To think just don’t offer them beige food?

Because children don't exist in a bubble. They go to parties. They have older siblings. They go to nursery, or childminders, on playdates where older children might be present.

People are talking as though children are being given Red Bulls

Ok. The op refers to the kid only eating crisps!!! I’m saying - why does a 3 year old know what a quaver is!!!!

I’m referring to the OP and the crisps / quavers. I’m wondering how you get to the point that your toddler / young child will only eat crisps? You’re right I have never experienced more than the usual fussy eating which my kids thankfully grew out of. Irrespective, they would never have had quavers or crisps as toddlers!

Beige food =/= junk.

It means plain, safe, bland foods - so things like bread, plain pasta, rice, crackers, breadsticks, cucumber, mashed potato. All perfectly normal, healthy foods that most people feed their children.

The fact that you have assumed that ARFID is children living off crisps at 2 because parents fed them crisps at 2 tells me you’re not directly impacted by selective eating, have no personal or professional experience and are coming from a place of judgement rather than a place of wanting to understand.

why do you need to feed a toddler / child junk? There is no school pressure at that age. So why start???

Then you’ve done a spectacular job of ignoring the context of my posts and missed the point I made entirely. Well done.

No. I tagged the correct person @Riaanna

I’m a tad confused. On what basis did you tell me that beige food refers to a type of junk food?

So interesting!

Fascinating

No, it doesn’t. Some people have decided that’s what it refers to it. When you’re dealing with HCP’s beige food refers to food that is beige. Food which is also historically low threat and safer, less likely to be poisonous, cause allergens, consistent in texture and flavour, and a much needed part of the diet. Understanding what is meant by beige food is actually a starting point for understanding ARFID.

Actually, when it comes to ARFID and childhood eating issues, "beige food" refers to safe, plain, bland foods. Normally bread, crackers, crisps, potatoes, toast etc.

You do realise that the phrase "beige food" refers to a specific type of junk food? Often breadcrumbed and always full of nasty additives. The foods you listed are neither beige nor "beige food". To be literal rice is brown or white, potatoes white or yellow, and chicken pinkish white or brownish depending on the part of the chicken.

My children never ever ate "beige food" when small though I'm sure they eat most of the things on your list now.

Is your suggestion that a healthy relationship is created with food by forcing children to eat each other? Also, if it helps, my daughter has been hospitalised and tube fed because she will just not eat. Anorexia ring a bell? Eating disorders, including ARFID, do actually cause death. Comparing that to a human eating another is bizarre.

Excuse me? What on earth are you talking about? Have you tagged the wrong person?

You said he wouldn’t be demanding beige food as he wouldn’t know what it was. Do your kids never eat beige food?

No idea what you mean. I wasn't providing a definitive list of foods which are beige coloured.

I think there's something in what @Calliopespa is saying about more food being available nowadays, so fussiness and food-related issues stand out a lot more than they did 50-100 years ago, or even 25 years ago.

I've got four children.

All brought up and weaned the same - mostly healthy, home cooked food with the odd beige food dinner when we have lots going on.

Three out of four will eat practically anything, with the exception of visible onions or mushrooms.

One is a fussy eater. No arfid, no additional needs. Just plain fussy. He ate fine until he was about three or four as well. Now would live off noodles, pasta, pizza, nuggets and hash browns.

He was give nuggets because he was a normal eater, and it was one meal out of however many we eat in a week.my other children were fine, ate the nuggets and waffles, but still ate other foods as normal. Not this kid.

I try and encourage him to eat as varied diet as possible and occasionally we luck out and he likes it, but more often than not he goes back to beige foods. He's 13, so he knows what he likes and doesn't like. He plays football, he's sporty and healthy, so to me, making sure he has enough calories to get him through the day is my priority.

It’s naive and unsympathetic.

@Riaanna well aren't you the lucky one. Though I suspect that you see yourself as the perfect mother. I'm not going to repeat my previous posts detailing our experience as you obviously can't be bothered to read or understand them.

I went to the GP/HV many times over the years and they said it's normal, they are growing, you're being overly anxious - just offer food and they'll eat eventually (they didn't) and then just feed them calories of whatever they'll eat when they lost too much weight . It's not as easy as just going to the GP and you get help, this is really naive.

Also there was less fruit about when I was growing up. Apples, yes; pears, yes; oranges yes - not sure where they came from. But things like strawberries were seasonal, as were stone fruits. Where there is less variety, people with very limited diets don’t stick out as much.

To be honest when I was growing up in the 80’s lots of people ate that processed white bread. My grandmother always distrusted it and had wholemeal and I remember a lot of people thinking she was a bit “ health freaky” for doing so.
Roasts with fatty cuts of meat were much more common and I had several friends who were allowed Nutella on toast for breakfast and white bread sandwiches with jam or peanut butter made regular appearances in school lunches. Today that would strike me as beige eating. We weren’t allowed Nutella, and jam only as a treat on scones, so there was some awareness about, but many did. Greens were definitely a thing, but often cooked till quite soggy snd I don’t remember children liking them the way mine love a crunchy green bean or, for that matter, things like edamames or roasted cauliflower. Cauliflower would have been boiled back then.

I suppose what I am saying is I wonder if there are more picky eaters now or if it just went under the radar more because there was less awareness and the diet wasn’t as far removed from the general diet . I get the whole upfs thing; but together with that, I do think as a society we now have higher awareness of what we SHOULD be eating.

Roasts are now seen as a “ treat”, whereas many of my grandmother’s generation thought it boastworthy how often they cooked them. Lots of roast potatoes. Bread was mostly white. If a child was a beige eater they could navigate that environment far better than everyone sitting round eating avocado and poached egg on seeded bread ( which is our breakfast this morning!) . No white bread or Nutella in the house.