My 5Yr Old Daughter and Bad Habits, How Do I Break Them?

If the DR. says she is physically healthy, this sounds psychological and you need to talk to a professional psychologist.

First off, it's not a habit. It is either a sensory processing issue or Prader Willi Syndrome. Have her evaluated by an OT who specializes in sensory modulation and self regulation disorders. Take Care ASAP! No more "Popping" the girl has a problem!

It sounds like an emotional/eating disorder to me and she might need some professional help. I don't think this falls under the category of "bad habits to be broken" at all.
It could be binge eating. Signs include: Other signs include: a child eating a lot of food quickly, a pattern of eating in response to emotional stress, such as family conflict, peer rejection, or poor academic performance, a child feeling ashamed or disgusted by the amount eaten, finding food containers hidden in a child's room, an increasingly irregular eating pattern, such as skipping meals, eating lots of junk food, and eating at unusual times (like late at night).

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i'd say it's time to look for help outside just you and family. there will probably be some good advice on here, but really, this is a question for the professionals. i would start at her school. if you can talk to the counsellor that would be great - they can probably even recommend someone free or at low cost, to talk to all of you. this is a WAY bigger issue than just a "bad habit". this needs to be stopped. as soon as possible. your daugher is headed for trouble.

Is this a new "behavior"? Does she eat a lot at one time or say that she's hungry when she should have eaten enough to be full?

It does sound like a compulsion disorder or ( there's not enough info here to determine) pradar willis syndrome. If it's PWS, it isn't her fault.

What does your Dr. who is telling you she's healthy, say about this behavior? This isn't normal or healthy behavior.

You should go to a family therapist and find out what's going on. Maybe she eats her emotions or has an eating disorder or isn't eating enough or feels neglected... not to ask a silly question but does she get the chance to eat 3-5 meals (3 pretty big or 5 medium to small)?

I would never lock her door from the outside.. what if she has to pee in the middle of the night? I believe this would traumatize her and make her feel trapped (literally) and like a prisoner in her own house... it would definitely break any trust she feels with y'all and cause a huge conflict in the relationship.

I kinda agree with a mom below, where are yall while she's getting out a loaf of bread and eating it? I speculate it would take a few mins, if not more, to eat an entire loaf of bread and all the stuff your mentioning... maybe she's eating because she feels alone or sad? I am just confused if she had supervision (like little kids should) how she would eat everything in the fridge without someone catching her mid loaf. Since a mom above brought it up, how many kids do you have? I know there is a difference between having ONE and four lol, but I still believe you'd catch her before she eats a fridge full of food unless moms just let kids run wild all day if they have more than one, which is kinda silly.
Get one of those door bolts from home depot that has a loop exposed after you secure it and put a lock you'd have to cut off with bolt cutters on it.

Look up Prader Willi Syndrome. I don't know anyone that has it, but I remember seeing a show on TLC about it.

Check with Standard Process 800-588-8740- and find a doc that does their work up- it sounds as if there is something she is missing that she is desparate to get, and when that is supplied to her then she will be able to stop.
Missing nutrients can cause this- help her by making sure she is not missing something.
best, k

I have no suggestions but I wanted to let you know that someone I know has a 5 year old that does the same thing, yet she eats the soy sauce, ranch, anything that is in there too.

I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in this struggle.

Sounds weird but I'd lock her bedroom door from the outside so she can't get out of bed at night. Maybe she isn't feeling full, or constantly hungry. She may have a high metabolism. I would make her smoothies to drink and see if she is hungry after that.

I dont know for sure, but I have seen a couple shows on tv about children who are like this and there is actually a sickness called "Prader Willi Syndrome." I just searched for "children who cant stop eating" and it was one of the things that came up. You might want to check into it and see if this is whats happening. Gosh I hope not. Its an uncontrolable urge to eat. The brain isnt sending the signal saying its had enough. it actually keeps telling the stomach it is hungry.

wow... i would love to know how these parents who can watch kids 24/7 do it... do they not sleep or pee? She is 5... not 1. I love how you ask a serious question and first thing some mom's do is bash you for "not watching her"
anywho... I do agree with the mom's who suggested you get her checked out again. While her blood sugar may be fine, something about this level of obsessive eating is not normal.
I also agree do not locker her in her room, that can be dangerous
good luck

Sounds like you need to have the fridge locked with a lock that doesn't allow it to open, and place the key in a place she truly can't access... and perhaps change her diet to more vegetables and no processed/refined carbs since she acts like a sugar addict. There may be an emotional reason also for why she is always looking to fill herself with sweet food - food often replaces emotional contentment and nurturing for people. If she's really that healthy I don't see why she'd be getting up in the middle of the night to steal food. She may be healthy in a superficial way that most doctors measure, but something is out-of-balance, both physically and psychologically, for a child to be acting this way. You may want to speak to a different doctor about it for another opinion.

I'm going to add my voice to the other moms. It sounds like she has more than a bad habit. Please get her checked out by a doctor to rule out any of the issues already mentioned. I hope that you will be able to help her and resolve the issue. God bless you all and please keep us posted.

We have four kids, nearly five, and it can be a challenge to watch them all 100% of the time since the younger ones can be more demanding and need more constant attention, and the older ones like the freedom to run around and play doing what they want. I suppose I could force them all to stay in the same room as me, but how boring for them! :-) But here are some things we've found works for us to prevent them from doing things they shouldn't:

If she is getting into candy, throw it all away in front of her. You don't even have to be mean about it. Just tell her that the rules are she can't have it, and if she's going to get into it without asking, then it's not safe to have in the house. Or throw it in a dumpster or down the sink or someplace where she can't then take it back out of the garbage and eat it. Do the same for cake and ice cream if she gets into it without having permission, toss it immediately. I wouldn't do it angrily. Just do it matter of factly so that the consequence is what she is focused on and not your behavior about it (she'll learn better that way). If you want some candy/ice cream/cake for yourself, go buy it at night when she's in bed and eat it without her seeing it.

I've only had to do this one time with candy. The kids were devastated that we'd actually throw it away. I wasn't rude about it - just matter of fact about it because they blatantly disobeyed me, and I wasn't okay with them thinking they could do that if I wasn't in the room. I told them that until they could obey, we wouldn't be having any candy in the house (we hardly ever have candy in our house, so it's not a big deal for me to not have access to it, but we have a safe in the house, and if you need a spot for candy, a place like that works to hide it).

Do the same with the juices. If she is drinking them without asking, toss them. Squirt them down the drain. It won't harm her any. She can drink water (it's better than juice is for her anyway). Do the same with as much of the other stuff as you possibly can. If you see she's eaten it, toss the rest *in front of her* so she can see the consequence. If you can't do it with yogurt or milk creamer, then make it part of the deal that you aren't going to be having candy/cake/ice cream in the house until she can prove to you that she will only eat things when she has permission.

You can even make a sticker chart and add a sticker for each day that she has obeyed. It's a more positive type of discipline, but I've found it's often more effective than time outs, yelling, or swatting (which I've done those too when frustrated!). You want to give her some type of motivation to obey. Then if she fills up her sticker chart, she can earn back something she lost or something like that.

And...with whatever you can, move it to your pantry or another room that you can then lock up with ideas below.

We've found we have a need to figure out how to protect our kids from going into places that we don't feel are safe for them to be without supervision. Basically we have modified our house so that I know they can't be anywhere that is unsafe for them. And this is how we've done it:

We put door bolts at the top of certain doors so that they cannot open those doors even if they are standing on chairs. if you have a pantry with food you don't want her getting into, these locks can help prevent that. I can't remember if links work here or not, so I'll include the link and then the name of the product so you can search for it if you need to:

Door bolt: http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202097672/h_d2/Pr...

Or, if that link doesn't work, go to Home Depot's website and look up "Everbilt 4 in. Satin Nickel Surface Bolt"

These bolts are nice because they are very simple for adults to get in and out of doors, but they are too high for the kids to access. We put them on our medicine closet door so there is NO chance the kids can get in there. We also put them on the front door so there is no chance that a child can get out the front door or open it for a stranger.

We have also put baby proof handles on doors so that the kids can't get into certain rooms (like the laundry room or bathroom or our bedroom, etc). Sometimes we double it so a door will have a bolt AND a child proof door handle thingy (we do this with our medicine cabinet because we want no chance for them to get in there). We've gone through several child proof handles before we have found ones that actually work really well for our kids:

Here they are on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001NJP07K

Or do a search for "American Red Cross Cover" on amazon.

For me, it's made our house really kid friendly, and I don't have to worry about them getting into stuff they shouldn't. If they get into candy/cake, it's gone. It's the worst punishment really! Because then they remember for next time and know they don't want to lose access to the treats again. You have to be consistent, though.

Also, while you're trying to break her of habits, try to be really aware of where she is and stop her. If you see her getting into the fridge, walk over to her, take her by the arm and get her down, telling her to stay out of the fridge. Don't yell or scream or try to make her obey verbally - just physically move her from doing it. I'm betting she'll resist, but she won't be happy about losing the privilege of having these things! And try to move things as far out of her reach as possible in the fridge so that it's hard for her to reach anything if her arms makes it in. But even if it does make it in - toss the rest of them.

I have caught my kids getting in the fridge before, or starting to eat a loaf of bread, but I catch them pretty fast. I'm not sure if you work at home or have something else taking your focus, but if you can, I think it would help a lot to try to remind yourself to be really aware of where she is. It seems like she might have a bit too much unsupervised time on her hands (no insult to you, as I don't know your situation).

Good luck!

EDIT: Now that I've written this, I'm reading the other answers, I think they make a really good point that her behavior is excessive. It could be some type of emotional response to things or disorder she's developing due to emotions, etc. I agree with their suggestions that you might need some professional type of help for her.

There is something in our brains that click when we are full. Some people don't have this switch, or some people can't detect it. This is a bad sign if she is very young

Our bodies only have so much insulin that breaks down sugars and carbs. Once you run out of our natural insulin, you become diabetic and have to inject insulin into your body regularly. If your daughter is already overeating and doesn't have the stop function in her brain, I'm afraid she might become a diabetic too early.

The easiest answer would be to not have anything sweet in your house - just healthy things. It might be a huge lifestyle change for you and your household but it would be for the better. I would also take her to a pediatrician or specialists and have her looked at.

Sounds like a compulsion disorder. Take her to a child psychologist.

This does not sound like a behavioral issue. It sounds like she is having cravings that are too strong for her to handle. A few possibilities - she may have candida (an overgrowth of yeast) in her body. The yeast would crave being fed sugars and carbohydrates (which are actually sugars). To deal with this, she would need to be put on a no sugar, no carbohydrate diet until the candida is under control.

Is she overweight or underweight? Underweight could mean parasites. Overweight could mean prader-willi syndrome. My sister has prader-willi. It is a condition that has several symptoms,but one of them is that the brain doesn't ever register that the stomach is full. A person with prader-willi can actually eat themselves to death if they are not restricted from food. I would recommend finding a new doctor who will look into your daughters nutrition, etc.