how about Cheerios? I thought all kids ate them. They're very healthy too.

Nope. Not even Cheerios. He used to eat them, but has decided he does not like them.

my kid's problem is that if it ain't in the form of deep fried chicken nugget or sugar, it's inedible. which is crap. and I have no problem with the fact I make her eat a square meal and refuse to be manipulated.

Exactly my problem, smurf. If it's a bowl of ice cream or mac and cheese, or a plate of pancakes with syrup it gets gobbled up in seconds. If it is black bean soup or a burrito it is sat over, pouted about and one bite chewed on for half an hour.

I also make my daughter at least try some of everything on her plate. If it's something new, and she doesn't like it, she can spit it out into her napkin. Usually, if she balks at what's for dinner, the one bite thing leads to more, sometimes until what was formerly gross, is gone. :)

I have never made her eat her food. She gets no treats the rest of the night, and goes to bed hungry if need be. She also is extra hungry the next morning, so I always make sure there are bananas, oranges, yorgurt etc. for her to eat the next morning before daycare. She gets breakfast and lunch and snacks at daycare, which I have no control over what/how much she eats.

She is 4.5 years old, 50 lbs and 90th %ile for height.

Some of the same aged kids in her daycare are positively skeletal in comparison.

I hope you're not offended by what I said - it's your kid, not mine.... I just don't play that game. I'm the mom, if I don't want my kids eating it, I don't buy or serve it.

My just-turned 7 year old weighs 52lbs and is often mistaken for an 8 or 9 year old.

I feel the same way. It's rare that we do anything processed.

Unfortunately, our kids are in a different household several months out of the year.

Ah, yeah... thats gotta complicate things. Mine don't even go to school, so I have a pretty good handle on what they eat, lol...

Wow and everyone thinks T is huge.

He was 4 in March, is 48lbs and 97%ile for height.

Ad is 2.5 and 35lbs, but off the chart for height.

not at all.

I should have been more clear... I don't force-feed her when she's not hungry, or stuff she doesn't genuinely like - like mushrooms and tomatoes. If occasionally she's not hungry or doesn't like something, that's fine, I'm a little picky myself. I'm thinking of how she'll eat meatloaf for Grandma, but not for me. It's the same meatloaf. That's what I have a problem with. Plus, I don't see what she eats all day long at school - and since she comes home every day telling me about the candy and soda and ice cream they had, I'm not confident she's getting much real nutrition throughout the day, so I do push for a healthy dinner.

But when she says "I'm not hungry" and scowls at the steak and baked potato, and I say "well, we have chicken nuggets and french fries" and she perks up and suddenly is starving, yeah, she's totally full of shit. "No nuggets for you!"

Pfft. My kids change their minds about what they like from month to month, and you can usually count on one of them liking something and the other not--except which one is which changes over time!

Do you home school them?

The Girl: Can I go with my friend Sara to SeaWorld? Her mom got a hotel room with a cajuzzi (jacuzzi).

Me: (lol) No, remember - we're going somewhere special this weekend?

The Girl: Oh yeah - we're going to the astronaut senator (Kennedy Space Center).

My D11 is tiny and always has been. She was born a month premature. She hovers around 10-15th percentile for her age. However, she's healthy and intelligent and developing right on schedule. I don't worry about comparing her to other kids in the 50th or 95th percentile. I feed my family balanced meals which they can choose to eat or not. If not, they go hungry. Commercially made snacks (cookies, chips, ice cream, hotdogs, etc) are limited to one type, per person, per week. Fruit and raw veggies are plentiful and have no limit.

God...that's so cute!
:)