This has to be the universal question of all parents*. In my case it's my seemingly unending lectures about the fact that my little monsters seem completely incapable of the absorbing the concept that they have to CLOSE THE DOOR when it's 30 degrees outside. (That's 30 F, smartasses.)

*Maybe nonparents too, but I only ever get those twinges when I'm trying to get my kids to do or not do something I used to not do or do.

PARENT ~ Sometimes it's easier to just let kids have what they want to avoid whining kids.
DOCTOR ~ Sometimes it's easier to tell parents to let the kid have what they want, to avoid whining parents. :lol:

Regular meals are an impossibility in our house so it's become buy what you want them to have and "Root hog, or die."

Ahhh, the "Clean Your Plate" club. Hard habit to break, thanks Grandma.

There are still children starving in China, aren't there?

I never got the starving children in where-ever routine. I got the "there is no other option" routine. I wasn't forced to clean my plate, but if I didn't eat my dinner and I got hungry, I could have hot milk with bread dipped in it. Period. My mother was Swiss and didn't believe in American food. I would be amazed when I went over to my little pals' homes and they had stuff like cookies or even peanut butter. My Mom refused to buy sweets (my Dad would sometimes sneak them home), soft drinks, peanut butter, or cold cereal. I had to eat either oatmeal or soft boiled eggs for breakfast and I DID have to eat breakfast, I got a thermos of soup and some fruit for lunch, and dinner was usually hamburger or pork chops, rice or potatoes and a veggie. No dessert. Like it or go hungry.

The kid in the OP would have died of starvation by age 3 if he'd grown up at my house. :headshake

There shouldn't be, I remember sending the food I couldn't/wouldn't finish on my plate, so that should have taken care of that, right?

This thread is bringing up soooo many food issues for me. At my house you had to eat with your arm around your plate, guarding it, if you will, because my father would say, in a booming voice, "NOT GONNA EAT THAT?!!" and before you could even begin to formulate your response, he'd have your dinner forked and in his mouth.

My father sired three girls. He was a big man.

OMG! You too? Is that a Swiss thing? With sugar sprinkled on it? The momster used to give me that when I was pre-school, if I was still hungry before bed. Kinda like "comfort food". But I never heard of anybody else doing that :yum:

Yep, its Swiss! The momster in my case would sometimes allow me hot milk with honey in it, but same idea. Oh, and sometimes, if I was very lucky, I might be allowed a cup of Ovaltine. Usually it was hot milk and bread, though. I think the first time I ate a french fry, I must have been15 or 16 when I bought a plate of them at the local Woolworth lunch counter (don't tell the momster! ;) )

You must go here and read the lyrics to Alan Sherman's "Hail to Thee Fat Person' routine.

OMG! I'd completely forgotten the woolworth's lunch counters! How strange!
Esp. their grilled cheese.:eek: :yum:

When I was a lad my dad took me to all the places in NYC that he sensed were "going out" so I could experience them before they were gone. I really appreciate that.

Horn and Hardart's Automat, Zum Zum, Chock full of nuts coffee shops, Schraft's, and when we moved from Chicago to NYC he insisted we ride the train, pullman cars, dining cars, it was great. I have only fleeting memories of it, but when I see old movies with x country train scenes, it comes back to me.

LOL! I did get to hear from the Momster how hard she had it growing up in a little Swiss village in the 30's during the world wide depression. "We got a single tangerine in our stocking for St. Nicholas Day!" (December 6th, when Swiss kids apparently got their goodies handed out ahead of everyone else). "Do you know how much I treasured that single tangerine?" blah, blah, blah! Tangerines aside, the kids in Switzerland were getting all the hot milk and bread their little tummies could hold, so the author of that song was eating for one country too many! ;)

Bread and warm milk was common in the UK too.

OK, back to the OP, sounds like this kid had serious mental health problems. If they managed to bring up 6 other kids to eat reasonable diets, then it can't all be down to the parents. It sounded to me like he would have happily starved if they hadn't given him what he wanted to eat. For most families, the "food battle" is resolved by them getting so hungry they'll try it and find it doesn't kill them. Doesn't sound like this was the case here. Admittedly, they don't sound like the most nutritionally clued-up family either, but I don't think this can have been the sole cause of the boy's dietary problems.

Someone asked why the pediatrician didn't say anything. Children in the UK visit the regular family doctor, not a pediatrician. There are no regular examinations after the age of 2 -you just go when you're sick.

The British health system may be partially to blame, but when it comes to the food, let he without sin cast the first stone, so unless you're an expat I suggest you take a look at your own nation's diet first. (It sucks ;))