Does this sound like a reasonable diet for a 4 year old?

[RoaringBunny]

DC is a fussy eater and I've been slowly trying to improve their diet, cut down on the snacks and get them to eat a wider range of food. Just wondering whether this sounds ok as a day's meals and snacks for a 4 year old...

Breakfast - milk, porridge and cut up pear.

Snack - Digestive biscuit at the playground. Piece of peanut butter toast when we got home.

Lunch - sausages, cheesy pasta and broccoli. Tiny piece of cake and strawberries.

Snack - half a banana and some milk.

Dinner - chilli on rice, peas and carrots. Pudding was homemade chocolate beetroot cupcake with plain yoghurt.

They get child-sized portions of everything on small plates so not huge portions and they don't usually finish all their food.

Biscuit, cake and cupcake in one day seems excessive. What exactly are you worried about? Its hard to comment when only given a snapshot of one days examples.

Where does the fussy eater bit come in? Is it the same food every day?

Sounds fine to me Op!

Seems a lot of sweet stuff and the biscuit and the toast is a lot. I would just do fruit for lunch time dessert and just yogurt after dinner with only one sweet treat a day mid morning.

Thats so funny! Reading this list i took it as a stealth boast its clearly awesome, then first comment is that the biscuiting is excessive! thats amazing!

Sounds fine OP!

My DD1 is fussy as hell, but yours is much much much better than what mine will tolerate.

Ignore the posters about too much sweet stuff 🙄 A digestive and a beetroot cake is reasonable. Mine eat loads of sweet stuff in the day, but all child-sized portions and they're skinny rakes!

I don’t see anything fussy about that. A child that will eat a variety of fruit, vegetables plus rice and a main dish doesn’t sound fussy.

But that’s a lot of sweet treats. Do they always have so much biscuit and cake? I’d give something savoury for mid morning (cheese and crackers, or veg sticks) and cut out the cake at either lunch or dinner.

Ignore the posters about too much sweet stuff 🙄 A digestive and a beetroot cake is reasonable. Mine eat loads of sweet stuff in the day, but all child-sized portions and they're skinny rakes

You obviously missed the cake as lunchtime as well.

The problem is that’s fine as a one off day, but if that’s what the OP has given as an example then it’s clearly not a one off day. And just because a cake is homemade doesn’t make it healthy!

If your child eats everything you've listed they are most definitely NOT a fussy eater!

@Nojobforoldmums. DC will only eat around 8-10 meals (fish fingers, salmon, pizza, fishcakes etc.) so we usually do have the same meals over a 5 day rotation. They're fussy about veggies (only like broccoli, carrots, peas, sweetcorn, don't like potatoes but will eat sweet potatoes) and refuse to try new things. My DM doesn't think they get enough variety in their diet (they won't touch pies, stews, burgers, curries, pasta dishes, for example) and thinks part of the fussiness is because I give DC too many snacks. I'd like them to eat more things.

This is what I would give
Breakfast - porridge and cut up pear.

Snack - Digestive biscuit

Lunch - sausages, cheesy pasta and broccoli. strawberries.

Snack - half a banana

Dinner - chilli on rice, peas and carrots. Pudding was homemade chocolate beetroot cupcake with plain yoghurt.

OP you’ve clearly never met any genuine fussy eater children. That list sounds totally normal. Unless this post it just utter rubbish:

they won't touch pies, stews, burgers, curries, pasta dishes, for example

Yet,

Lunch - sausages, cheesy pasta and broccoli

Sounds like they just prefer fish to meat based on the meals you’ve listed. It’s quite common for kids to struggle with meat if they are lazy chewers.

It sounds good to me. A fair variety.

I think it sounds fine and a decent range of fruit, but 3 sweet things in a day is a maybe bit much. I’d ditch the lunchtime cake and keep puds for the occasional evening.

@Caffeinemonster. Sorry, I wasn't trying to be deliberately confusing . The only pasta "dish" (if you could call it that!) my DC will eat is plain boiled pasta with some grated cheese on top. So no spag bol, lasagna, pasta bakes etc. My DM likes cooking Italian food which is why she is put out that DC won't even try it.

Sounds great

A lot of sweet stuff? Jesus people need to get a grip.

I don't think your 4 year old is fussy at all. Mine would never eat half of what you've just described.

Not the point of the thread at all but what recipe do you use for your chocolate and beetroot cake? I keep meaning to try making one

I think a mid morning and a mid afternoon snack is fine - it's what they'd have at school/nursery. Though I'd give water instead of milk at snack time as milk is filling and they've already had porridge for breakfast.

As your DC likes peanut better you could do apple slices and peanut butter or celery sticks and peanut butter instead of toast sometimes.

Fir comparison, in case it's helpful, today my 4 year old ate
Breakfast : Fruit Smoothie
Snack: 1 cracker & slice cheese
Lunch : plain cooked pasta with grated cheese& slice of turkey
Snack : Apple
Dinner: Baby Rusk.
I offered all kinds of other things. All refused. She's fine, 50th centile weight, never sick so I figure she's getting what she needs though I do give her a multivitamin daily too.

Just to say, we wouldn't normally have cake twice in the same day (we had some leftover birthday cake to finish) but DC would usually get two treat things a day (but not huge things). For example, a biscuit when out of the house (or ice cream at the weekend) and then something after dinner like a small piece of cake or chocolate, ice cream or yoghurt with fruit or a homemade ice lolly or yoghurt pop. All small portions, though.

They do get snacks quite often (fruit, cheese or toast) so maybe this and the sweet things are something to look at.

Part of the reason I'm asking is because it's becoming awkward when we visit relatives and DC won't eat any of the food offered.

My kids don't like mixed food, they wouldn't eat an Italian style pasta dish with sauce. I would serve it deconstructed with the pasta plain and the sauce on the side. It's normal I think! They're 4 & 6.

@Camomila. This is the recipe we used... www.iga.com.au/recipes/healthy-living/chocolate-beetroot-cupcakes.

We tend to reduce the sugar and substitute partly with agave syrup so we do get slightly 'mushy' cupcakes but DC doesn't care.

If you want to try a chocolate and beetroot cake, I've followed Jamie Oliver's recipie before and it turned out ok... www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/chocolate-recipes/epic-chocolate-and-beetroot-cake. Tastes great with summer fruits and cream .

I would love my 4 year old ds to be as ‘fussy’ as yours is!! Wow that’s not fussy at all.
My ds is going through a phase where the only vegetable he will eat is raw carrots, the only carb he will eat is mash potato, the only meat he will eat is bacon, gammon or beef burgers. He won’t eat anything with a sauce on, he does like a range of fruit, and milk/cheese. And I don’t consider him to be that fussy- he’s just going through a phase as he had periods of being a good eater.
I honestly wouldn’t worry it sounds like they have something from every food group, and have a few meals to rotate so I wouldn’t panic personally 🤷‍♀️

Thanks RoaringBunny that Jamie Oliver recipe looks great