Hi everyone, and thanks for taking the time to read this.
My daughter is 6 years old, and 90 pounds, which is according to her pediatrician says she’s overweight. She only eats Mcdonalds, and Tyson’s chicken nuggets, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, and Powdered sugar donuts. She snacks on Cheetos, Chocolate Puff cereal, and Potato chips while I try offer her whole grain crackers. My husband and I are relatively healthy people and we try to instill our eating habits onto our daughter, but she will only eat what I named above. She’ll whine and cry and throw fits until my husband takes her to Mcdonald’s. She doesn’t participate in exercise at her school, and she steals other children’s lunch and hides in the bathroom and eats it. (I heard from her teacher, I was SO embarrassed.
We don’t always give in, though. I put my foot down on many occasions and I motivate myself to cook a healthy meal. Like last night, I cooked Lemon-butter chicken with corn biscuits, and peas. But she licked the butter off the chicken and ate the insides of the biscuit, leaving the whole grain crust out. I fear for my daughter’s life. I don’t want her to grow up obese and to feel like she’s not good enough.
Another thing is she watches television all day. While she does watch educational shows like Spongebob, I caught her cursing saying the F word. I figured she overheard me and my hubby watching a movie. But this isn’t the problem – I NEED HER TO EAT HEALTHY!
She refuses to eat anything nutritious, even if I glaze it in butter and make it salty!
I don’t know who taught her that this is okay, because it’s not.
Please help. Thanks for reading. This is a real problem we deal with day to day, and I need serious (no joking) answers. How can I get my daughter to eat more healthy? Tonight I’m preparing Pork Ribs and white rice and I already know she will refuse to eat my nutritious meal for her, and she’ll grab a bag of cheetos or mini donuts.
David, you obviously have no children!
I just got a call from my daughter’s music teacher and she stole another kid’s ham sandwich and oreos.
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Yoyo - said
April 14 2011 @ 21:35
This is serious. I suggest you go to professional with this story – sounds like the kind of stuff you hear on Dr. Phil or some other talk show.
You could try explaining the negative effects of being overweight. Show her the fast food and junk food is processed (which is absolutely disgusting).
When going grocery shopping, get her involved and have her pick out fruits and vegetables and explain to her which ones are sweet and delicious.
Get rid of unhealthy foods in your house. Did you know that simple carbs (crackers, cookies – snacks that SEEM healthy) are as addicting as cigarettes?
Do it one meal at a time. It may seem overwhelming, but if you try and put your foot down – NO giving in – one meal a day and saying NO, you can’t have McDonalds.
Google: How to get my child to eat healthy
Lots of good results show up. Good luck!
David - said
April 14 2011 @ 21:35
your daughter doesn,t have an income. so where is the junk coming from? you and your daughter are in serious need of counseling. she didn,t get these habits from santa.
Mike - said
April 14 2011 @ 21:35
Well first off don’t feel like a bad parent. This happens to a lot of children, and it can change easily.
First off I suggest hiding all the junk food and replace fatten dressing such as butter and salt with different products. Instead of using salt use turmeric. Instead of using butter use oils. Instead of preserve package food such as microwave meals I suggest cooking your own meals.
Children really base their taste in food on looks and smell, meaning anything which looks like a chicken nugget or cake they will most likely enjoy it even if that chicken nugget look-a-like is something healthy. So I suggest getting her favorite meals, and making healthy substitute for them. Instead of microwave chicken tenders cut up chicken, dress them with egg whites, put healthy breading on them and bake them in the oven. There’s a lot of healthy substitute out there which fool children in their looks and smell which they actually enjoy.
Another way is to make her favorite foods seem disgusting, such as going to McDonald’s and replacing her hamburger or chicken nuggets with disgusting low grade meats and bread and tell her that’s what they’re serving for now on. Do the same with her favorite package unhealthy food. She’ll will fear to snack on them again.
ANd you can’t depend on the school for her exercise, go some where with her which she’ll will enjoy and get some psychical exercise. Go to parks on the weekend, just go for walks with her around the neighborhood or some where, buy her a bicycle or skates, get her a jump rope, ect, go skating or swimming. Just find some psychical activity she likes and go along with her.
And food habits can disappear easily in 21 days, so don’t quit. Make her follow your diet plan, don’t crave in for her. And tell school officials not to allow her to buy food and or allow others to give her food.
Elisabeth Atkinson - said
April 14 2011 @ 21:35
1. take charge.
First off, don’t give into her! If you give in once, she will realize it works in HER favor and she will do it again and again. That’s definitely the main problem, she thinks she decides over you and that can lead to so many other problems in the future. I’m a teenager and I know how it goes when I want something from my parents. So basically, you need to take charge and be mean to her until she gets it. Like my parents always say, "I’m the adult and you’re the child".
2. give her options
Don’t say "no mcdonals, no chips, no …." Take her to the grocery store and have her pick out HEALTHY snacks. My parents do this for me. I pick out grapes, kiwi, trail mix, granola bars, special k cereal, and others. This way I have not only healthy foods, but good foods too! I love chips, so I couldn’t just give them up. Instead I bought baked chips and only baked chips. If you only give her healthy snacks, she will have to snack on them and eventually get used to it.
Other things you can do is make sure she is getting all the foods she needs. I hate fish, so I take fish oil pills, and I also don’t like milk so I take lean protein shakes. Also, I switched from lemonade and soda to V8 and naked juice! They are both really good and really good for you!
3. exercise
You said she doesn’t do sports, and sits in front of the TV all day. That needs to change. Don’t get me wrong, I love the TV and my computer, and my phone and ipod! But there is ALWAYS time to get exercise, even during commercials.
For her, you’re going to have to trick her into the exercise. For example, bike into town as a family to get a small ice cream (my mom does this to me). Or if you have a dog, go on walks with the dog. If not, maybe you can get her one and tell her if you get this dog it needs 3 walks a week. If you are somewhere warm, go to the waterpark it’s a good work out to swim around! Maybe she likes golfing, it’s a long walk and you carry your golfing gear! Also, if she is going to school you generally have the option, or are required, to take a gym class. Make sure she is in a team sport, or conditioning gym class.
4. reward her
No one likes doing a good job and going unnoticed. She may not lose weight right of the bat, but she definitely wont lose it if she quits. Keep her going by giving her rewards. Go out shopping together, get your nails done, buy her more HEALTHY snacks. Give her some money. Let her know if she does what you say she gets something in return. That will motivate any person, no matter how young or old.
Karen - said
July 11 2011 @ 12:15
I am not yet a parent but I am pregnant! I was a picky eater growing up and I still am. We can’t help our taste buds but you can nip some of those bad habits in the butt real quick by letting your daughter know who is in charge.
One time I didn’t want to eat my dark meat chicken and I was told that I couldn’t leave the table till I ate it. I sat there till I had to go to the bathroom and as I got up, they said “where are you going? You didn’t eat your chicken”. Needless to say, I ate my chicken and knew from then on who was in charge.
I will find out really soon just how hard parenting is, but I know the key is to be consistent. If you say “no” you have to mean it.
Also, I don’t remember spongebob being educational at all when I watched it. I didn’t even think that it was something kids should be watching. IMO
If you don’t want her to watch tv than take her out of the house. go to the beach (if you have a beach) or the pool or say you want to spend time with her and go for a walk around the block or go to the park.
Hope this helps. Oh yeah, and just don’t buy any food that you don’t want her having. She won’t be buying it herself at this age, so no worries there.
My mom let me put whatever I wanted into the cart at a certain age (11-13) and I wish she would have said “no” instead.
I eat healthy now but it took a long time for me to be educated enough to make healthy choices.