There is no doubt that children have different eating habits and appetites. It can be a real challenge for parents getting children to eat, and then getting them to eat the right things.
When little A was 2 years old my husband had taken him to a BBQ - a friend of ours had brought his 2 year old daughter to the same event. My husband said that at the function his friends daughter ate and ate - while our son sat there and watched her eat. He had no inclination to eat himself.
My sister in law has two boys - at meal time they begin to wave their hands because they cannot wait to eat, they will eat anything indiscrimintely and cry when the food is gone so you basically have to cut them off otherwise they would eat until they pop. My kids look at them with amazement! On the other hand, my little nephew spends much of his mealtime fishing food back out of his mouth that his mother has put in. Getting him to eat is a struggle, and on top of that he is allergic to many types of food - so his mother is almost in tears when trying to feed him.
These are natural differences that parents are left to work with. When there is an added challenge with a chronic disease such as thalassemia - and the effects of bad eating habits can have real consequences very quickly, the pressure to overcome these hurdles is great. I think that we have gotten some great ideas in this thread.
In addition, I have a few other suggestions, as these methods have helped me over the years to increase my son's apetite are:
I don't let him eat late, I notice that if he eats a lot before bed time he does not wake up with an apetite for breakfast. I push them to eat an early breakfast - only a few spoons of every food group. Yogurt & milk (as the milk increases the calcium absorption from the yogurt), berries (some fruit), protein (eggs, nuts, peanut butter), and a few bites of multigrain toast or cereal. It sounds like a lot but they have very little of each thing. I find that this increases their apetite for snack and lunch. Snack can be cut up grapes, pears, apple etc. And lunch can be half a sandwich or soup with a few bites of different types of fruits and veges. Again a few hours later you can offer some fruit and a little cheese after the fruit with milk, and a few hours later dinner with some meat and vegetables.
Each portion can be small, but this way they get regular nutrition throughout the day. Just be sure not to give them milk or cheese after dinner because I find that this reduces their apetite for breakfast the next day. Watermelon or strawberries may be a good after dinner snack - and it also gets the digestive tract moving. If kids don't go to the bathroom regularily they won't have an apetite. Water is also important for this reason.
Doing all of this has helped us with our picky eaters, I hope that you all find it useful too. I am finding that exjade in the morning is making breakfast a little more difficult - but we have decided to give him exjade very early (5am) so that he takes it in his sleep and then sleeps off the ichy feeling before breakfast.
Best of luck getting the little ones to eat,
Sharmin