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?

How long ago are we talking about?

I just didn't eat much, I never did ,even as a baby. Or ate extra when there was something good. Or ate fridge food like cheese ,tomatoes ,jam,butter etc and bread . Once I was a bit older(7ish) I just learned to cook for myself basic stuff chips, eggs, plain pasta and just sorted myself out.

I did have a period of about 2 years where I mostly ate homemade chips.

By olden days one assumes OP is talking about pre Victorian days not 30 years ago.

Prior to the new world being discovered we didnt even have tomatoes, potatoes etc

So pottage and bread was what people ate, with scanty meat a bit of fish and dairy dependent where in the country and what sort of habitat you came from. Food might have felt 'safe' and more easily tolerated or it might have been rejected and failure to thrive

I do think people are too quick to dismiss societal/cultural impacts on people though.

My 1959 born dm has such a fucked up relationship with food. She's of the "don't you dare waste a bite" mentality whilst also being of the "I had half a cup of beetroot yesterday and I'm still full" mindset. It's actually exhausting. Whatever parenting went on with food during her formative years is to blame.

Really interesting reading Karen Armstrong's account of her time as a nun in the 60s. They weren't allowed to refuse any food so she had endless gastric problems. It wasn't until she left the nunnery that anyone worked out what her allergies were.

My parents rule was you cleared your plate or you stayed at the table.
I didn’t like meat and one day refused to eat a large piece of liver ( lunchtime) This resulted in me being given the liver ( cold) for tea. Refused to eat it. So I was given it for breakfast the next morning. Can’t remember if it went on any longer but I was given nothing else to eat while refusing to eat it.
I stopped eating meat aged about 12 , maybe 13. If it was some sort of stew/casserole/shepherds pie for dinner I was given tinned vegetables only ( my mother saw fresh veg as wasteful).
I was a very underweight child , my mother was called into school at one point.
I’m not underweight now 😉 and eat what the fuck I want when I want.

I have a cousin who would only eat spam and chips. Her Mum fed her this for years and she is now a normal healthy 60 something year old.

There's much less tolerance of 'fussiness' with eating now in many ways. As dietary options, ingredients and food from around the world has become available it makes people who once would have just had a 'limited palate' or 'plain tastes' seem fussy.

I wasn't especially fussy, but 40 odd years ago my sibling basically lived on various beige carbs (doused in vinegar or mayo!) for what seemed like ages. It just wasn't a big thing, seen as 'just a phase' to be grown out of, which it was.

I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I dont remember chicken nuggets and Nutella becoming a thing until maybe the late 80s ? There were plenty of chips and toast though.

We had family friends at that time with very fussy children. One lived off weetabix, that's basically all she would reliably eat until she was about 8. She was very thin and under the hospital for it.

Another one had very little appetite, if you gave her toast and butter she would lick the butter off and leave the toast, and that would be it till the next meal. She was also under the hospital, and her mum used to be very worried and cried about it a lot.

It depends, in some cases they never got that far because their upbringing meant they had to eat what they were given. Others would potentially die.

I honestly think that you can get past it usually, we did. Dd at one point would only eat dry cheerios, McDonald's nuggets and McDonald's fries - for 3 weeks she was basically surviving on carnation instant breakfast (like complan) as I wouldn't buy McDonald's every day, eventually I gave in and she could have McDonald's if she ate cheese and crackers etc ... took months but I got her eating again. She is autistic and we've had periods since but with bribery, perseverence and the fact I was fairly strict we got through it. She eats fairly well now considering, as an adult that is, it would have been easier to give in but I didn't. This doesn't work for all but it did for us with a very fussy toddler for months

In the 70s my aunt lived off toast and tomato soup for 4 years.

My grandfather grew up in abject poverty in rural Ireland in the early years of the 20th century. His family were basically subsistence farmers, and there were 12 mouths to feed.
When we were children, if we were fussy about food he would always say : “Youse kids are too soft. If you knew what real hunger was, you would eat what you were given, and you’d be grateful for it”.

That’s what happened to fussy eaters in the olden days. They went hungry.

I was a child in the 1960s and would refuse to eat. Endless battles made everyone's lives a misery. I was made to sit at the table until I ate it and, if I didn't I would be made to eat it for breakfast. Quite hard getting down cold sprouts in day old gravy at 7.30am!

Eventually, mum took me to the doctor who told her not to worry, I would eat when I was hungry. I did eventually get hungry, started eating and haven't stopped since.

I don't remember anyone being a fussy eater when I was a kid in the 60s/70s. We ate what we were given, 3 meals a day with nothing between, no helping yourself to anything.

I know someone (now 59) who was hospitalised as a young child for not eating. She is an enthusiastic foodie now, but her eldest daughter was also an extremely rigid under-eater and was diagnosed with autism in her teens.

These sorts of foods have been developed with a bliss point in mind- ie the perfect combination of taste, texture and appeal. For restrictive eaters, these foods are safe because of their consistency and these days, their availability; so the relationship is formed and it becomes favourable in their mind than battling their disgust and fear with a range of other textured , funny smelling food etc.

My 2 AFRID eaters would 10 times out of 10 choose their safe foods over anything else . If they had never been introduced to them, they would have stuck to plain bread, plain potato, plain banana and plain yogurt. They may have survived childhood and hopefully gotten more able to eat a variety of foods as adults.

Reminds me of something I saw on facebook a while ago. Someone said 'when I was growing up, my mom gave me 2 choices for my tea.'.... 'EAT. OR STARVE.'

My mother was a 'sickly child' in rural Ireland in Absolute poverty. She spent several years in bed and barely attended school at all.

She was also an enormously fussy eater (still is) - despite the general brutality of her childhood, she was not forced to eat - her mother gave her buttered potatoes (skins on) and bread and that was it.

Somehow she survived, she had siblings that did not. She's still going strong but is very thin and doesn't like eating generally.

70s childhood another fussy child (me) - my mother was sympathetic to my fussiness but neither my father or school were (compulsory school dinners). My father used violence - and so I learnt to swallow food without chewing. I spent most of my school lunch hours staring at a plate of food until the dinner ladies gave in (presumably needed to clear up) and sent me out to play. I stole food whenever I could (almost always sugary crap) as I was hungry. I'm fat now and wont eat food I don't like.

My own children - one very fussy one, I got very stressed out when they were small, despite knowing it wouldn't help (had spent time working in eating clinics) but eventually went for the 'you choose the food, they choose if they eat it option' and made basic stuff available. Is now adult, doesn't eat much meat unless it is highly processed but eats a wide variety of vegetarian options and is generally quite a healthy eater and a healthy weight.

Talking more generally, first of all, food used to be a lot plainer and basic. Fussiness is normally due to texture,taste or smell. Food was a lot less "sensory " shall we say , so unless absolutely disgusting for other reasons, there were other safe alternatives(if you were allowed to choose and not force fed).

I suspect in times of severe deprivation like war,rationing,famine etc. self preservation did kick in after a certain point. After all some people ate bugs,roots,rats,cats and even other humans when desperate just to stay alive,but that's a completely different story.

DS was fussy about plain food until his teens, just never liked it. He liked toast with plenty of marmite and spicy foods. I think he was getting strong flavours through the breastmilk so I guess that wouldn't have happened in the past.

I think if I was a child today then I would probably be diagnosed with ARFID. As it was I survived on very plain foods and tiny amounts of it, my mum used to me buy me a certain jar of baby food until I was about 8 or so because it was the only thing I would eat that contained any vegetables, then they stopped making that flavour. If we were somewhere that my foods weren’t available then I just wouldn’t eat at all. On holidays I live on plain omelettes and French bread.

My uncle (born 1950) just ate white bread and tinned tomato soup- he has later been diagnosed ASD

We went hungry at school. Fishfingers and chips and beans was one of the days I actually ate.

In the 70’s at my primary we were made to finish our lunch or we couldn’t play outside. If we still didn’t finish then we’d go hungry

Less choice and variety coupled with the fact that food wasn't as readily available as it is now.

The only variation was seasonal fruits and vegetables.

So I suspect fussy eaters would just eat less.

I think fussy eaters ate just a few things ( the same as nowadays) it’s just these things were different. One of my cousins only liked mashed potato with meatballs as a child. He never ate any vegs or fruits, he wasn’t even keen on sweets and chocolate. I thought that he was so weird. I would eat any fruits available non-stop.
He is 47, has job, 2 kids, can drive. He is still a bit weird in some aspects but eats pretty normally.