Big time eating VENT!! Need advice!!

Megan will be 3 in August. She is the most horrible eater in the world. Apparently she takes after my husband when he was little. She has very little on the menu of what she will eat. She eats no meat besides chicken nuggets. She will NOT try anything new at all and when she does, she gags. Its BAD!!!

She HATES condiments..so dipping things in ketchup isnt even a consideration. I would love to get to a point where I cook dinner and she just eats whatever we are eating. It is SO STRESSFUL!! I feel like her eating habits consume my life. To top it all off, if I dont feed her, she wont eat a thing. Its a daily battle. Meal times consist of trying to distact her..giving her ultimatums..i.e. if you dont eat, you are going to bed right this minute, etc. If we go out, I usually take a cheese sandwich with me but I will have to stop whatever I am doing to feed it to her because she just wont eat it if I hand it to her. She knows how to feed herself, that is not the issue, she just doesnt care if she ever eats. For some odd reason, the only thing she feeds herself is grilled cheese at lunch at the kitchen table..can you say odd???

I just dont know what to do anymore. I give her vitamins every day but I am so scared shes not getting the proper nutrition. I have tried to make her REALLY hungry...waiting longer stretches between meals, doesnt matter. No tactic seems to work.

My mom told me last night that I should just give her whatever I make. If she doesnt eat, she doesnt eat. She will soon be hungry enough to eat the food I put in front of her but this makes me so nervous. The idea that shes going to bed hungry, makes me sick. Then usually she will wake in the middle of the night asking for cheerios which defeats all purposes. Ive spoken to her ped and she says..as long as shes eating something she will grow out of it. But she doesnt understand how this over takes my life. I see kids munching on so much...I see people on here write that their kids ate hummus or a burger or a scrambled egg and I literally cry because I cannot even imagine.

I guess no one can really offer any advice but I needed to vent. It is just so frustrating and I guess I thought by this age, she would have gotten better when in actuality, I think she has gotten worse. Thanks for reading if you got this far.

Re: Big time eating VENT!! Need advice!!

i am going to have to agree with your mom here.

(i've never been in your shoes so i am NOT speaking from experience )

i would just offer her what you are making for dinner, with maybe one alternate (like a cheese sandwich).

and i would not feed it to her anymore. if she wants to eat she will have to feed herself.

i cannot imagine that she would let herself starve. (but, again, i've never been there so please correct me if i am wrong and kids do this!)

i think you're just going to have to put your foot down. i am sorry this is stressing you out

Re: Big time eating VENT!! Need advice!!

Noreen I have been through this with DD. The one agreement that we have come to after trying the going hungry thing is that if I make something, as long as she tries it, and I mean really tries it then she can have something else if she doesn't like it. A lot of it IMO is a control issue. My brother was truly the worst eater and he grew out of it too. I feel for you. We can talk later about it tonight if you want.

Re: Big time eating VENT!! Need advice!!

My niece eats the following (she is 5)

grilled cheese
french fries
pancakes
chicken nuggets

Thats all.

My brother trid the eat ehat we eat or dont eat. Well she didnt eat. They tried bribing her, she threw up for hours after a BITE of a burger.

Her Ped says she will come around. She is healthy and just last week dipped thetinest amount of ketchup on her FF. We all were like

Small steps

Re: Big time eating VENT!! Need advice!!

I agree with your mom. Your daughter knows you'll end up catering to her needs. If you don't she'lll think "Oh shoot if I don't eat this I won't eat at all" If you stop catering to her she'll eventually have to come around!
I would absolutely start today. You do it for a couple of weeks and see what happens.