Daughter Will Not Eat

[kbdy]

We've tried all kinds of things with her, but she just doesn't want to eat. Unless you count Cheetos & Trix.

I've made the Pamela's bread mix, tried crackers, pretzels, mac & cheese, pasta, pizza, (al gluten-free) she won't touch meat.. any kind of meat. Refusing cheese & milk.

What do I do now? I know that the texture is different & a bit of the taste is also, but she's got to eat something.

Right now she'll eat a bowl of cereal in the am, a few pretzels for a snack, maybe a bite of yogurt for lunch & then that's it. She's 3 & this can't possibly be healthy for her. This has been going on for almost 2wks now.

Please, any suggestions would be sooo appreciated!

[Guest j_mommy]

Have you checked with your pediatrician???? what does he say???? Is she losing lots of weight????

My youngest sister(WE're 20 yrs apart) went for 3wks when shw was 2 1/2 eating only cheerios! We gave her pediasure with it and she as fine......WE monitored her weght and then one day she snapped out of it and wanted a cheese burger.

[kbdy]

Have you checked with your pediatrician???? what does he say???? Is she losing lots of weight????

My youngest sister(WE're 20 yrs apart) went for 3wks when shw was 2 1/2 eating only cheerios! We gave her pediasure with it and she as fine......WE monitored her weght and then one day she snapped out of it and wanted a cheese burger.

I have a call into them to see what they say, but they're not too familiar w/celiac either

I weighed her this am & she seems to only be down about 1lb so about 26lbs. I'm hoping that one day she'll just be hungry & eat. I'm sure there's a period of adjustment to this diet. I just feel bad that she won't eat.

[Guest j_mommy]

My sister was not celiac....she was just going through a period...could it just be she's testing her authority????Or trying something new????

Two and three year olds can be picky eaters...my son is one of those. Plus trying new foods is hard for them and as you said above the taste and texture are alittle off. THe best bread I have foudn thus far is from silly yak bakery..they do ship! www.sillyyakbakery.com

I would call your DR and find out how concerned they are. Make sure she stays hydrated and mabye look at a gluten-free version of pediasure. They have all kinds of flavors and i'm not sur eif pediasure is gluten-free.

Good Luck!

[Guest j_mommy]

Will she do smoothies???? Ice,Yogurt, milk, strawberries, bananas ect to get some good stuff in her????

[Juliebove]

I think that sort of behavior is pretty typical of young kids. My daughter never really went through it. With her, it's difficult to get her to *stop* eating. But I can recall most of her friends going through a period of time when they didn't want to eat at all. Or would only eat one or two foods.

What some of the parents did was make the kids sit down with the rest of the family at meal time with just a tiny amount of food on their plate. They'd keep insisting that the kid eat and after a while they'd just give up and say that the kid could leave the table after they ate 5 bites, or whatever amount they decided was right. Always seemed to turn into a power struggle thing.

I wouldn't worry about it too much unless she starts losing more weight.

[Juliet]

When our son was first diagnosed and we went completely gluten free (I messed up a little at first for the first two weeks by giving him all oat flour O's cereal and Rice Krispies bars), he only ate plain white rice, sometimes Bush's vegetarian baked beans, applesauce and cheese (we gave him Lactaid for about 2 weeks just before serving him dairy; after being gluten free for those two weeks he could have the cheese without the Lactaid). After about 3 weeks, we got him to also add Gorilla Munch cereal by calling them "cracker balls" (he liked crackers and he liked balls, so the combination name worked). So then this was added to his four item repertoire of food, but as you can see, it only barely increased. I think he was feeling soooooo sick before, that when he found some items he could manage to eat and not feel sick, he was afraid to venture out past it. All the things he used to eat: bread, pasta, crackers we couldn't get him to even try when we got gluten free versions. Again, once he started feeling better, he was afraid to try his old "stand-bys." After a couple of months of the limited gluten free diet, he started trying other things. But it took about 6 months to get him to try gluten free bread, and even longer before he'd eat gluten free pasta again. He still won't eat the typical orange colored gluten free mac & cheese (his favorite before diagnosis), and it's been over a year and a half. We have to give him DeBoles white cheddar & shells rice pasta or make it from scratch (it's only barely orange then).

I'd do as the other people have suggested - see if she will try a smoothie or "chocolate milk" that's actually Pediasure, or something akin to that, and don't fight her on her limited diet choices. When she starts trusting she's feeling better, and she's no longer 3 (our son has to nearly be forced to try something like a chocolate chip cookie if it looks different from what he's had before), she'll probably try other things again once in awhile.

[Electra375]

When our then 3 1/2 yr old son was dx w celiac disease he was not eating much, his stomach hurt, his legs hurt, lets face it he just plain hurt all over. His favorite foods were fruits and veggies, still are. I went and bought raspberries for him (dh said not to think twice about the money). He did not like the gluten-free substitutes for some time, not b/c they were not tastey, but b/c he associated that type of food with pain. We had to work a VERY long time on food associations.

A mother whom I met at a local support group said her doctor gave her a script for Periactin to make her child hungry. I called our pedi and asked what she thought and she immediately prescribed it for me. The directions were to take it everyday, but I'm not that kind of medicine taker, so we would give it to him for a few days and he would start to eat, then we would slack off and when he stopped eating we would give it to him again. Later our Pedi stated that was the way the new recommendations said to take it!!!

I made a lot of gluten-free food which was thrown away in those early months. It was a full year before he was "hungry" and it was a night in October he came into our bedroom, I was nursing his sister to sleep, it was 10:20pm and he said he was HUNGRY. I about cried for joy, really. He ate at that time every night for 2 weeks straight.

I also had made the decision earlier if he never at a gluten-free processed product he would be fine. He likes eggs, meats, poultry, broccoli, carrots, green beans, peas, fruits, etc. He does not like potatos that much or rice. It's okay if he eats a very healthy diet of fresh foods. He has learned over time that gluten-free banana bread is good, but there are a lot of things he will never eat again even if they are gluten-free.

He's 5 now, he is small, but he is pretty healthy. celiac disease really messed him up mentally he isn't really 5, he missed his first 3 years of life due to pain. He was glutened this weekend and violently threw up, had intense stomach pain and his legs hurt. He obviously lived like that until Mommy stopped feeding him Gluten, which he turned away most of it anyway. My kid didn't like bread, sandwiches, cereal, chicken nuggets, cookies, donuts, cupcakes -- he'd rather have strawberries...

I just wanted to let you know what you are experiencing is normal from my experience. Give her time to heal and time to accept gluten-free substitutes really are not going to hurt her. Just before my ds stated he was hungry, I was looking into psycho-therapy with a psychologist who specialized in childhood eating disorders, she was not familiar with celiac disease, but she was willing to help us. Fortunately, I didn't have to go that route, she was about 3 hours away in DC metro area.

[Darn210]

When you say that she's been doing this for 2 weeks, I'm going to assume that you've been going gluten free for two weeks . . .

She may be having trouble with milk - lots of celiacs do until they have had a chance to heal. My daughter took a lactaid pill (they have chewable versions) whenever she had dairy for about two months after starting gluten free.

I think a lot of the problem is the age . . . three year olds can be tough. My sister-in-law used to follow her daughter around trying to get her to eat - she just wouldn't and there was nothing wrong except that she was 2 1/2. At that point in her life, all she would eat is mac&cheese, toast, cheerios, marshmallows, and milk.

My daughter isn't going for most gluten free bread-type products that she used to eat before - no bread, no bagels, no bun (cost a fair number of $$$ to figure that out ). Face it, they are not even close. Instead of bread, she eats rice cakes with peanut butter - she had never had them before so it was a new thing. My kids did not like any of the packaged gluten free mac and cheeses. They do like the Tinkyada brand of pasta with butter and parmesean - they have a "shapes" version where there is cats, dogs, cars, stars . . . and of course, that makes them taste better. Kraft has a version of its powdered cheese used in their blue box mac and cheese that they sell separately but they call it "Macaroni & Cheese Cheese Topping" and it says to shake it on popcorn. We use that to make mac & cheese and add a little butter & milk. I have found it at a couple of Wal-Marts (but not every one) and it's with the Parmesean cheese and is in a thin blue shaker type container.

My daughter was not much of a meat eater either - still isn't too much but it's better. Peanut butter and dairy was how she got most of her protein. I used to (and still do) let her use peanut butter as a dip for anything. She dips pretzels into peanut butter and apples, carrots . . . I let her do the dipping - that's part of the fun.

And this is my favorite three year old trick for anything bite sized . . . have them eat it with a toothpick. In the beginning, it may even need to be fancy ones with the little swirly things at the top. That's how I got both of my kids to eat cantelope, watermelon, and honeydew. But anything that you can actually poke a toothpick into is fair game. We were at a neighbors for a 3-family pitch in and I brought some cut up cantelope and fancy toothpicks. I was dishing it up for all the kids and my neighbor said - "Oh, my kids don't eat cantelope". I passed around the toothpicks and away they went. Her next comment was "I must have missed that day in mommy school".

Another suggestion is to let her help you make something or to "decorate" her food somehow. My daughter will eat hamburgers now because we make a smiley face on it with ketchup. Put peanut butter on a rice cake and have her decorate it with her trix cereal. Just because we wouldn't eat it (my son likes peanut butter and ham sandwiches ) doesn't mean that it wouldn't entice them.

Good luck

[kbdy]

Thank you all for the responses. I never thought that it might be associated w/pain And yes she's been gluten-free for about 2wks now.

My kids are going on vacation w/my parents this weekend & it's gonna be tough b/c they don't have a kitchen where they're staying. Hopefully they will fully follow the gluten-free diet or dd is gonna be sick & no one will have fun.

I'll have to try the pasta suggested, shapes do make a difference, lol. And some of the other suggestions. She's not much of a dipper. She likes everything plain, no butter, no sauces, no condiments... dipping is not something she likes, lol.

The ped said that she'll start eating again when she's hungry. So hopefully she'll get hungry soon!