit dinner with only finger foods!

Again, pay no attention to the troll. He/she doesn’t care about your child or mine.

Has anyone else noticed he/she only comes out at night?

ignore the rants, focus on your task. My child isn’t under weight (we wonder how she grows on so little) but we acted in the interests of a balanced diet and removing the arguemnts over foods. We feel we chose a proactive model “lets work with you on providing the quality foods that you do like”. She gets to give input and we both assess the food’s nutritional quality. But I do feel that a big part of her problem is Sensory related. I do wonder about the need for immediate sugars and the ADD.

Underweight is a different difficult issue. I like Roxie’s approach. I know many who chose to switch to Strattera from stimulants did so because of weight issues. those call for medical advice-how do you feel about the prescribing doctor? knowledgeable? up to date?

Thanks for all the replys. The prescribing Dr is a developmental specialist. To the guest who keeps making me feel like I am feeding my child poison. Do you have a child with ADHD and LD’s. Without the medicine he would not be able to focus enough to learn and with his LD’s it even makes life tougher on him. He is much more confident this year then last because he is learning and not finding it as difficult before he was on the meds. We don’t put him on it for an easy fix for his behavior in fact we keep him off of it over the summer. We fought the meds for a long time but finally we know that his being able to learn depended on it.

I don’t know why I feel I have to defend myself but I would appreciate it if you would leave your opinions to yourself unless you are a leading expert on the matter.

Please don’t let someone make you feel you have to defend your medication decisions. Responding to these people only feeds the fire. The rest of us know that you have made an informed decision in the best interest of your particular child.

I don’t have the answers you are seeking, we struggle with some of the same problems here in my house, along with a sensory child who rejects many foods on texture, smell, who cooked it, when it was cooked and on and on.

The one success we did have recently that I can share was over vegetables. I can happily say he now will eat broccoli, green beans, cauliflower, carrots and more. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty, but it happened. We just kept putting a small serving on his plate and saying he had to try one bite of each item. I was careful to start with the items I thought he would have the least problem with. I have a very logical, lawyerly 8 year old. We talked about the rate tastebuds die and are replaced, and that something he didn’t like last year, or even yesterday, might have changed because his tastebuds are constantly being replaced. Whether or not this is strictly scientific, it worked for him.

He still won’t eat at anyone else’s house, but at home it has improved. And I do allow him somethings he just won’t have anything to do with, if I can see a true aversion for it.

Smiles
Molly

Yipee! my child came home from a sleepover at a new friend’s house on the weekend saying they had chinese food for supper and she ate it! Even the garlic! I think she was proud of herself. In the past, the mothers of her friends have all spoken to me about feeling bad when she won’t eat at their house.

I feel that she will outgrow much of the food stuff the way she outgrew being irritated by clothing tags. In the meantime…..

Not meaning to threadjack here, but I saw three references to a troll belittling the OP in this thread, but I saw no posts that I could identify as being the reason for this. Were they deleted from the thread?

Yes Dad! You actually bumped the thread up so I don’t think that you threadjacked.

We are big fans of the “no thank you bite” in this house. It is not too much to ask a child to try new things. We only have healthy choices in our house now and my kids are thin but healthy. If they want a snack within the 2 hours before dinner, I will give them veggies and dip, frozen peas or corn, sweet baby carrots etc… This way they have already eaten their “dinner” veggies. My husband cooks a lot and they seem to love to snitch food off the cutting board and we allow that so long as they save a little room to eat with the family.

Terry