1. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Nov 07, 2005, 7:22 pm PST

If you are giving your child a snack inbetween meals, it might be okay to give them what they ask for. However, if you are at meal time, don't give them something that is not already on the table. They need to learn to eat what is being served at meal time. Otherwise they will go to other people's houses and cry for or throw a fit for something that is not being served. They need to learn to eat what is offered. Also, if they refuse to eat at meal time, don't give in and give them a snack 30 minutes later. Children will learn to eat what is being served and will learn to eat when it is served if a parent is consistent and firm. Never offer them unhealthy snacks, and they won't expect them. If you offer them fruits, vegtables and other healthy snacks from the beginning, then that is what they will ask for. They will develop a taste for the foods that they are fed from a young age. Of course they will be exposed to unhealthy foods outside of the home, and may even ask for them. However, if you don't give in, they will quit expecting it.

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2. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Nov 07, 2005, 11:24 pm PST

I agree with the first commenter. It's my opinion that if a parent allows the child to dictate what and when they'll eat, they'll naturally develop sloppy eating patterns that will affect them for the rest of their lives. My mother would usually make 2 veggies, but sometimes made 3 depending on if some of us didn't like some of them. We HAD to eat at least one of them. My southern grandmother made 3-5 vegetables for dinners! One aunt cooked similiar to my mother, while the other aunt cooked one veggie and often made a bean pot. It was rare that any of them used boxed foods. Except the one that had allergies, hardly any of us -- including my cousins -- were very picky eaters. One cousin went through a stage that she only wanted PBJ for most meals, but her mother insisted that she eat a few bites of meat and at least one veggie before she could eat half a PBJ. She outgrew the PBJ fixation. The one that had allergies was only picky about certain things, and still ate most foods put in front of him. We weren't allowed to eat sugared cereals, and could have ONE Little Debbie snack or a different kind of sweet per day. There was fruit available all the time. None of us were overweight, and only a few are slightly overweight now as adults with children, who are not overweight either -- a few are plump though, because the woman that married into the family let the kids choose their foods and eating patterns.

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3. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Mon, Nov 07, 2005, 11:54 pm PST

Any thoughts on what to offer my picky 14 month old besides Gerber, or applesauce and mashed potatos?

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4. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 5:45 am PST

i am fat i need to los weght

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5. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 8:22 am PST

I have a picky eater. She only eats certain things, and although I do offer other things at dinner, I will make her the things she likes. I don't belive in making her sit and eat things she doesn't like just cause I'm the parent and i say so. If she wants green beans, and not chicken i'm not going to force her to sit and stare at a piece of chicken. Children deveolp tastes for foods at a different time. If you try to force them to eat like an adult, they are more likley to not ever try new things because you have now made eating chicken a unpleasent situation by trying to make them eat it.

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6. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 8:50 am PST

It is best to avoid overeating regarless of whether you are a child or an adult.The problem in the developing world is that we do not have enough and even what are eaten are of low nutritive value.

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7. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 11:01 am PST

I find it easiest to have my picky 4 year old take a no thank you bite and after that he will almost always eat all of whatever it was. It's just getting him to take that first bite that takes all the work.

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8. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 11:20 am PST

My experience with my 1 & 2 year old children is that they will not starve themselves. As was said before, one day they love it and eat it all, and the next they turn their head away. All we can do is try and offer them healthy foods, and keep trying!

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9. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 12:42 pm PST

My friends father made her eat her vegetables as a child, she was NOT allowed to leave the table until she did so. She was so traumatized that as an adult she hates veggies..I say give them the option but NEVER force food.

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10. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 1:25 pm PST

If you eat right, your kids will eat right. My 4 year old has always loved eating bell peppers and broccoli, because he watches me eat them. He has never had soda, and rarely drinks juice. Water or milk is what's on tap! He also understands sugars in candy. He thinks they're attacking his teeth, and then can't wait to brush them. If you just treat food eating as a matter of fact and don't press them on it, then your kids will love eating healthy too.

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11. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 2:57 pm PST

THIS IS ABOUT YOUR CHILDREN BEING A PICKY EATER NOT ABOUT YOU NEEDING TO LOSE WIEGHT.

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12. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 3:05 pm PST

I have lost 223 pounds the old fashioned way. No surgery. Very proud of myself

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13. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 3:29 pm PST

First, get a food processor or even a good blender. Make your own baby food, far healthier, no added salt, sugar. Amazing what your baby might eat.

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14. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 4:53 pm PST

Who are the parents here? Hopefully the people who read this. Stop letting the children rule the roost. You know what's best for them whether they think so or not. If they don't eat what's on the plate then they simply don't eat. I promise you, when the true hunger kicks in, they will and then you won't have to come here to whine about your problems. Afterall, your the one worrying about this, not them.

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15. Posted by A Yahoo! Health User on Tue, Nov 08, 2005, 6:33 pm PST

NO!!!!

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