Ok so it’s only day 3 and I feel like giving up - that must be a record, right? My son 7’s behaviour has gone through the roof since starting and I’ve no idea why. My 4yr old who doesn’t have to be on this diet (but is because there would be no stopping my son if there were foods in the house he couldn’t have) hasn’t eaten a proper meal in 3 days. She is fussy at the best of times but eats well enough. She is absolutely refusing any of the dinners I’ve cooked. Every spare second is spent on food prep while wrangling a busy toddler only for no one to eat what I’ve made. The kids are living off pear muffins but I’m freaking out. Should I keep going? - Kirsty
In response, among a lot of great practical advice, were these encouraging comments:
It's really tough at first but if it works, it can be a life changer. Seriously. I'm not exaggerating – Terry
We found that the foods our kids were super keen to eat (i.e. your toddler with tomato dishes) were the ones they shouldn't have. Fed Up talks about this, it's like an addiction. Our two kids of similar ages to yours didn't want anything we fed them except the sugary things to begin with, and we'd come from a very nutritious whole foods diet before that. We stuck with it, and they are different, more composed, happier little people now that we have their food sorted out. Stick with it, it is so worth it - Sara
Weeks 2-3 were a nightmare for us ... totally worth the persistence though and ended up being more important that they ate something rather than what they ate for those few weeks until they got past withdrawals (lots of homemade nuggets and chips) and then had a complete change in behaviour 😊 Hang in there - Kerry
They’ll get more adventurous once you get through the withdrawals, but I found behaviour during the first week or two of elimination was far worse than whatever was going on beforehand xx - Helen
Good luck keep at it, it's totally worth it - Sharn
I got told withdrawals are usually day 3-7 and it would be hard and to push through and we were better off the next week. My Bub was falling through the percentiles and I was terrified when she wouldn’t eat anything other than pear for days but now she eats all of it and is climbing through the percentiles - Eli
I had terrible symptoms at first and it took me a long time to get to baseline but it’s so worth it to find out what the culprits are - it could be just one food group! - Kath
Just keep at it. I cried a lot at the beginning and it felt like all I did was cook and a lot of the time it didn't feel successful. We had horrendous withdrawals with our oldest son. But it was wonderful to get through that and have him hear me and for the first time say 'what did you say?' – Sue
FINAL WORD from Kirsty again: “I’m overwhelmed by the support of this group. I was ready to give up after a few days but the encouragement, advice and suggestions have kept me going! It’s awesome.”
See withdrawals factsheet
See how to start failsafe eating
