Too ADD to eat. What to do?

amother

OP ↓

Sun, Nov 10 2024, 5:31 pm

My son has inattentive ADHD, with no hyperness. He is not medicated because BH he has an amazing school with small classes and teachers willing to be out of the box with solutions to keep kids engaged. He’s getting good grades, doing well socially, and so we didn’t feel meds were necessary. We mostly see the symptoms at home when he’s engrossed in activities (inventions, art, reading, creating, socializing) and he forgets about everything else. He can’t even hear you call his name. Mostly it’s ok but something that’s bothersome is he forgets to eat and has no interest in food when he’s busy with something fun. Today he didn’t eat lunch and went from 8 am to 5 pm with no food. He claims he didn’t feel hungry. But he’s also super skinny and the shortest in his class, even though he’s the second to oldest. When I finally convince him to eat, he’s groaning. It’s like the most boring thing in the world to chew and swallow. What the heck, don’t people love food? I eat for all kinds of reasons including but not only hunger. Has anyone had this with a kid and if so what do you do?

amother

Pink ↓

Sun, Nov 10 2024, 5:37 pm

I also have a kid with ADHD the inattentive type. She eats the same thing every single day. I discovered this “trick” after realizing that when we’re away (Shabbos, YT) she’ll go days without eating mostly saying she doesn’t like what’s available..

amother

↑ OP

Sun, Nov 10 2024, 5:45 pm

amother Pink wrote:

That’s interesting. If it were up to him he would be happy with the same exact roast chicken every single night. But that’s not what I’m serving the rest of the fam. Hm. Maybe I should just have a pan of that.
But breakfast I practically have to force him and lunch I send (sometimes he even pack himself) and it always comes back uneaten.

amother

↑ Pink

Sun, Nov 10 2024, 7:42 pm

amother OP wrote:

I feel like lunch in the girls schools are more structured. It’s im the classroom with a teacher supervising and every girl has to wash. I don’t know forsure how much she eats cuz she’ll throw out half her food I’m sure rather than bringing it home.
In terms of dinner - she eats best the min she walks im the door. I’ll just have her food prepare, I agree once she’s distracted there’s no guarantee she’ll eat.
DD is average for my kids, I do have some skinny minis, she’s not one of them

imasinger

Sun, Nov 10 2024, 8:17 pm

Another vote for structure around mealtimes.

And sometimes, the solutions can be counterintuitive.

When DS was a baby, and would sometimes come home from extended day too tired or hyped to eat, I found that putting on music and dancing him around worked enough to get him to sit down afterwards, with the music still playing.

Can anyone at school work with you to make lunchtime more enjoyable for him? Another possibility -- would rewards for eating be helpful?