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?

Those who remember being fussy eaters as children, can you say why??

My dad just ate bread and potatoes
I mean they also tied his hand behind his back at school so he wouldn't write with his left hand...

He is much less fussy now, he met my mum who wasn't a picky eater and encouraged him to try foods but he will always revert back to meat and potatoes

I was born in the 60s and was a very picky eater, along with refusal to eat meat (this was before vegetarianism was invented in most of the country).

My mum did work with it, to an extent. Though I remember long school lunchtimes sitting over a cold plate of liver, a series of baffled and offended hosts, and a hospital stay in central London where they literally fed me on mashed potato all week.

It was all a bit miserable, and yes I have had eating disorders my entire life. First anorexic at 12, currently obese.

My Dad (almost 80) has basically spent his whole life eating an awful lot of meat and potato or fish and potato type meals. No veg. When he started school he went home for his lunch after they insisted he had to eat his peas and wouldn't let him leave the table - he was still sat there at home time.
Knowing my granny she probably gave him a ham sandwich for lunch.
Depending on when exactly in history it was children would have either existed by just eating on a "safe" food their parents were happy to give them - like bread and butter/dripping.
Or they would have failed to thrive and died.
Or devolped eating disorders and possibly died.

For me it was a sensory thing. I once threw up in the school dining hall because of the smell of baked beans. My mum started to take me home for lunch after that. I still can’t beat certain smells and textures now although I do eat a more varied diet than I did as a child.

Remember as well it was not usual to 'snack' in the modern sense, today we get panicky if children are not eating all the live long day, but this wasnt how it was many years ago as children (not quite olden days) and as others have said food was plainer.

So children are not as hungry now when it comes to their main meals, they are kept topped up all day long

This.
Unless your family was well off the food was plain already and so less likely to be rejected.
Children who are fussy often get fixated on high sugar and/or fat food that may not have been available. I mean you can't only eat chicken nuggets if they do not exist.

My son is on the spectrum so is extremely fussy and upon talking to my mom about it she told me she was much the same as a child and my gran was advised to force the food down her caused serious issues with food even to now and she's 54

I was a extremely fussy eater. I was born in the 60s so not sure if that counts as the olden days 😂

We were very poor and a large family so mostly I just went hungry. When she could afford it my mum would get complain type stuff. I'd drink milk, eat some cereals, plain bread, processed cheese slices and sugar in any form, including eating it with a spoon straight from the bowl.

My mum and dad would both make us proper healthy home cooked meals such as stews and soups etc.

When my older siblings were earning and we we were a bit better off then I'd eat chops and fish cakes and chips.

My brothers would go hunting and fishing so I grew to like rabbit and eel etc, basically anything they caught.

I'd definitely rather starve than eat something I didn't want. I was very skinny (despite the sugar!)

I got used to going to bed hungry as a 70s child. Then in my very early teens I taught myself to cook the things I did like, and ate a totally different meal from the rest of the family most nights.
I still won't eat fish or meat, but have added cheese back in. I cook exactly what I want to eat, and if that's toast for dinner, then that's what I have.

@coxesorangepippin my sister was a fussy eater. I suspect she has autism. She wanted plain food and the same thing all of the time, and would have been fine thousand of years ago with plain food that you ate day after day.

🤣🤣🤣

The bland food in the past thing wasn't universal across all cultures though was it?

There might be a deeper reason(can't find any research on it though), but basically I didn't feel very hungry to begin with,even as a baby. There was some worry whether I'd survive ,nevermind thrive with how little milk I had.Then it was mostly a texture/taste/smell issue. For example I loved the meatballs my mum made ,but plonk them in the tomato sauce it was just all wrong. In fact most of my fussiness is about food being "wrong" either in itself or the combination. This coupled with not feeling particularly hungry, I just didn't see why I should force myself to eat something I dislike. Once I started catering for myself, it was even easier. I was underweight for a very long time,quite sickly, some hospital stays , vitamins etc.

As an adult , I can eat quite a lot of things (a few are just no,not a chance and some even make me throw up) , but again I don't see the point in spending money and time to end up eating something I just tolerate at best. The downside is I definitely feel hunger now and I'm fat.

@rainydaysandwednesdays why have you laughed at that comment?
It's not a funny comment - it's a depressing true one.

Well, all cultures have some bland food, be it rice, bread, noodles etc. And even today in cultures with spicy food it’s common for a milder/bland version to be available for infants and ill people.

45 years ago, undiagnosed Nd (obviously at that time) I ate bread, fish fingers and bananas for 2 years ! Thankfully my mum was very sensible .. decided it could be much worse and let me crack on with it, never making food frightening or a weapon. She refused to let me be tortured by school dinners and insisted i be allowed packed lunches. Eventually over time I slowly added more safe foods, gratefully became vegetarian in my early teens as that legitimately removed many of the textures I couldn't handle. I was mud 20's before I tried anything spicy.. and am even now approaching 50 finding I like things I have never tolerated eg salad ! But at times of stress revert to plain safe beige 😁

I found out much later my mum also had sensory food issues as a child and was seriously abused for it, it caused her a life time of huge food issues.

@Kalevala food was not quite as bland even in the UK as people make out. But the flavourings were more limited and would be easier to avoid.

I was a fussy eater from a very early age.
Basically, I simply didn't like certain foods and quite often just wasn't hungry.
For example I hated the texture of tomatoes.

I remember wondering what the fuss was about. Fortunately I was never forced to eat anything. Hated school dinners.
I was a skinny child.

Some food just tasted vile to me e.g. sprouts, meat, cold custard would actually make me heave. I like all those foods now - I just wonder if young taste buds experience flavour differently.

Also, I had such a lust for life that the whole having to sit down and waste time eating thing was torture for me. I didn't used to like going to bed for the same reasons.

1950s to 1980s - rule by fear. Eat or starve/be smacked.

My examples are maybe outliers but certainly wasn't true for them. One of my uncles lived on sago for a while (born early 60s). The local GP told my grandmother to pick her battles. Dh only ate heinz tomato soup for a chunk of the 80s. It was apparently frustrating, especially trying source it whilst abroad but my inlaws managed.

@coxesorangepippin

Smell and texture mostly. I have an unusually strong sense of smell.

All cultures will have some basic bland versions, be it plain pasta,rice,potatoes,bread etc.

That's also a bit of generalisation, because what's safe and "right" for a kid won't be for another. Hell even the tastes of the same kid can be contradictory.

I was fussy as fuck but loved raw garlic either as a clove or smashed with water and spices/tomato sauce as a sauce. Same with onions.

Lamb however? Makes me throw up. Not an exaggeration either.

I was a 70s/80s child and from a farming family so money was often tight and you ate what was put down in front of you. We had breakfast, lunch, dinner and a light supper, we never had things like crisps, sweets or fruit juice in the house however milk, water and tea was unlimited. If you didn’t eat one meal you went hungry until the next one. Having butter and jam together on bread or toast was classed as frivolous and we used to get told off for things like that. We weren’t scared to leave food but we knew full well if we didn’t eat it we’d be going hungry.

I don’t have bad memories of food growing up but there’s a lot of foods I choose not to eat now like porridge, liver, tripe, or potato fritters because we were sick of looking at them for years.

Edited to add I suffered from an eating disorder for many years in my teens and I do think the constant expectation of having to clear a full plate of food didn’t help that.

I think that food was sparse and bland so maybe it was less of an issue or such children died early under the "failure to thrive".