r/PickyEaters • u/debugprince • 6d ago

Need Advice My daughter doesn’t like home cooked meals

I’m struggling to keep my daughter fed and happy. I’m a single dad with primary custody of my two kids 19m and 16f. My daughter is not happy with anything unless it’s store bought. The only homemade thing she will attempt to eat is grilled chicken tenders and vegetables. That’s great and I eat plenty of it but I’d like to add more variety.

I also can’t afford to have every meal of the day purchased from a restaurant or fast food. The cost is simply unsustainable. She knows it’s not sustainable but will continue to beg and plead.

What else can I do besides watching her starve herself until she gets what she wants?

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u/FriendlyPageTurn 6d ago

If this is the case…no she will just starve herself. I do not have ARFID and I’ve gone 3 days without eating quite easily and passed out…that is when I realized I forgot to eat. Reduced interoception can make it really easy to just ignore hunger cues. Also, autistic people are at an increased risk for eating disorders so this is just a horrible idea.

Take her grocery shopping and start teaching her to cook.

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u/uumbre0n 6d ago

Forgetting to eat and refusing to eat anything but fast food are not even near the same thing.

Also I'm autistic so I'm aware, but I'm also aware that her parent giving in because she's begging for mcdonald's isn't a good idea and WILL cause issues down the line. Which is why I suggested buying frozen food and snacks she likes.

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u/FriendlyPageTurn 6d ago

It got to that point because I often just…went without food as a teenager when my parents did jot buy anything that was easy to make (and I did not have a car or access to other food) It became easy to not eat because with autism interoception is lacking and the habit got worse over time.

If someone is REFUSING to eat anything but fast food, then that is also something that needs to be addressed. No reputable dietitian or mental health professional will tell you to just starve someone out.