My children (9 and 6) are pretty fussy eaters. Basically, they eat a lot of fruit and some veg (raw carrots, sweetcorn, potatoes, tomatoes sometimes and I can sneak some veg in pasta tomato sauce such as swede, onions and carrots) They eat most bread items.

The main problem is they don’t eat meat. Well, my dd doesn’t eat meat at all but my ds eats some meat such as sausages or chicken nuggets. He also eats very tiny chopped chicken if I disguise it in a tikka masala sauce and he eats rice (my dd doesn’t eat rice),

They eat baked beans although my dd is eating less and less of them at each serving these days.

So…how on earth do I get iron and protein into them? They have tonnes of energy so I have no problem with that but my dd is very small and slim and she always looks so pale with dark circles under her eyes which I am sure is down to lack of nutrients - iron in particular. She doesn’t eat leafy green veg (neither of them do) and the only beans I can get into them are baked beans. I’ve tried both in pasta sauces but they both make the appearance or taste of the sauce SO different they don’t like it.

So, should I give them an iron supplement do you think? If not, how on earth do I get iron into them? My ds I’m not so worried about as he’s tall for his age and doesn’t seem so pale (and as I said he does eat some meat) but my dd just looks so pasty all of the time and is so tiny compared to her classmates.

Any advice would be great. x x x x

Eggs, red lentils, rye (bread or ryvita), jacket potato skins, oats, molasses and dried apricots come to mind. All of these with vitamin c rich foods to aid absorption ie a glass of orange juice.

If your daughter has black rings this is what we call ‘allergy shiners’ in my trade (allergy therapist and nutritional counsellor). Have you had her tested?

Molasses is very rich in iron, I’d be surprised if they didn’t go for that.

I can’t really help with fussiness as I seem to be blessed with very omnivorous children, my only thought is that on a couple of occasions Nancy (2.5) has become more focussed on her meat to the expense of some veggies or messes about and leaves a lot of food, in which case we either changed the ratio (so there was very little meat on the plate), left the meat off until veggies had been eaten or really reduced the amount of food on the plate - the latter you might want to try with your daughter and see how she reacts to being given small portions, IME they eat up quickly and come back for more - sometimes I think the perception of abundance creates a problem. If my kids were bread obsessed (they fortunately aren’t because we deliberately kept it in check when they started to eat) I would withdraw it from the dinner table altogether and “allow” them to see their other options first

I hide spinach in alot of meals. It breaks down quite small and unnoticeable, in soup stew, mash, pasta anything really. Which helps alot and use floradix when feel necessary.

Red lentils blitz up so smooth you can add them to pretty much anything, all my tomato sauces/soups have red lentils in as mine don’t eat any red meat either.  We have eggs once a week (for a while we had to persevere with presenting them with soft-boiled, hard-boiled, scrambled and omelettes each time it was “eggs for tea” and allowing them to choose their favourite - for ages they barely ate any), now they both enjoy cheesey omelettes with the ubiquitous red lentil & tomato sauce.

I was told once (but I’m no expert) that it is the colour of the inside of the eyelid which is more indicative of iron-deficiency than the rings under the eyes, I was always told to eat more iron-rich foods as a teenager because of my dark circles but it turns out for me it was Candida related intolerances.

I’m sure you’ll get more good ideas, my two also have chewable multi-vits (Dinochews from Higher Nature) to boost them if their fussiness wins out.

Diana

The only other thing I would add is to keep persevering with presenting foods…my DS is only 2 so I dont have experience of older children, but they say that toddlers need to be presented with a food up to 20 times before they will accept it, and this has been true of DS, who has been such a fussy eater for about 6 months but is now finally coming through this stage and is making up for it! Perhaps the same is true of older children, what I mean to say is, while respecting their choice to dislike certain foods (there are foods I genuinely dont like and therefore woujldn’t expect DS to like all foods) keep trying to blend those veggies and lentils into sauces etc. As Doormouse said, spinach is great…I get frozen spinach from sainsbury’s, its chopped and frozen into large ice cube type portions, and you can just pop them in to any number of sauces and casseroles and curries, and you can’t tell. Likewise, a lot of the ingredients with iron in could be used in baking, if theyre interested in baking could you get them to make some flapjacks with molasses and aprcots, or making bread with different ingredients…

And while they are in this phase, I would also agree with giving them a supplement…either a multivitamin or spatone iron water.

x x

Thank you for your suggestions. I will try lentils in the pasta sauce to see how that goes. I have tried spinach but it’s the wrong colour so they can see its there so won’t eat it. As for the bread - we don’t have it at dinner times - only lunch - so it’s not as if they choose that over their meal. My ds is less fussy and a good eater (if he likes what’s on his plate) but my dd has a teeny tiny appetite (like her father and all of his side of the family! - They’re all super skinny and eat pigeon sized dinners! Made me feel like really greedy when I first met them as I ate a plateful of food rather than quarter of it! Commented to my DH “oh she likes her food doesn’t she?” and it’s not as if i had a 2nd helping! Just finished what I was given!!!) My dd and my DH can take or leave food. Both have been known to survive all day on a cheese roll just because they’re not hungry. DH often forgets about food and will get up, go to work and not eat a single thing til dinner time (which can be a snack rather than a meal if I happen to not be here to cook it for him!) AND he does manual work! Have no idea how he survives! So giving even smaller portions than she has would have no effect whatsoever.

Had never heard of molasses so asked DH who said it was like a treacle type thing. Ds might try some of that but pretty sure DD won’t. She’s not a sweet eater - will eat a biscuit or a slice of cake but rarely eats more than a bite of either as they’re too sweet for her. Give her 3 jelly sweets and she complains of feeling sick! ...Again, like her daddy who isn’t a sweet eater either. She doesn’t eat eggs or jacket potato skins either! However, she may well try rye bread but know she doesn’t like ryvita. *sigh*. She DOES like dried apricots though - and eats them as regularly as I give them to her so that’s a good thing.

She is her father’s daughter I’m afraid! She never witnesses DH not eating as it’s only when we’re not here and I’m not providing the meals as when I do cook for him he’ll eat it fine. He just forgets when it’s not provided for him!! So I think it’s in the genes that food is just not an interest to her.

Not had her tested for an allergy - how is that done? As I wouldn’t send her for a blood test unless she was actually ill because she is TERRIFIED of doctors (have no idea where that stemmed from as she hardly ever had needed to go and when she has it’s been fine) so this is something I would only do if she was making herself ill.

Diana, yes, my mum says the same about lack of iron so I will check inside her eyelid tomorrow and see. I may well get her some multi-vits as well and see how that goes. She seems ok taking the jelly sweet form but i did try her with the liquid form and she gagged at the taste - although this was some time ago now.

Anyway, I will keep up with the apricots, try lentils and get some multi-vits and see how we go.
Thanks again. x x x x