My DS (6.5) is a picky eater. I shouldn’t be too worried as his food choices tend to be healthy (apart from probably too much breakfast cereal and sugar in general), but he has developed a stubbornness about new foods, or foods that don’t ‘look right’. As a result, his meal repertoire is getting smaller and smaller. Some of the dishes he does eat are quite unusual and he would definitely turn his nose up if they were served anywhere other than home so the familiarity of home cooking is obviously important to him.
I just end up making him food which I know he will eat rather than trying to get him to try new stuff as it’s just easier. Ideally we would all eat together every night but as I don’t get in from work till after 6 there’s not always time to cook something from scratch for all of us so DS often has ‘something I prepared earlier’ from the freezer, or a jacket spud or other ‘easy’ meal and DP and I will eat later - I guess this doesn’t help really. Aside from that, DP and I want to eat a wider range of dishes than DS will eat and serving two separate meals at the table each night just seems silly.
He gets genuinely worried about having to eat at his friend’s houses even if they offer to do something he likes, so I usually pick him up before they eat to save the stress. Eating out is a nightmare, I usually either just pack sandwiches for him or we have to go for pizza (which even then he will reject if the cheese isn’t right or something…) or, weirdly, somewhere which serves seafood, which he loves. He seems extremely squeamish about things he hates which includes ketchup and can’t stand them being on the table even!
I just wonder what other families do/have done about this kind of issue? My gut feeling is that we have been placing too much emphasis on his eating habits and it has become a ‘thing’ now. He’s accepted his fussy eater label and is happy to wear it with pride! I’ve been told just put food in front of him and if he doesn’t eat it he goes hungry, but i don’t know about this approach. He will need to eat something. He’s quite skinny and also will just play up at bedtime if he’s hungry. So should I give him an alternative? Arrgh! it’s so annoying. I LOVE food and cooking and just don’t understand how he’s not the same! He was brilliant as a baby and ate absolutely everything I put in front of him!
Any parents of grown up children who grew out of this would be welcome to share their stories here, as I need to know there’s light at the end of the tunnel and one day we’ll be able to go out for an enjoyable family meal somewhere!
sorry just realised how long this message is!
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Behaviour/development
Experience of picky eaters???
2 replies
jobnockey · 28/08/2015 13:44
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