What happened to very fussy eaters in the olden days?

[houseydnc]

Inspired by another thread where the DC Would only eat the following:
Chicken nuggets
Chips
Toast
Chocolate spread sandwiches

What happened to children like this before chicken nuggets, chips and Nutella existed?

I know fussy eating is different to conditions like ARFID and other sensory disorders. I'm not passing judgement, I'm just interested to know.

I wonder what their diet was restricted to? Toast? Or were they forced to eat a wider variety of foods?

@jannier we were quite lucky tbh, as my grandparents were farmers/villagers, so we had stuff from them quite regularly when it was in season and things like eggs. Christmas was the best time as they would cut up a pig and we got a share too. It definitely helped.

I'm 30 and would describe my childhood in the 90s and 2000s as being the 'olden days'!!! Processed food rubbish was widely available when we were little.

That really is not the olden days!

My mother and her brother were fussy eaters as toddlers/children, Her and her brother only ate sausages and potatoes, even on Christmas Day, they got sausage and potatoes. My grandmother said she used to just ignore it, stick plates in front of them and they only eat the sausage and potatoes off it, leaving all veg or anything else. Mum is now 84 and a very adventurous eater, only a few things she dislikes, like Beetroots, celery, cabbage.
My oldest was fussy, now he's 35 and much better, I used to just plonk food in front of him and leave him to it, never commented or tried to force it. He'd only eat a few bits he liked as well. He was a slim child and is still tall and thin. so is my Mum

I’m 60 and ate pretty much what I was given ..sometimes I felt stomach ache , nausea or got diarrhoea.
I now know I can’t tolerate much dairy produce at all and have to be careful with other foods too .
I wasn’t and I’m still not a fussy eater .
My sister was fussy but my mum cooked very plainly, mince beef and potatoes type food or soups .

Those saying you got smacked etc - parents who would in modern times shout and get angry are the types who would have done this. Those who would be gentle today tried to give children what they would eat and encourage them to expand what they would eat.
But there were less fussy eaters in the past because there was less choice. You were expected to eat what you were given. So those with real food issues today would have had those food issues years ago. Those children who are just fussy because they prefer sugar etc were the kind who were not fussy in the past.

Gosh this thread is stirring up lots of thoughts and memories. I remember being hungry often in the 70s as a child. We didn’t have much money and “tea” (evening meal) was frequently something like poached egg on toast or mushrooms on toast, with bread and jam before bed to ward off hunger. I was made to eat everything on the plate whatever was served and if it was meat then it must have been cheap meat because I can remember never being able to swallow meat- spitting it into my drink or pushing it into my cheeks and flushing it down the toilet later. My parents, especially my dad, would force me to eat everything. I once got served the same bowl of porridge 3 times in one day because I refused to eat it at breakfast (it was first time having it). That was the day that my dad broke my will and I’ll never forget it as I gave in out of hunger in the evening after being starved all day. I’m kinda like the poster girl for ‘she’ll eat when she’s hungry’ but that’s had its consequences.

I didn’t have AFRID or ASD I just had a poor home and parents who’d lived through the tail end of rationing.

My youngest has food issues and my oldest is fine with food. I accommodate my youngest’s needs because I know that he would starve rather than eat. And because although limited, his range of safe food is healthy. I don’t want family mealtimes to be the battleground I experienced and I’ve got a terrible relationship with food these days.

Interesting, and I can remember a poem by A A Milne called ‘What is the matter with Mary Jane?’ about a little girl who won’t eat her dinner. The Tigger storyline in the Winnie the Pooh books also dealt with this issue. I recall Tigger had to approach eating disliked but important foods as like taking medicine.

I know now lots of parents will just make toast or offer fruit if children will not eat their dinner. But in times when food was scarce parents may have had nothing else to offer if a child would not eat.

@PermanentTemporary invalid food was about the idea that rich food was not good for ill people. In reality a lot of the food was food that was easy to eat and easy to digest i.e. light on the stomach, rather than heavy feeling carbs. My mum used to make us invalid food when we were ill as children. And nurses were taught invalid food recipes in case they worked as private nurses in an elderly persons home. It really was not about allergies.

And when they talk about digestion, what they often mean is constipation. They were obsessed about avoiding constipation. Using modern terms it was all about avoiding what they believed was toxins. My gran was born in 1908 and my mum says she was obsessed with preventing her and her brother getting constipated.

Broke one meal a day no biscuits or fanciness, family, and failure to eat what you were given was disobedience, which meant punishment.

As a little girl when I realized I was eating animals, and just stopped. But children didn't get to 'choose' and vegetarianism came under fussy eating and faddyness.
Initial reaction was eat it or get nothing which was fine. But passing out at school drew attention, so it became you will eat what's given, one way or another.

Frequently left on the floor overnight sobbing at a congealed plate. Humiliation and violence starting over at daylight. Groundhog day come evening. We didn't have a fridge so when as it started to get high I'd be warned it had to be eaten now. It would be the justification for being knelt on and forcibly fed, involving much gagging snot tears blood and vomiting.

One week bribery was tried. A bar of rum and raisin chocolate was put in front of me. To me it was a really big luxury item. I could have a square of this amazing stuff for each mouthful of meat I ate. It was tempting. I did two mouthfuls and earned two squares of chocolate, but balked at the third, and was allowed to try and eat it with the food to try overriding it. For me it was the end of it, I'd tried, and even this amazing stuff wasn't enough. But children didn't get to decide.

I did two overnights with that plate of food and the oh so desirable chocolate, but disgust at eating flesh was greater than desireable chocolate. (I remember sniffing it to death though!)
Choosing to forgo it rather than comply was the final insult and I lost teeth for it.

Sent away by authorities to be fattened up three winters in a row as a child 'unlikely to see spring.' Survival schemes did exist for those not thriving.
Allowed there to eat as I wanted and a steady stream of Welsh cakes and dandelion and Burdock. Amazing but also confusing. Food went from hell to heaven so I could go back to hell.

Ended up going in and out of 'care' (many reasons) with vicious nuns who meted out twisted punishments for continuing 'disobedience over what God had ordained and provided for my worthless self.' Often starved.

Eventually hospitalized after seeing a grubby privet bush as a tasty option.
Child psychiatrist tried and failed to cure my fussy eating and opinions.

I would imagine generations of children before me also found starving and violence easier to deal with than instinctive visceral reactions to some food, for whatever reasons.

Wow....we had a chicken I'm jealous lol

I was deemed a "fussy eater" in the 80s because I refused to eat eggs. Whenever I was forced to eat them for breakfast I would throw up. It infuriated my mother who was raised during the end of rationing and wanted to give me cheap protein. She tried to give me liver as punishment, but I always liked eating it, because I literally ate everything else offered. It turns out I'm intolerant to eggs which was not picked up in childhood because I can eat them in baked goods. Sometimes children know best.

Yep. Tiggers don't like haycorns. Always comes to mind when DS2 encounters a food he doesn't like.

We didn’t have much money and “tea” (evening meal) was frequently something like poached egg on toast or mushrooms on toast, with bread and jam before bed to ward off hunger.

We weren’t that badly off and that’s all we had for an evening meal too, but without the bread and jam before bed. I can’t remember ever being hungry.

Wasn't one of the Bronte sisters ( with hindsight) anorexic ?

My mum was at a quite posh boarding school in the 1950s. But with rationing still in place the food was terrible. Several picky eaters in her year got scurvy!

Wow @Elleherd I'm so sorry for what you went through. Your account is an incredible, yet very upsetting insight into the past.

How are you as an adult? What is your relationship with food like now? And are you neurodiverse?

No need for scurvy. Children used to routinely be given rosehip syrup and castor oil to prevent deficiencies.

houseydnc I don't mean to upset anyone, just want to say that those who think 'fussy' eating only happens when children are let, are so very wrong.
Food refusal easily prompts abuse and childhood resilience is paid for later.

Complicated food relationship. Relationship with myself / well being is poor.
ND/T? 'Nurture' made nature hard to know. Was told who, how, why you were.
Head injuries and odd upbringing alone definitely caused some 'differences.'
Suspect there may be some ND preceding me, and one DC has ASD.
Found a lot of their issues easy to understand and work with.

Still not eating animals, and just never saw them as acceptable edible food.
I'm afraid I hoard food and keep extra food in vehicles and at work. If food becomes questionable I'll usually eat it out of guilt even if it's 10p 'yellow label.'
I fantasize about Fortnum and Mason/delicatessen level food, and enjoy reading epicurean descriptions, but don't find myself worth spending on, so in reality live mainly off cheapest offers, except at Christmas, (wasn't celebrated) which I go a bit OTT on. On my own I can easily forget to eat for days, but around others can't refuse anything (vegetarian) given to me even if overfull.

Relationship with liquids is worse tbh. Children didn't need drinks - fluid was in your food. Was taught water was dangerous. Decaying pigeons in the water tank ensured no quibbling there.
I don't drink water other than in coffee and generally don't drink enough fluid. Really struggle in hospital over demands to drink water.
But, I easily drink too much alcohol, for the taste as well as effect. Bit of a mess!

40 years ago I would be made to sit and eat whatever had been given to me, whilst being screamed at and occasionally batted over the head by mother.
My dad apparently lived mostly on Horlicks tablets and bread and margarine until he left home and added Spam to his diet. (Born in the 40s)

All those people saying 'in the past people were hungry, so they ate everything' are simply not correct. - from my own childhood experience, and the experience of my schoolfriends. Yes, in the 1940s and 1950s there was a very limited range of foods, mostly plain and simple, compared with today. And no snacks or fizzy drinks or fruit juices. Yes, there was a strong 'it's wicked to waste food' ideology - many brave sailors had died in wartime transporting food to the UK, and many people, in many lands, had faced starvation. Yes, there were strong memories of of rationing. Yes, children over five were (on the whole) expected to eat the same foods as adults, and (on the whole) I think that was a good thing. Yes, we were often hungry - rumbling tummies - while waiting for a meal to be ready. Yes, we collected money for charities in little envelopes with harrowing pictures of hungry children on the front. Yes, conditions such as ARFID were not recognised - but that does not mean they did not exist.

As a child, I knew all this (except about ARFID and similar). I felt guilty at causing grief and annoyance to my very caring mother who worked hard to prepare meals for the family, and who had suffered shortages during WWII. (In her wedding phtos, she looked so thin...) But even so, I could not help it. I found it physically impossible to eat strong smelling/tasting and 'sqishy' fruits such as blackcurrants and cooked plum tomatoes. Even this morning, many decades later, I still could not repress a sense of dislike while defrosting some frozen 'fruits of the forest' to go on my DH's breakfast porridge. I don't know what causes it, but that feeling has lasted life-long.

Such so called 'fussiness' can involve, as previous posters have said, a very visceral sense of revulsion. It's not a conscious choice or a matter of being strong willed. The nearest I can think of is the feeling that some people have, who are scared (for eg) of spiders.

@nameXname there seems to have been a big increase in fussy eating amongst children these days. The old ways does not change those like you who have a visceral reaction. It did stop those kids who just want favoured food and will hold out for it, but will eat other stuff.
Its like my pets. I got them from a rescue and they had been fed a shop bought mix that is the equivalent of junk food. I spent a few weeks gradually shifting them over to a healthy diet. They were resistant, but now happily eat it.

Try having a kid that has NO favourite foods and you have to reintroduce frikking toast! Fun times..

@PaperDoIIs You have my sympathy - that must be so distressing all round.

@herewegoagainy I agree with you that with a simpler, plainer range of food, there are fewer opportunities for children to develop a taste for unhealthy foods, but how many children actually do stop eating because they want only favourite foods? And how many stop because they have some sort of a problem? And how can a worried parent tell, at least to begin with? I would suggest that the 'problem' eaters are in the majority. For the 'conscious' rather than 'visceral' refusers, few children want conflict every single day, unless, perhaps, there are other problems as well. Food is one of the few things that children can control by their own willpower, so I'd be asking myself: is everything OK at school? are there bullies? mean friends? sibling issues? image/health/weight/social-media-fuelled anxieties? family/parental worries and fears that they are picking up on? etc etc etc ?

In the old days - that's all I'm qualified to speak about - food options were few, so children did not expect 'favourite' foods all the time. There were no supermarkets, no TV children's treats adverts, no fridges or freezers in many/most homes. Foods were seasonal - no salads in midwinter, except celery and grated carrots or pickled beetroot and/or pickled red cabbage. Occasionally watercress - a real treat. (As a child, I really liked all of those and still do.) Coleslaw had not yet reached the UK. Nor had peppers or avocados or courgettes or sweetcorn. Or yoghurt or hummus or pizza!! Ice creams and soft fruits - including the dreaded blackcurrants etc - and lettuces/radishes/cucumbers/ fresh tomatoes were available in summer only. So we grew up knowing that what we liked best was simply not available all the time. That GREATLY limited the options for 'holding out' for anything that we preferred. It's also worth pointing out that a relatively limited range of fresh/home-cooked food is not damaging to our health. We don't need to eat foods expensively and sometimes exploitatively imported from all round the world to stay healthy.

If we really could not eat what was on offer, we were usually prepared to go hungry. An understanding parent might offer toast or bread and cheese, or an apple instead of blackcurrants, but nothing treat-like or fancy. More importantly, they would also start to discuss with us what we might prefer- from a range of available and simple home-made options (macaroni cheese or scrambled eggs on toast? with veg in season plus an apple or an orange to follow) and - very important - got us involved in preparing and cooking meals. That gave us a sense of positive involvement with food.

As you have shown, pets can be weaned off bad eating habits. So , perhaps, can some children, though only if they really have NO problems concerning food and are just trying to get what they want. But honestly, I don't know how many of those there are, compared with those who either have condition such as ARFID or else who are -maybe not consciously - using food refusal as way of dealing with/expressing concern about other issues.

In the old days - that's all I'm qualified to speak about

The OP hasn’t actually confirmed what period she regards as the “olden days”. There are quite a few people, including myself, recounting experiences from the 1950s/60s, but that isn’t actually that long ago.