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I wonder if you let her make her own creations, would she be more apt to try them? Take her to the grocery store and let her pick out things she might like.

My favorite food that Gram made was banana pancakes...

^yeah, my maternal grandmother's method of cooking was to open up an Entemann's danish or serve cheese, nuts, and dried fruit. Or take me to McDonald's for pancakes in the morning ;)

I also agree with the allowing her to make stuff. It sounds like she is very phobic of new tastes--I don't mean to encourage unhealthy eating habits but perhaps try something very suitable to a young child's palate, like something peanut butter flavored, buttered pasta or baked potatoes, even chocolate chip cookies.

I cook with my 4 year old grandson. When you offer him food his instant answer is "I don't like that". We have made pizza and salads and all kinds of things. We also grow strawberries, which he loves. He is a meat eater as long as there is bbq sauce to dip in. The more involved with food and the more foods they are offered, the more likely they are to eat something. At every meal he gets a serving of everything we are eating and he must taste a little but is under no pressure to finish his plate. Taking the "politics" out of the meal makes it easier to get the kiddos to try new things
This child's father only wanted peanut butter at this age and the dr told me that if he got one balanced meal every 3 days and I could count everything he ate for 3 days, he would be healthy. He is a healthy and fit 6'3" adult who is trying to feed a finicky child. So much more fun to be the grandparent!

What always works for me is to go about a while before a meal and say things like "Wow, i am really craving...fill in the blank" and "have you ever had blank? I love that stuff. We should have that for dinner/lunch..." Then, make it, or better yet, let her help you make it, and then thoroughly enjoy every bit of it.

And what worked for me, too, when I was young, was to have someone like my grandmother tell me a story behind it all, like how her mother had made it for her, or some such.

Good luck!

Have any doctors looked at her to see if she has metabolism problems or something?

I second the dips suggestion, I used to dip chicken nuggets in honey, apple sticks in peanut butter, carrots and celert in ranch dressing. Everything is more fun with dip.
I also think getting her to cook with you will be both fun and encourage her to try things. Maybe make your own pizzas and let her choose toppings andything from mushrooms to chicken and bake cookies or brownies, her choice.
Also assemble your own wrap/salad/sandwich, put out bowls of fillings- shredded cheeses, diced veggies, different sauces, chicken, ham turkey. Kids love to assemble. And try not to make a big deal about it, this is extremely common at that age.

I like the idea of involving her to make her own creations and also maybe try to make to use her staples - avocados, rice and beans, etc. into different ways where new things might be introduced... like for example:

A rice burrito with a guacamole side - it uses rice and avocado, but the filling has zuchinni in there too.
A macaroni and cheese that the sauce is orange because the addition of butternut squash or pumpkin - believe me the taste is as cheese as the traditional kind
A caprese quesadilla - something fun that includes fresh mozz cheese, tomatoes and basil and tastes just like a pizza.
Make Vanilla Maple Baby Carrots - a nice twist on those carrots maybe to accompany a hearty rice and beans plate.

By the way, eating rice and beans in combination is a complete meal. It's a Puerto Rican staple. If you make it with whole grain rice even better. Maybe you can change the type of beans... make white beans, garbanzo beans, lentils all in a nice tomato broth and with lots of pumpkin and she is having a complete meal with all the protein and amino acids her body needs.

I also recommend you the book Deceptively Delicious... it has a lot of recipes very kid-friendly that sneak in a lot of nutritious ingredients in all recipes, plus the philosophy that a salad and vegetables are included in the plate. I found it very interesting.

Good Luck to you and your grandaughter...

Madelyn
KarmaFreeCooking

Who doesn't like pasta, cheese and chicken? Something that will be delicious and help her back on the pounds would be chicken parmesan. How could she NOT like that?

While it would be nice to introduce her to some new foods, also consider that some kids are naturally thin, and if she's otherwise healthy you might be doing her a disservice by teaching her to eat more than she needs, or by teachng her that she should be eating when she's not actually hungry. Enough of that, and when she's a teenager, she'll be the chubby kid trying to lose weight.

Even though she seems a little thin to you, she might be eating plenty for her height, weight, metabolism and level of activity. She could be going through a growth spurt which is why she seems thinner than you think she should be. She's not going to starve herself to death. Humans tend not to do that.

That said, maybe the thing to do is to put the focus on what you eat rather than on what she doesn't eat. Make something interesting, munch on it, ask her if she wants some. If she says, "no," then accept that answer and then tell her that if she wants to try some later it's in the fridge in the green container and she can help herself (or you will help her, if need be). Tell he that is't one of your favorites, or you won a prize at the county fair making it. Or say that maybe she's too young to like something like this, but she can try it later if she wants too see if her taste buds are growing up. If you say something intriguing about it, but put no pressure on her to eat it when she's no hungry, she might be curious enough to try it later when she is hungry. Maybe she will like it.

Some kids also go through times when they tend not to like anything. She maybe in the midst of that. Unless she's going to be living with you long-term, or you know that she's unhealthy, you might be best off just not worrying about it.