My youngest daughter is 11. When she was six months old, we startridge. By the time she was two, she refused to eat these foods. Instead, she preferred to drink a lot of milk; the only solids she took were bread and biscuits. She does not eat rice.

She loves pizza without the topping, as well as fries, mashed potato, mozzarella cheese, garlic bread, plain bread, and certain cakes and cookies. Meat-wise, she loves roast chicken, chicken nuggets and satay. She loves green pears, apples, oranges, grapes, strawberries, guava and mangoes. She only eats one type of noodle-instant noodles. She refuses to try other types of noodles that i cook, including spaghetti.

Overall she has a good appetite when it comes to her favourites only.

Before she attempts new food, she first smells it. If it is acceptable, she will take a bite. She may or may not consume all of it.

We are helpless in getting her to eat. Basically she hardly eats any home-cooked food. We have meals at home on working days. Every day, i have to go out to buy food for her. She is old enough to understand what she needs in her diet. She always gives the excuse that she needs time to develop her taste for certain foods. Very concerned mother of pre-teen

it is important that pre-teens and teenagers have a balanced and healthy diet. Unfortunately, many of our pre-teens and teenagers are eating out more than they do at home. In most cases, parents have very little control over their children's eating habits when they are out of the home. It does not help the situation when parents have busy schedules and sharing a meal at home is rare.

Since many children are used to eating a high-fat and high-sugar diet from the foods they eat at restaurants and fast food joints, they find home-cooked food uninteresting, bland and limited. Children tend to make food choices because the food tastes good, not because it is nutritious. You may want to cook a variety of foods so that everyone in the family can have something they like at every meal. Instead of having a meal with just rice as the carbohydrate option, you can offer several small portions of rice dishes and breads.

Your daughter's present food preferences are popular with children her age. Rice may be a staple in our Asian diet. But our children today are going for various kinds of staples because there are plenty of choices.

If you want your daughter to try certain kinds of foods, you may want to be firm about it. Forcing her to eat it will not do any good. When yo are serving a new type of she refuses, you should not run out to buy her preference. You can respect her wishes but you also must not make it a habit of entertaining her every whim and fancy. Eventually, whe will learn to respect that you are firm in your ways.

It is common for children her age to be picky over what is offered during mealtimes at home. They are greatly influenced by the media messages they get from the television, magazines and billboards. Even parents tend to choose to buy certain kinds of foods from the messages they get on television advertisements.

There is no better time than now to change your daughter's attitude towards food. Let her know that some of her food preferences are healthy and show her how she can plan a balanced meal with her own selection of foods. Offer her the nutritional information about the foods she likes. This way, she can learn that she is taking care of herself as well as eating the foods she likes.

You should continue to offer her a wide variety of foods to choose from and help her identify the nutritious alternatives that she will enjoy eating. Instead of running out to buy her meals, let her choose from what is available at home. She can even help to prepare her meal according to the way she likes it. Tell her that healthy eating patterns are determined by the total amount of foods we eat over time and that healthy eating can make her feel positive.

She can work out her own ideas about what foods she should remove from her diet. For instance, her love of fruits is a positive sign that she has healthy choices. She can also learn to combine her food preferences to make up a healthy meal that the whole family can eat together. This way, your pre-teen daughter will feel that she has control over what she eats.

Your pre-teen needs positive role models at home. You may want to take a look at how everyone eats in the family. Your younger daughter may not be the only person in the family who has food dislikes. What about the rest of the family members? Maybe it will help your younger child when every member of the family goes for a nutritional makeover. This way, she will not feel that she is the odd one out.