Often they will eat if they're reminded to. It's important to keep the diet balanced. We also have a junk-free larder, as much as possible.
A tip I got from a friend of mine whose daughter has muscular dystrophy and when diagnosed at 3, she would often be too tired to eat - she would not make her stay at the table but would make her meals portable and easy to chew (maybe not as necessary for a healthy kid - easy to chew, I mean). She would also keep putting food beside her, whatever she was doing. She also disguised a lot of healthy food into small patties, so meat and vegetables would be mixed together into a product not unlike chicken nuggets, but home-made and healthy.
I saw an episode of Oprah and she had a guest on it who has just published a cookbook on how to hide vegetables in the most amazing places. She was the wife of some celebrity, can't remember who... I want the book, though.
I just looked it up - it was Jessica Seinfeld and here is a link:
http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/82...xuOay0?tstart=0
She spends one day a week cooking vegetables and pureeing them to store in bags in the freezer. She then uses the pureed vegetables in a number of different recipes. And I remember a favourite cake from the cake shop near where I used to work, it was the gourmet delicacy - Walnut & Zucchini cake. Absolute heaven. easy child used to ask for one every birthday. So sneaking vegetables into otherwise 'naughty' food can be a way to get kids to eat well without realising it.
My friend found out what her daughter liked, and cooked to that. With Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) kids you need to keep challenging the taste and getting them to TRY new foods (I introduced difficult child 3 to halva last week; he loves it!).
And the biggest thing she did, to keep her daughter's calories up - she bought a hot air popcorn maker, and made bucketload after bucketload of popcorn, with lots of butter and salt. She also kept open house for the neighbourhood kids (and fed them as well) so her house was always full of kids, eating. In all this she kept an eye on her daughter and when surrounded by other kids snacking, the little girl would snack as well.
She must have done something right because that little girl has just grown up and left home to go to university.
We're about to make the switch from a privately-compounded sustained release dexamphetamine, to Concerta (only just available in Australia) so it will be interesting to see what difference it makes to us. difficult child 3 is like a scarecrow. He eats a lot, though. He's just had three lamb chops for dinner then a big bowl of ice cream. I think he burns up all those calories with his nervous energy.
Marg