13yr old son with no appetite / interest in food

pingufan

My 13yr old son has always been a picky eater. Around 18 months old he started refusing all kinds of food until we were left with an extremely limited diet. No vegetables at all. Only grapes and blueberries as fruit. Eats only pizza, chicken, chips lasagne, bread, sausages, crisps and ham. I've taken him to the doctors over years and they have all said he's fine, he's growing, yes he's extremely thin but basically let him eat what he wants and he won't starve.

Problem is he's looking dreadful. Pale, very, very Thin (fits into a waist size of a 9 yr old) he's 5'2 so his height is about right but his teeth are suffering, he needs fillings every time he goes to the dentist. he is never, ever hungry. Today he slept over his friends and came back at 4 having eaten a slice of toast all day. Not hungry he says!

I make him tea (chunky chips and chicken Kiev) but he's forcing it down and just pushing it around and I doubt he'll eat half. I've left him with food for up to an hour before now and Itll go cold before he finishes. He never eats any meal with gusto. Is there a supplement he can take that will kick start his appetite?I've tried meta tone but it didn't do anything.

I literally pull my hair out every mealtime, seems like I feed him junk all the time. A Sunday lunch to him will be chicken, sausage and a Yorkshire pudding and gravy. He knows if I hide veg in things and foods that he previously liked he can go off in an instant.

I keep waiting for this growth spurt and hunger to develop with him but its just not happening - has anyone else dealt with this?

Turtle

My friends son was like this, very thin and extremely pale. He was diagnosed at 13 as coeliac. Has he been tested?

pingufan

No, no tests at all. I've taken him to the doctor many times over the years and they listen to me, smile and say yes, he's thin but he's growing. He never complains of stomach pains etc as I'd expect being coeliac and he goes to the toilet as normal etc. it just seems really odd that he never seems hungry. He can literally go all day sitting around on the Xbox or iPad and go without food all day. It's like it's an inconvenience to eat!

littleredhen

How about getting him interested in cooking?

pingufan

Tried that! He did enjoy his cookery course in school (they do it on a rotation basis) but would only eat the sweet dessert he made from biscuits. He faffs about stirring things if I encourage him to come and cook with me but will not even attempt to try something if he knows that theres vegetables in it (tomatoes in spaghetti Bol etc) he won't try curries, chilli, soups, he likes pasta but every type of sauce I do it in gets his nose turning up. He likes cheese and ham but won't eat carbonara (get my drift) he's ridiculously fussy and I'm starting to lose patience over it all. At 13 he should be eating more like an adult not a toddler

Loz01

Does he do any physical activity? I'm guessing sitting on the iPad all day isn't expelling much energy! Can you get him into some sort of club at all? Running round might kick start his appetite?

littleredhen

I would to back to basics with the cooking and cook sweet stuff to start with then make it a bit more complicated as time goes on, have you tried making your own pizzas etc

Turtle

What's his sense of smell like? If you can't smell you can't taste properly so food's not appealing. Maybe that could be part of it? (though I don't know if that could have anything to do with not feeling hungry at all).

TheSaint_2

I had a friend like that when I was younger. He even threw his sandwiches in the bin every day at school and just ate sweets. He ended up being diabetic.


Your son may have something wrong, or you may need to come down harder on him. You may have made a rod for your own back since this started at 18 months. My daughter tries constantly to only eat junk, but we force her to eat healthy food.

pingufan

He plays football twice a week and has pe in school twice a week. Yes, I've wondered if its a lack of physical activity but a football match takes it out if him (he hasn't really got the muscle on his bones to keep him going I suspect) when I say he's thin, i mean thin. It could be sense of smell, he's often got a cold and it's a vicious circle then of feeling under the weather means he's not hungry and round the circle goes

pingufan

As for the cooking, even if I make a pizza with him he may eat a quarter, after that he's full. Yet, we've gone to harvester ( his fave restaurant) and eaten burger, chips, ice cream etc so I know he's got the capacity to eat when it suits him. Same with KFC or McDonald's. he'll eat all of that. It's as though he's got the ability to ignore hunger if there's food on offer he's not fussed on