Abby is SUCH a picky eater! CafeMom Influencer program.

Even though Abby is only 5 years old, she is a top negotiator.  Every meal turns into a battle of wills and every bite is a struggle.  When she was a baby and then toddler, she willingly ate all her veggies and a lot of the time even had seconds!  But then around the time she really began to talk and was telling us what she wanted to eat, nothing nutritious seemed to be on her meal plan.  I probably didn't do the best thing in the world by catering to her wishes for the next year or so.  "At least she's eating" I would reassure myself.  But her eating habits didn't pick back up like I was hoping they would.  Instead, now at age 5, they seem to be getting a little worse. 

Breakfast is a power struggle every single day.  I have on hand a wide variety of not-so-healthy-but-she-eats-them-sometimes breakfast foods like:  toaster strudels (she mostly licks off the icing), Eggo waffles (I only fix one and she'll only eat maybe half on a good day), Honey Nut Cheerios (super small bowl), Fruit Loops, and some mornings I'll even whip out the oven mitt and make the oh-so-coveted Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls ( now these she'll eat the snot out of, go figure).  I may as well forget about trying to get her to consume eggs, biscuits, gravy, or oatmeal/grits.  Not that I get up to cook her those things before school, I've learned from cooking a big breakfast every weekend for my husband, that she'll only go for the bacon or maybe sausage.

Lunches are the same power struggle.  I usually go for the same thing almost every day (weekends only she's in school) like the little chicken nuggets and french fries.  Hey at least there's a veggie in there!  Unfortunately, only 2 or 3 of the nuggets actually get eaten.  So, I'm very concerned about her eating habits at school during lunchtime.  I'm aware that they only have a short amount of time to eat lunch so she's being rushed already.  Not to mention the options she'll get at a lunch-line...I myself wasn't to thrilled as a kid stepping up with my plate handed to the lady behind the sneeze-guard.  So my only shot at her eating well at school is TEACHING her good eating habits at home.

Dinnertime is what really gets under my skin.  I do spend a lot of time and effort in the evenings to put a nice, hot meal on the table for my family.  My meals always contain a meat, veggies and maybe rice, or a casserole or some other kind of side dish.  I am from the south after all, so comfort food things are always on the table at dinner.  With Abby at dinner, the negotiations are so much worse than any other meal.  I'm constantly telling her to eat a bite of this or just one taste of that.  I get very frustrated because I know that's she's not hardly eaten a thing all day! 

My best bets for her to eat at dinner are:  wieners and saurkraut, dinner rolls, corn on the cob, and the almighty chicken finger.  My husband and I like a bit more variety.  I make a lot of pinto beans, fried chicken, meatloaf, mac and cheese (she won't even touch it!) and chili and then I do have to go for the taco meal once a week as well as spaghetti (sometimes with meatballs).  Abby barely eats anything.

Now after dinner, we start the "I want a snack Mommy!" fight.  No dinner, no snack, right?  Well, a lot of the time I'll give in just so she eats SOMETHING!

She is very tall for her age, I would guess 4 1/2 feet (I'll measure her this afternoon) and she weighs maybe 40 pounds (again I'll find out for sure tonight).  I worry that she's not getting enough nutrition, obviously.  But I'm also concerned about her keeping bad eating habits as she gets older.