6 Year Old and Still Picky

by Donna
(NY)

My daughter has been a picky eater since first trying foods as a baby. She would gag and vomit anything she did not like the texture, taste or smell of. She is six now and it has not improved much. She now complains about the smell of the foods that mom and dad eat. The only meat she will eat is chicken and it must be in nugget or finger form. She will eat corn sometimes. She does not care for anything with mixed textures like soups and stews, does not eat jello, pudding, frosting, sugar candies or the various junk foods that most kids love. She likes most of the lower sugar cereals and will eat oat bran toast with a little butter, but it cannot be hard. It must be lightly toasted.

She also has issues with the feel of clothing, underware and socks in particular, and it has really caused some problems over the years. She is a quick learner and well ahead of her peers in school. She has not had any behavior issues at school or in her daycare. She is always the child they want to have more of in Latch Key, daycare and school.

I don't really understand if this in normal behavior for a child of her age. Something keeps nagging at me that it is not and I need to do something now to help her adjust better to food especially. I do not want to force her for fear of eating disorders or having her relationship with food be unbalanced later in life.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thank you