The Hatch-Palucks, Week 15: The Elephant In the Room

Thank you so much, Carol. Your story gives me hope. I'm so glad it resonated with you!

Carol, I would love to speak with you about your former food aversion.
I too have this aversion and feel you would have insight. Please
contact. I will be emailed when and if you reply to this comment. Or
email me at keemerbeemer@aol.com. Thank you

my grandson has the same food fears. His menu is a bit more extensive, but getting him to try neww foods is impossible. I sympathise. He is 7 years old.

My son was food phobic all through childhood. I always used this term when describing him but I never knew it was an actual thing. There was a time where he ate no more than 5 or 6 different items. I tried EVERYTHING the doctors suggested. We used to go on vacations with packages of food because we knew wherever we were going...he would not find any food to eat. At summer camp, I would have to tell the counselors not to worry if he never ate anything other than bread because...he wouldn't. One summer he came home from camp and said..."I eat everything now" and he did. It was over...on his own terms. I guess he got hungry!!!

We weren't exactly adventurous eaters, but my husband and I had both suffered through incidents involving meals containing food other than meat and potatoes. We decided our kids weren't going to do that, so 'we' did one new food or preparation each week. "You liked it last time" almost always worked. I don't like asparagus and artichokes or fried bananas. Hubby won't eat Red Beans and Rice ... But basically, a kid will eat enough to keep them alive and well. One trick is to make new stuff extra attractive, and make a lot of Um-m noises -- while not trying to force it on the non-eater.

Went through the same problem with my daughter. Turned out to be gluten intolerance causing the panic attacks. Took 3 hospitals, 8 doctors, five years..finally found it on line. An allergist assured me she had no food allergies. They only look for IgE (histamine) reactions, not IgG reactions (delayed onset). You have to rub your doctor's nose in it. My daughter has been gluten free for nine years. No gluten=, no problems.

are you serious? get a job and quit screwing up your child....she is using it as a means of manipulation....I am so sick of mothers without parenting skills. We are raising freaks...every spoiled brat gets a fancy label so the parent doesn't have to take responsibility for lack of parenting skills. She is already overweight..good job! Her diet is fine...just cut out the cookies and any junk food. Give her nutella, yogurt , mac and cheese...and for God's sake stop feeding into the negative behavior

My 20 year old son has had an eating phobia his entire life. When he was 11, he was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease. As a young child, with an undiagnosed disease, his brain learned that "food hurts." Throughout the years he has had cognitive-behavioral therapy, EMDR (rapid eye movement therapy), anti-anxiety medication, and hypnosis. He has been on medication for Crohn's Disease for 9 years. Nothing has made a dent in his eating phobia. Social situations involving eating are very difficult and he wants to be able to eat. But he cannot. It is heartbreaking and I feel deeply for all parents and children going through this. People who criticize us do not understand the situation.

Please leave her alone. I had the same issues when I was a young girl. My parents always trying to get me to eat, try new things, made a huge issue of my eating patterns...The pediatrition (sp), said to leave me alone......I'd eat when I was hungry and making an issue was the worst way of dealing with my eating habits...Please leave her alone... Making an issue is not good..Ask your doctor...

If you start your kids off eating healthy food and that's all they know, they will eat it. Give them sugary, salty processed and fast foods to start and of course they will choose that over nutritious foods.

We've become a society that has just accepted "kid food": chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, hot dogs, etc. "That's all my kid will eat" parents say. Well if all they knew were fruits and vegetables, that's what they'd eat. Sorry, but this sounds like an excuse. There doesn't have to be a disorder for every problem. Sometimes it just takes some discipline and tough love.

food phobia?? seriously?!? no wonder the rest of the world despises us. How about letting her participate in an exchange program with some family from Haiti for a year! I bet that will 'cure' her phobia! LOL

taking her to doctors validates her behavior, now she'll REALLY dig-in and not eat anything she doesn't want to, because now she's learned it's "not her fault". Her parents need to stop coddling her and step-up and start running the show.

You need Http://www.childrenshealthsecrets.com to start healthy eating habits early with your children.

A wonderful group of founding mothers with children with feeding issues has started www.popsiclecenter.org, partnering with national leaders in pediatric feeding and swallowing challenges. Check them out! Those of us with kids who have trouble eating feel inadequate and alone, but now there's help, real support, and a direction for advances in this area!

Looking at the cheeks on this child, I don't see the point in forcing her to eat anything :-)

This kid just sounds like a spoil brat. I'm wondering whether her body will ever catch up with her big head.

Most kids will have an issue with some foods because they just don't like them. Others may have an underlying medical problem that has a physical cause. But, "food phobia" seems a stretch with this particular child. It appears that this little girl has learned to manipulate her parents because they make such a big issue of her eating. Looking at what she eats: "frozen waffles and pancakes, grilled cheese and fries, chicken nuggets, smooth yogurt (no fruit pieces allowed), bananas, boxed mac-and-cheese, Nutella, white bread, bagels, crackers and some cookies"...this isn't the healthiest diet. If I were her parent, I would stop making what she eats an issue but she wouldn't be eating unhealthy frozen waffles and pancakes, french fries, chicken nuggets, boxed mac & cheese, etc. I would stop buying all of those, those foods wouldn't be in the house. Yogurt and bananas would stay, grilled cheese would be cooked in a non-stick pan without oil or butter and if that's all she wants to eat let her and don't try to get her to eat anything else. Let her watch the rest of the family eat real foods and either she'll come around on her own and eat mac-and-cheese that's not from a box or be limited to healthy foods she will eat. By putting so much emphasis on her eating habits is just allowing this child to be a little tyrant.

Did you read the story? The mother gave her all kinds of food.

This is NOT a matter of parents indulging children. I have a child with similar issues, and in my attempts to get him to eat food - I've let him go as long as 5 full days with nothing but water at the suggestion of the pediatrician and people like you who don't understand.

You POV would make sense if they were indulging on nothing but junk, but did you read that this child won't even eat new sweets? I can't even get my son to eat ice cream, cookies, etc.

This is NOT a case about just being picky and indulgent parents.

My son has aspergers and sensory issues as well. We have been battling the food thing ever since he started eating table food. I had previously MADE all his baby food as I wanted him to have the healthiest diet.

Two things I want to mention. Does your child have trouble chewing? Or using only parts of her teeth? Or doesnt' like to chew at all? That is one of the issues with my son and because he has "almost choked" (for real twice and in his mind many more times) he doesn't like foods you have to chew. We literally are teaching him HOW to chew.

Secondly, we have just started on an anti-depressant. My son is 11 so this was not the first choice. He seems to be doing some better. I don't know if it is the medicine or the age or what, but it does seem to help. I wonder if this little girl doesn't have other issues going on.

Anyway -- hang in there. Keep offering new foods. Be glad when they try a new food EVEN if it is junk. My son ate chicken nuggest the other day. Normally I would have been horrified but I was just so happy to see him try a new food without issue.

And ignore comments from parents you want to put the blame no you because it is something they are ignorant of.