Kids and food | ADHD Information

Since my son throws up or gags if he doesn't like the taste or texture of what he's eating, I kind of either make what the whole family likes, or he can have a PB&J sandwich instead of what we're having. He's always had sensory issues in the mouth.

I posted this in the basement, too, but I thought I would ask you guys who never go down to the basement, also.

I'm just curious...

I have two nephews visiting, and I am quite taken aback by the kids and their attitudes about food. One nephew is 13 1/2 and the other will be twelve in a week. The one who is 13 1/2 basically will only eat meat, pizza, chicken, cereal, potatoes, seafood, and Ramen Noodles. In addition, he eats like a horse. I took the kids to Wendy's, and he ate two triple hamburgers with cheese, fries, and a shake.

The one who is soon to be twelve will not eat any meat except bacon, will eat shrimp and chicken but not with any type of sauce on it, pizza but only the kind his dad makes (his dad is my brother, who also is visiting), corn (the only vegetable he will eat), and peanut butter. They both drink tons of sodas, which I don't keep in the house. The younger one will not drink the organic milk because he says it makes his stomach hurt--regular milk, which I don't keep in the house, does not.

This morning, I made pancakes (I make ones that are almost as big as the skillet) and bacon, and the 13 1/2 year old tried to eat five pancakes and seven pieces of bacon. I told him he needed to put two pancakes and three pieces of bacon back because we didn't have enough for everyone, if he ate that much. The younger one would not eat the pancakes because they were big ones, and he will only eat small ones, so he had cereal, instead, but my brother had to go across the street and get regular milk, since the kid wouldn't drink organic milk.

I said something to my brother about how odd I thought their eating habits were, and he said, "They're just kids." Really??? My son will eat a whole barage of foods, and he's their age. I had a foster daughter who tried the, "I will eat this, and I won't eat that, and my food needs to be cooked a certain way," thing, and I broke her of that in, oh, about a month. I basically said, "This is dinner. You can choose to eat it or not eat it, but if you choose not to, you don't eat until your bedtime snack in three hours, and I'm not cooking you anything then." Wow, it was amazing! That child began to eat a lot of different foods.

How do you guys handle this? Do you make your kids eat the food you fix, or do you cater to their tastes?

.IMac38944.5576851852Imac's right, the limited food choices are learned behavior which can be unlearned depending how much time you have and whether or not this issue will alienate your brother and his wife. My attitude would be "This is what we're eating tonight," and let the kids choose between eating what's on their plates or not eating at all. After dinner don't give them any access to food. Say something like: "You weren't hungry enough to eat dinner, you must not have room for desert."

Having said that, try not to serve anything exotic like squid Dead

. My son has always eaten what we eat. He doesn't like artichokes (too much work) but he loves brocolli and asparagus. I make recipes that he doesn't care for, one with curry and another with sun-dried tomatoes and kalamata olives, and he eats a minimum portion. My day is too busy (as is yours) to make two meals. If they complain, you say "that's just the way it is at Aunt Lillian's house. Don't worry though, you're mom will be back cooking for you in just a few weeks."

As for the quantity these boys eat, I can't help you there!

Just wanted to throw this out there - hope it doesn't offend anyone:

My DD (6.5) is a VERY picky eater. She has been in play therapy for 8 mos due to Anxiety and we just received an additional diagnosis of ADHD. We have always tried to enforce a "one bite to taste it" rule, but it was increasingly causing more and more battles with her. She would just cry or refuse to eat, etc. We still thought it was the right thing to do, BUT her therapist pointed out that battling about food could set her up for an eating disorder. We did not set out to cater to her limited tastes and have always exposed her to a wide variety of foods - but, she likes what she likes at this point and would truly not eat or sneek snacks when we aren't looking. So... we do try to provide something at every meal that we know she likes, and we encourage her to try the other things we are having.

I guess my point is that I have really had to bite my tongue at times when ppl told me I shouldn't "let her" be so picky, should force her to eat what we're eating or nothing, etc, etc. I'm just saying that SOMETIMES all those "rules/tricks/methods" that other parents have success with just don't work with every child. Don't we all know this too well from having a child with ADHD? :)

Food for thought!

Christina

I wholeheartedly agree with your point of view! I also am of the camp You eat what we eat. This summer, though, we had to change. DD was having meltdowns at dinner every stinking night about dinner. So I let her make herself a PB&J or have a fried chicken leg(I keep that on hand from the grocery store). We were having some scary ODD moments early this summer that I just decided to let her have the "control" on the dinner issue. Plus, I'm trying to get her to eat and gain some weight as she is still 3 lbs. down from last November. Your nephews sound like PITAs, but you could give in a little. It's only a couple of weeks. For example, my SIL has recently changed her eating to vegetables only. Now if we visited her family, we would have to go get food our family would eat because we wouldn't be too happy eating only vegetables!

Hope everything turns out OK for their visit!

Here you eat what's in the home or don't eat. Since it's brothers kids tell them they can eat what's here or go get there own stuff. Here you have to try one bite also. Add butter/good oils in with Salt/pepper/Season all. I think it's rude to be picky in someone elses home.

Teens eating a lot cause of the growing they are haveing then that is normal.

[QUOTE=stardust10]

Just wanted to throw this out there - hope it doesn't offend anyone:

Food for thought!

Christina

[/QUOTE]

Christina,

No offense, at all. I agree with what you are doing--having foods she likes available at each meal, plus other things. That's exactly what we did with our foster daughter, and it worked. As long as there was food available that she liked, she didn't have meltdowns and was more willing to try the new foods she hadn't tried before.

[QUOTE=nekochan]Since my son throws up or gags if he doesn't like the taste or texture of what he's eating, I kind of either make what the whole family likes, or he can have a PB&J sandwich instead of what we're having. He's always had sensory issues in the mouth. [/QUOTE]

I have wondered about sensory issues myself with my daughter - sometimes I felt like she was "acting" as far as the gagging goes, but it could also be sensory stuff. She complains about the texture of new foods - doesn't like anything grainy or stringy!

DS had a friend over recently who was supposed to stay for dinner, but decided he couldn't because the pizza we were having (homemade) had homemade sauce and he couldn't eat sauce like that. What?!

When I read about the kid who wouldn't drink organic milk, it reminded me of this.

We had gone to the trouble of switching the menu to pizza from something else because we know this kid is particular about his food, but only sauce from a jar?!?

He was ready to call his parents and go home before dinner.

We did coax him to stay, and he scraped the sauce off his pizza and ate the rest.

DS will eat basically ANYTHING so I was pretty stunned by this one.