Cheese....cheese...CHEESE!!!!

I agree with the moms who say to make cheese the last part of the meal. She doesn't get the cheese until she eats her fruit, veggies, meat etc. DO NOT GIVE IN ONCE YOU START!! That is the key. Be consistent and she will learn that you mean business. You are the one with the control. It will be a struggle and she may throw the biggest tantrum ever, but that is what she will do if she knows you will give in. It should only take a couple days and she should be fine. Remember, do not cave in even if you are out to eat, at someone elses home etc. She will try the tantrum because she is testing you to see if she can get away with it. Be strong! Good luck.

Cheese contains casein, a protein, which is actually very addictive! It is what makes the calf come back for more milk from the mother cow! It is also present in human form in breastmilk, which is why nursing infants get so excited about nursing, and then seem to just be "knocked out" when they're finished.

It's like a drug!

So how to change her habit? You could simply not bring cheese into the house. It may cause a few meltdowns at first, but once she realizes it's just not in the house anymore, she may start to accept the other food offerings.

You could make cheese an "occasional" food that she can eat out of the house, at restaurants, parties, etc.
I also suggest reading Disease Proof Your Child by Dr. Joel Fuhrman. It has wonderful information about food and how it affects our kids' health.

Good luck!

I have that same problem with my 5-year-old but his food of choice is PICKLES!!! He would eat pickles for every meal and every snack. I actually use it as a bribe, and I'm sure some parents would have a problem with this. Anyway, it works miracles. He knows he has to eat his meal or snack first and then he gets a small pickle. When we go to Subway the girl there knows all he wants on his sandwich is pickles...and LOTS of them. I make him eat everything else and have the pickles as a snack. Pretty soon after I started this he sometimes would forget that he wanted pickles in the first place and now it's not as bad as it used to be. Good luck!

Haha! I'm sorry... I don't mean to laugh, but oh the memories!!!!! My daughter (Now 5 1/2) used to do the same thing when she was 2! All she wanted was milk, cheese and yogurt. I couldn't get her to even LOOK at anyting else! I couldn't handle fighting with her anymore, so I stopped giving her options. I started to make her things with melted cheese on it so she would have to eat it all in order to eat the cheese. For example, breakfast would be scrambled eggs and I melted a slice of american cheese over it and mixed it up really well. Lunch would be a grilled cheese sandwich with a slice or 2 of ham or turkey lunch meat. Every once in a while she would 'catch' the meat and pull it out, but not usually. Dinner I would make her a cheese quesadilla and FINELY dice up tomatoes and ground beef. I also melted cheese over veggies - it's a lot easier to get her to eat it if you dice them up into tinie-tiny pieces. I know it's tedious, but if it works, then it's worth it! If I made her mac n cheese, I would put a little ground beef and veggies in it. It might look like she's picking out the 'good stuff,' but there are always a few pieces that they miss. I would dice up fruit into tiny pieces and mix it in her yogurt. And I ALWAYS put some kind of fruit on her plate - you never know when she will decide to try it. I think we also had a short period of time when we completely stopped bringing home anything with cheese in it. If your daughter is that hungry she will eat what is on her plate. It's hard to watch them choose to 'starve' for a meal or 2, but she will eventually understand that she NEEDS to eat. Hailey grew out of her cheese stage within 6-8 months and realized that she liked other things. I still fight with her to eat sometimes over other things, but at least that faze is over! Good luck to you and your daughter!!!

I would just give her some cheese with each meal. Next week she'll have another favorite. The more you try not to give it to her the more she will want it. Don't set up a power struggle where there doesn't need to be one.

Make cheese the last food she can get. Tell her to eat all the food on her plate first, then she can have cheese. Then limit the amount, one slice or one cheese stick, etc.

I know this is of little help...but there is a cartoon called "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends" There is a character called "Cheese" and he runs around and eats everything in site, the only thing he says is cheese, cheese, cheese! You made me laugh!
This is probably just a phase, no biggie unless there is constipation! It will pass,just keep giving her a daily vitamin and let her eat the cheese! Keep offering other foods and next week her thing will be apples, just wait! My daughter screams over fruit snacks like that! I had to quit buying them!
Good Luck and I swear it will pass!

Tell her that she can have cheese when she eats the other things you have set out for her. Set a small bowl of cottage cheese to the side...out of reach...and then offer her the other food. She can't have the cheese until she eats the other food. Do not give in. Do not succumb to her tantrums. A 15 minute tantrum is nothing. And crying and screaming might get on your nerves but it is not damaging them in any way.

In our house the tantrums were not even allowed. I told the girls what their options were and they decided without incident or they spent their tantrum in their crib. I didn't care if they screamed for an hour. I would occassionally go in the room and tell them when they stopped screaming they could come out, but tantrums were not allowed. Screaming to get your way was not going to work.

When they calmed down I very sweetly told them that I was the mommy and I made the decisions. I would hug them and love on them and tell them that they are not allowed to scream to get their way.

I started this with the first tantrum....with my oldest that was probably about 10 months old and the second child it was maybe a little younger. THey understand most of what you are talking about and they definitely learn that they won't get their way by screaming.

My five year old has started stomping her feet on occassion. And she is reprimanded very quickly when I see her do it. She is not allowed to throw tantrums in any form. I tell her that I always listen to her and what she wants, but I make the decision after I listen and that's that.

If you don't nip it in the bud now, you will have a screaming, in your face, door slamming teenager on your hand with no respect for you or your authority as a parent.

Don't worry she won't be scarred if you let her cry it out in her room for whatever time it takes.

You have to convince her that you are the boss and she is not. It will work out fine and you will be happy you got more stubborn than she is.

My daughter was crazy about cheese too and she still loves it at age 11. She also loved peas. I think you should give her a little cheese with each meal, just make sure you get all the other foods in her too. I made my daugther eat the other food I wanted her to eat before she got her cheese. That way I could try to avoid constipation and she would eat what she needed first.

I totally understand. My sons first word was cheese! He would eat it morning noon and night if I let him.
I make him omelets or scrambled eggs with cheese.
He likes Big Cheese. Grilled Cheese. I make it for him on whole wheat bread. He has gotten better, but I always make sure he has fruit with it.
It will pass, he eventually moved on to cereal and pancakes, but he does get into his moods of all he wants is cheese.
Good Luck to you!
Mary

I'm not sure I agree with the moms who suggest leaving the cheese to the end of the meal, and not letting her get it if she doesn't eat everything else first. (Please know, however, that I am a mom to an extremely picky eater who is 3.5 years old, and nothing I've tried ever works...so take my advice with a grain of salt!) When you withhold a food until other food is eaten, you set up even more extreme food preferences and aversions. The other food becomes something "bad" that just has to be gotten through until they can get to their "reward." It's the same thing with dessert...you don't want them putting even more importance on dessert (or in this case, cheese). I would offer her a small amount of cheese with each meal, but no seconds. She'll learn that she'll get her cheese, but not ONLY cheese at each meal. Believe me, you'll still have some tantrums for awhile, but that's part of the learn/testing process. Eventually she'll get it, and it won't be such a huge deal that other foods besides cheese show up on the plate.

C.
My daughter also only wanted single foods for a long time around the same age as yours. Each and every phase of only cheese, bread, tuna, etc, she seemed to grow bored with that and moved on. Today she is a healthy young woman of 20. She still doesn't like too many foods combined!
Also, show her by example how cheese can be a compliment to other foods, grilled cheese, cheese broccoli soup, pizza, be creative, visually appealing etc.
Good luck
D.

Keep offering the fruits, veggies, protein and whole grain alongside a serving of cheese and eventually she'll come around. If you limit how much cheese you're giving her during the meal, she's still getting her cheese, but you're getting the opportunity for her to eat the other things on her plate -- if she's still hungry, she'll eat.

Offset the fun side effects of cheese with juice.

Good luck and you're right, be thankful it's a request, I mean demand, for something healthy!

My daughter is not a big fan of vegi's so i steam veg's and then puree them and mix in with the meal. Maybe if you can at least add the veg's to the cheese you will feel a little better about her eating it. Another thing i do with my daughter is put her favorite item which is usually the bread/biscuit on the side. She has to eat so many bites of the other food before she can have a bite of what she wants. Kids go through phases and this will pass.