[Coffee.]

Welcome to TeenHelp!

I completely understand your worry, since this is not a healthy diet, and because of her condition, it makes it all the worse. As others have pointed out, this is fairly normal for somebody her age. 13 year olds are picky. However, she needs to be eating a more balanced diet.

Honestly, you're her mother, and you really can put any food in the house and she'll be stuck eating that. When I was that age, I had preferences of food, but I was too lazy to ever really go against my parents wishes and cook my own food, so I pretty much ate whatever they fed me. I would recommend just trying to make as healthy of dinners as possible, and to overall buy less processed foods for your whole family. Obviously, it's okay if she has unhealthy foods every once in a while, but not every day. I would also make sure she is eating a healthy breakfast, since that really starts out her metabolism and helps her digest the other foods better as well.

I would also recommend talking to her about how you're feeling. Use I language. Tell her "It worries me that you are not eating as healthy as you should. What can I do to be able to encourage you to eat better?" Don't make it a derogatory thing like it's all her fault. Maybe she'd like to try new things, maybe she just doesn't know what else to eat. But overall, try to have a conversation with her about it.

I'll leave you with the TeenHelp Guide to Healthy Eating , and I'll recommend a few specific foods myself that I enjoyed eating as a teenager that are healthy! Random, but I hope it helps you get an idea of healthy foods that teenagers like.

Breakfast foods:
1. Fiber One Healthy Clusters Cereal + 2%/Skim/Soy milk
2. Orange Juice Boxes (Seems like a kid thing, but on the way to the bus, SO convenient. Same thing can be made with a waterbottle and orange juice to save money/environment)
3. Fiber One or Fiber Plus Gronola Bars.
4. Whole wheat toast (Orowheat 12 grain is a good brand) and peanutbutter, jelly, or nutella, whatever her favorite is.
5. Fruit! My personal favorites are bananas, apples, and nectarines, but just find a fruit that works for her! These can but cut up and packed, or snacked on in the morning.

Lunch and Dinner things
1. Bagel and cream cheese, bagel and hummus, bagel and peanut butter.
2. Fun salads! You can try and see if she likes chef salads, ceasar salads, black bean salads, spinach fruit and nut salads, you know, a different variety of salads apart from the usual ice berg lettuce and ranch dressing.
3. Peanut butter and jelly with bananas or apples in it
4. Sandwich in a pita or a tortilla to mix things up from regular sandwiches
5. Healthier pastas, such as pasta and marinera sauce or a pasta with some olive oil and brocolli.

And a few good snacks to keep in the house
1. Chips and salsa
2. Peanuts/Almonds/Trail mixes
3. Wheat thins, Triscuits, basically some kind of whole wheat cracker, and cheese!
4. Dry cereal
5. Fruit and veggies, maybe cut up and with a bit of ranch.

Those are just some ideas that I enjoyed as a teenager. Maybe I was a healthier teenager, but hopefully, you got a few ideas as well.