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?

@coxesorangepippin like a pp put it, as a child I felt a mixture of fear and disgust, and had an intense dislike of the flavours within a specific food group, dairy. I also hated the texture, and mouth feel. To me dairy feels slimy, the flavours feel overwhelming, and many of them, such as butter, make me want to be physically sick. I would retch if I ever had to eat from that food group, which did happen accidentally. It was an involuntary reaction/ dislike, and I felt I had no control over my thoughts and feelings around it. I would much rather have not eaten than eaten that food group, so agree with other pp who say that those kids would just have starved/ failure to thrive, in the past.

I find it interesting that the same 'safe' foods are coming up again and again - potatoes, bread, Heinz tomato soup and also that the texture of meat is problematic for so many people.

Well, yes of course there were always things like grains and potatoes you could eat, but someone said there was less to be fussy about.

I find the bland food thing interesting as my child struggled with bland food.

Definitely sensory issues for me- meat in particular was like eating polystyrene, I could barely chew it! My diet actually got more varied when I went vegetarian at 16, and again when I went vegan almost ten years ago. I do need some vegetables to be overcooked though, can’t be doing with chewy broccoli.

Autism.

@sprigatito You are spot on about getting others to make food disappear for you. The family dog was my best help with that and at school I would smuggle food out in my pockets. When I got caught my friend would take food out for me. I have a distinct memory of going into the playground with kidneys in my pocket. Imagine serving kidneys at school dinner now!

Depends when you're talking about but historically food was much less varied, in the UK hugely bread dependent. People were a lot less healthy and malnourished. If you were a fussy eater, you probably still had one food that you ate, and only that

I was born mid 80s and wasn't allowed to leave the table until I'd finished, sometimes for hours. I was painfully fussy. At school I was sat on the table for "slow eaters".

Hated meat (told it was cause I was too lazy to chew), liked all veg though. I was very skinny and my Mum took me to the doctors once as I was always so pale!

Looking back, i perhaps didn't eat nearly enough. I've managed to grow to a good height somehow but have always remained slim despite eating normally as an adult.

Despite this, I've managed to not turn out too nutty as a few people have suggested. I have a normal relationship with food and won't be seeking a diagnosis for past trauma 😆🙄

@Dapbag I remember keeping tissues in my pockets to put food into and once hid my hated butter beans in the soil of a pot plant in the dining room.

Desperation!

I'm 50. Never heard of allergies as a child. Like you said, you ate what was provided or you went hungry. There was no menu or options. Food was pretty child friendly in the main though in the 70s. Eggs n soldiers, fish fingers and chips, Sunday roast, fish n chips on friday night etc.

Yes, this. I have no doubt many of them will have died as a result even if indirectly.

I used to eat pilchards for my brother, and he would eat tinned meatballs for me! We had a stepfather who would stand over us bellowing and hit us until we cleared our plates. We used to sneak bread to whichever sibling had gone hungry/been sent to bed as well.

Or we didn't eat

I don't remember this much but my parents tried waiting till I got hungry and I didn't so, or at least not in a way my brain recognised. Sensibly, they gave me toast. I remember being pleased to eat some toast.

I hid food I didn't want to eat as well, in tissues/napkins it was easy enough to spit it out and pretend to eat it.

Another girl at nursery school didn't eat for days and ended up in hospital, is it overproduction of stomach acids maybe?

After that I remember walking in on a serious conversation between her parents and mine, they tried to hide it but we weren't stupid. I think the doctors at the hospital told that set of parents that they must allow her to eat something she liked, if the alternative was that she'd go without.

I was underweight till I was about 25. I look back on the clothes from that era with great fondness!

I was a fussy eater, fortunately for me food back in the day was very plain, sausage and chips, chop and potatoes, beans on toast, scrambled eggs. I was also very thin.

Finding this such an interesting discussion.

The methods of forcing foods down reluctant eaters seem to have been more brutal in past decades, although I’m glad to read about exceptions where a child was allowed to eat their own preferences even if it meant a restricted diet.

I remember a school dinner lady (in the 70s) making me eat a vegetable that I hated. Could only manage it with a sip of water for each forkful. She was standing over our table and I was the only one eating now - cold veg. Our table couldn’t have dessert till I’d finished it all. At a certain point she said, ‘now without the water’.

After this experience I got my mother to write a letter to exempt me from the 2 veg I couldn’t stomach, so luckily it was a one off for me, but I think those methods were common.

Equally I think we live in different times wrt food and yet there still isn’t always an understanding about issues children/adults can have that may restrict their diet

In the “olden days”, I think people, especially children, were literally so hungry and had very little choice they just ate what was given / able to get.

8 years olds worked in factories or down the mines.

My great grandmother was a child in a workhouse, I find it insane that I was able to meet her and she lived that experience, something that seems so cruel and alien.

I have done some research into what she would
of been eating, very very little when she wasn’t in the workhouse, and very thick porridge, that would be served directly into her bare hands when she was an “inmate”

Lots of children used to be labelled failure to thrive, I'm sure a percentage of these were fussy eaters. It would have also given them a lower survival chance with illnesses

My daughter is really fussy, so I often wonder the same. I love this post 😄

Yes I remember that too

I was really distressed

I used to throw food I didn't want on the floor

Dm did write a letter but there were things she forgot about

I was a very fussy eater as a child in the 70s. My son is autistic so I’m prob nd but undiagnosed. I only liked custard. I remember it causing arguements between my parents as people gave the advice she’ll eat when she’s hungry but I didn’t. I used to have cod liver oil and malt out of a big jar on a spoon which I liked so for my vitamins from that I expect. As I got older I improved but I remember my mum forcing me to eat potato waffles and I was sick after. I love waffles now and I’ve def got alot better mainly late teenage years

@Kalevala it can depend. Sometimes the flavour can hide the original taste which might be the issue , or override the senses so texture/smell aren't so much of an issue. Or simply they make some things taste so good it's worth it.

My fussy butt kid stopped eating the school roast potatoes because they were too plain. The only time she half tolerated tomato sauce was when it had crushed garlic in it.

Born in the 60s and was always a fussy eater. It was texture/smell I think for me. I still don't like any vegetables except carrots. Even now if I make soup I will blend it or strain off the liquid!!! I lived on potatoes, bread including jam sandwiches (urgh!), fish fingers, Campbell's condensed Scotch Broth with potatoes in it, tinned Stewed Steak also with potatoes, sausages, vegetable roll. I would have eaten a fry but not the white of the egg. I used to eat the yolk of a boiled egg and gave my sister the white. I also ate a lot of crisps. I don't like salad still either but I would have eaten tomatoes. I suppose that was all enough to get by on.

My mum beat me to force me to eat. She was at her wits' end, I know that. But standing over me whacking me with a sally rod sitting over a cold congealed fry (one clear memory) was never going to make me eat the damn thing.

She did take me to the GP in the end and was advised to just leave me be. I'd eat if I was hungry. Plus I got put on Haliborange vitamins and fecking Cod Liver Oil.... yuck yuck yuck!

I never had school dinners, ever.

61 and still alive and kicking!

I’m better than I was, but still don’t like a lot of things.

I’ve never been diagnosed with anything, but I had loads of sensory issues and anxiety, OCD type things etc, so …

I'm 60 and was super fussy about my food as a child. I was happy to eat toast, cereal, fruit, milk etc. I just wouldn't eat meals (don't ask me why, I eat everything now).

My parents were very tolerant and didn't make me eat anything I didn't want to. I had to sit at the table though and wait till everyone else had finished.

But school dinners were the worst. At infant school I had to sit at the "slow eaters" table, which was supervised by the school secretary (actual dragon). We were issued with a spoon and fork to eat with instead of a knife and fork. And had to stay at table staring at our plates while the rest of the school went out to play. When Mum found out, she went ballistic with the school and basically told them to stop bullying me.

Something similar happened with my two older brothers who were once made to eat custard at school and both promptly threw up all over the place. I don't think either of them touched the stuff again.

The difference back then is people had real things to worry about, like how they will truly survive the week, childbirth or how they will dodge dysentery.

Looking to push the feeble ailments of today onto our ancestors is quite frankly, an insult to them.