My son's not eating!

I have a 7 1/2 year old son who is of normal weight. He has always been in the upper 90% for his age group but he is tall. He is not even chubby. Just a normal kid. Well now he is refusing to eat. He says eating makes you fat! I am so upset. Even though I never at the right things I have always tried to instill in him the importance of eating a well balanced diet. He eats all types of things that I would never touch. He loves his vegetables, if fact, when he was 2 we had gone out to eat with family and I was busy talking and he reached over, took my salad and ate it. He has always been a good eater and now I don't know what has gotten into him. I gave him lunch money the other day, something I never do, and he only got a milk. I have even tried to bribe him with cookies. If you eat all your dinner you can have a cookie. He won't eat. I tried to get him to eat breakfast this morning. Again I bribed him with a cookie. It didn't work. I don't know what to do about him. I wonder if he feels this way because of me and my surgery. I told him that I eat and I am losing weight. I am getting healthy and he needs to stay healthy. I'm not sure what to do. Stacey B

I did a google search and came up with several websites. Since I do not have children, I don't believe I can answer what to do here. But I think there might be some help in these links: http://www.channel4.com/health/microsites/0-9/4health/food/fma_foodrefusal.html http://www.baby2kids.ie/My%20child%20won't%20eat.htm http://life.familyeducation.com/behavioral-problems/foods/41288.html http://www.healthandnutrition.co.uk/hffhk/pages/ARTICLES/mychild.htm Hope this helps some.....good luck! Stacey W

Hi Stacey, Your son might confused about the big changes going on and a kiddie psychologist might help. Or family therapy so you all can sit down and figure out a good family plan of how to monitor your health and eating habits. My 3 year is a big part of making dinner and choices about foods- since we are a food family when I changed everyone had to and he loves picking out things. It gives him a definite sense of control. It's a huge change for everyone- so expect the little ones who are naturally more sensitive to it to react the hardest. Talk about it and talk often, it helps them feel it is natural and a regular part of life. Jennifer

Hi Stacey, First off, I think you should stop offering cookies as a reward for eating. I think the mentality that you get "bad" food for eating good food is totally wrong. That's why so many of us got into the situation we are or were in.....we saw junk food as a reward and then kept finding reasons to reward ourselves. You mentioned before that he was in scouts. I think that all the books have a section on health, or healthy eating. Maybe you can focus on that. He might see food as bad, and what caused you to have some problems so he's just going to stay away from it. One more thought, it might just be a phase. My son went through a time when he wouldn't eat, either. I let him go to the grocery store with me and plan the meals and tell me what he wanted. Then I made smoothies for him and put some protein powder in it to me make me feel better. It took almost 6 months, but then he was back to normal. Try all that stuff you do to get him to do other things (like homework and chores, etc.) like making reward charts with stickers for all the healthy things he eats during the day. Good luck to you.....these guys go through so many phases your head will spin! Brenda

When my daughter was around 7 yrs old she went through this. Said she was getting fat and wouldn't eat. Her dad told her if you think you're getting to fat then you need a diet, but you can't just not eat because thats not healthy and you will get sick. He took her to the store and bought her "diet food" and got normal food for everyone else. They came home and fixed dinner for everyone. As we were sitting down to a nice dinner our daughter sat down to have a yummy plate of butter beans. She did eat them. Then ate them for her next meal and has never touched them again. We never had a problem with her not eating again. Don't worry about it. He will eat when he gets hungry enough. If you fuss over this to much you may be encouraging his behavior by giving him/the situation to much attention. He will eat again. Take care. God bless you, Annette

As others have suggested with thearpy, I reccommend going to your family doctor and let he or she know what is going on privately and have them talk to your son. Second, Don't make a big deal about it in front of the child and just say to him, ok you don't have to eat and leave him alone, he will come around or you may even catch him sneaking food who knows but don't make it an attention getter. If your child refuses to eat and it is effecting his health and has gone more than a week without eating a thing ( I bet he ate lunch at school unless you home school) then take action, kids think differently than we do and we stress more about things than they do. Good luck and I hope all of you learn to eat healthy just as myself and my family are learning. I have an 11 year old daughter who has changed her eatiing habits along with me and it was sooo good for her to do so. She is slimming right down. Good Luck, Jackie