One meal

Pick a meal. Just one. Pick a meal that you could eat everyday for a year or more. Cant do it? Me either. So how the hell does my kid survive off of this? Granted he switches between like 4 options, most of which are carbs. He refuses to try new things and I have to threaten him with no TV, an early bedtime and still it takes over an hour to get him to just TRY it. I'm not even asking him to eat a whole plate of food, just a bite of each type of food. What's so hard about this?

 

Oh and so as if he wasn't difficult enough he has now introduced this habit to his sister who used to eat sand and woodchips from the garden because she was always hungry. Now, well she isn't as bad as Tyler but she still refuses food she would have eaten before learning his bad habits. How could someone just eat a handful of different foods? If chicken nuggets was your favorite meal could you eat it every day for a month? If you can what is wrong with you? I mean I know I'm picky but at some point the same thing is just so... lame. Right?

 

So how is it my kids can survive like that? Are they just doing it because they know it upsets me? Or are they doing it because they are scared of trying new things? Or are they doing it because those few meals are just so good? I doubt its cause the meals are so good, I mean how yummy can a plain cheese sandwich be after having it a few times? I'd say one time would do it for me, yet still he keeps requesting it. And what am I supposed to do? Not feed them?

 

Should I say if you don't eat this you don't eat anything? Or should I just keep feeding them only the few things they want and hope they try new things when they grow up? I mean what the hell am I supposed to do? People have told me to make him a sandwich and put carrots or something in it... he refused to eat that. Then they say give him a milk shake its mostly milk... he only drinks some of it. I mean everything people have suggested hasn't worked.

 

I don't want to be like my dad, the man who if you didn't eat your dinner you sat in your chair all night sobbing while he yelled at you to eat until finally your mom butts in and says dinner time was 2 hours ago let her go to bed. I don't want to be that person, I wont be that person. But I don't want to let him just not eat anything healthy. Chicken nuggets, pop tarts, cheese sandwiches and carby snacks is like a meal plan to slowly kill your kid. He's barely getting any protein and no matter how many carbs he packs in its not enough to put any weight on him.

 

I am soooooooo freaking tired of fighting him to eat but what else do I do? I know I've said all this before and asked this question before but what else is there to do? And don't tell me that he just needs to be around other kids and see what they are eating. We have tried that. He doesn't care. He wants what he wants and that's it. So how do I channel his stubbornness into something out so I can shove food down his throat!?????