"My child won't eat"- documentary

Acosmo27 · Dec 30, 2009

thats sad.. but I have to say, I couldnt help but laugh out loud during Part 2 of the documentary at around the 3:20 mark when the britney spears music comes on and the little girl keeps saying "yogurts".. hahaha

damrcngrl95 · Dec 30, 2009

Hi,

Thank you for this video. My 5 year old is like these children. I have heard and said some of the things you are saying. My child had a lot of food allergies. When he was being introduced to solid foods many of them made him sick. He developed food adversions early in life. All he wanted was his milk (Alimentum). If you tried to force him to eat by not letting him have his milk he just would go without food to the point I was afraid he would become dehydrated. The doctor said to not worry and just let him have the formula because he got the nutrition he needed. He was unable to get off of the Alimentum until he was over 2 years old because he couldn't tolerate anything else. He has now out grown his food allergies, but is still very fearful about eating certain foods. It has been a long process to get him where he is at now. He will now eat a variety of foods. I wish he would eat veggies, but I know that will come with time. I patiently offered him a variety of foods everytime I ate them. I wouldn't make him feel bad if he refused and always let him eat what he wanted. For over a year the only thing he would eat was grilled cheese sandwiches. Then he would eat fruit and it went on from there. He just now will eat meat.

I have older children and I always had the attitude you will eat what I put in front of you or else you will be hungry. My 5 year old has tested my patience with this rule. If I wasn't positive that he would just starve I would have just let him miss that meal or that day's meals, but his adversion would cause him to actually make himself ill and starve.

Thankfully, my 3 year old doesn't have the same problem and eats normally.

It made me feel better watching the videos. I have been doing many of the things these doctors have suggested. I have tried to not get upset about his eating habits, not make a game with food, and just try to offer food to him and encourage him to try.

deAnna

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Dec 30, 2009

I think the title is a bit misleading. All of those children eat. They just don't eat what the parents want them to eat. Also, I don't think its' as simple as just not making certain foods available. Extreme food preferences/aversions are not uncommon in autistic children, for example. Overall, I liked the doctor's approach to this problem. B.F. Skinner would be proud!

learninmama · Dec 30, 2009

Very interesting series!! Thanks for sharing!

Justanotherday · Dec 30, 2009

I have a five year old child who was on a feeding tube until this past summer. I did pretty much anything to encourage him to eat, and was constantly sinking to new "lows" to get calories into him. How does 4 or 5 Slim Jims for breakfast sound? Whatever he wanted, I gave it to him, because he needed to learn to eat. He was born with Esophageal Atresia (esophagus ended in a pouch instead of being connected to his stomach) so was unable to swallow at birth. He was repaired at two weeks, but did not eat by mouth until maybe 5 weeks old, and by then would cry when I tried to feed him. It was a long road that I thought would never end.