Getting My Child To Eat...

[Bluestone]

I don't really know what I'm looking for by asking this. Some help and advice, if anyone has any, as I am at my wits end.
My daughter is 5 years old and it is very difficult to get her to eat properly. She will eat, but not at set times and usually it's hardly anything. This morning, for example, I managed to get a small yogurt down her, but nothing else. I offered and made her cereal and toast, but she just pushed it away and said she was "full up".
She was always a chubby baby, up until the age of about 2 or 2 and a half. So much so that we had to take her to see a dietitian. Now she's gone completely the other way, and every meal time is a battle which often ends in tears and frustration. I have tried the obvious tactics, like giving her her favorite things at meal times, and also involving her in preparing them, but the majority of the time she will just push the plate away without even trying it, before saying her usual "full up".
I wouldn't say she is majorly skinny, but I do think she looks different (thinner) to the other girls in her class... although, she is very tall for her age, so perhaps that's down to her height?? I have also noticed that she shoulders feel very boney.
We had a family meal on Sunday and she literally did not eat anything, despite my whole family trying to encourage her. My Dad says I nag her too much and that she'll eat when she's hungry, but surely that can't just be as and when she feels like it? She would live off grapes and yogurts if she could, but I just find it extremely difficult to get her to eat a proper meal.
Her lunchbox comes home with mostly everything still it in. She will have a quarter of the sandwich I make her, some grapes, the yogurt and that's it. I just can't understand how she's not hungry?!
She has started saying over the past week or so that she has a "bad tummy", when she goes to bed at night. She has no other symptoms of having a bug or anything, and I honestly wonder if it could be hunger pangs?
Should I be taking her to the doctors about this, or is there anything I can try that I haven't already mentioned.

Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated, as I really don't know what else I can do. Thanks :)

[woofgang]

sorry but while you bribe her she has won....how will you deal with it when she is still tantrumming and she is too big for you to carry?

[Bluestone]

WR, thanks for your answer. Yes, we do have 'proper' mealtimes. They never ever eat in the lounge, and we don't have a tv in the dining room.
I was brought up where we always ate around the table, at every meal time, so that's how I want my children to be brought up too :-)
I think, perhaps, I should make the time to sit and eat with them during the week, as opposed to just on the weekends. Thanks again.

[Bluestone]

Woofgang, She is 5 and already 3' 10". I think that classes her as "too old to be carried" already! :-/

I had no choice.

[JaneDoe2]

Giving a child a reward for bad behaviour is not good. You say when she had a tantrum you had to bribe her to walk. If you had a dog and it was naughty would you give it a biscuit as a reward? Tantrums are hard for parents especially if you are in public and often its easier to give in than cause a scene, however, if you stick to your guns and not give snacks, not give rewards for bad behaviour, and follow through with any discipline (never say 'if you do that again I will do ***then don't do it) the child will eventually give in -believe me I've been through it all including child holding its breath until it went purple, throwing themselves on the floor in a supermarket ( I just walked away) . I never shouted or screamed or made any threats that i was not prepared to carry out -parenting is sometimes the most horrible thing you have to do but if done properly you can create nice little humans (eventually ) lol!

[woofgang]

yes, bluestone you had a choice, you walk away.....don't leave the shop but don't bribe her to stop.

[dexter7]

Hi there. I had the same problem with my son who was 4 at the time, all he would eat was packets of Jaffa cakes, I took him to the doctor who told me to let him eat them as at least he is eating something and it doesn't matter how much he eats of them. I did this and eventually he got fed up with them and started eating what everyone else was eating and it didn't do him any harm.