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?

Sadly allergies weren't always catered for. I was lactose-intolerant, before it was a 'generally' known issue. (I suffered terribly with eczema) I have clear memories of my brutal primary-school teacher, dragging me to the milk crate & forcing me to drink a bottle (I'm 61) even though my parents had written to the school.
Even my parents struggled to get the right information and it was only around 10 years later, we tried goats milk, but had to drive 40 miles to buy it. The 1960's in northern England (for us anyway)

My mother (78) was a fussy eater. They would make her sit at the table until it was all gone. Her grandfather would "save" her and put it in the pig bin when her parents weren't looking. She grew up with an utterly toxic approach to food, weight and diet. Now that she has dementia those "fussy" tendencies are even more pronounced and she obsesses over the stories of being forced to eat and I think her fear of losing control is even greater (if that's positive) than it was when I was growing up.

I have not rtft yet, but this response really upset me. Wtf is funny about this horribly true post?

OMG the school milk. I’m a similar age to you @Mother87

I can’t tolerate dairy but we didn’t know that then. As a child I seemed ok with cold milk in drinks or on cereal even though it wasn’t agreeing with me, but the room temperature cartons in the crate at school, just no, hated it

I grew up in the 1950s when WW2 and rationing were fresh in adults memories. You were supposed to eat up everything on your plate because I suppose parents were on tenterhooks it could happen all over again.
On the whole I wasn't given anything I disliked at home, but if we were out I'd only choose tomato soup or Spam (both common on cafe menus in those days!). But as it's been said there was a lot less choice and food was seasonal. I can remember the first occasions I had melon and yogurt - very exotic!
However I had to endure school dinners which I hated. I took to sneaking the stuff I couldn't eat into my pockets and chucking it away until my mother relented and let me take sandwiches.

You don't have to look back to 'the olden days', you just need to look at poor developing nations where convenience foods are not readily available.

I remember watching a documentary on the Africa channel some years ago about children with SEN. There were many women saying how they have to cook only certain foods like flat breads or plain rice for their children. Some were having to walk miles everyday to source the only food their child would eat. Many said their children were sickly, some didn't make it past 10 years old due to malnutrition. Families had tried punishing the children into eating.
It was heartbreaking.

One infant school I taught at, the children were generally not eating their lunches with lots wasted. The incoming headteacher changed the morning snack from biscuits (!!) to fruit / veg. Suddenly the children felt more hungry by lunchtime and ate their food.

Well goats milk would have made no difference if tge issue was lactose intolerance as that contains it too.

I’m 62. I was in my late 50s before I started managing to leave food on my plate when I was full. I was brought up to eat everything I was given. There are only a few things I absolutely won’t eat (gristly, fatty meat, offal for example). I think as someone said upthread, children who were fussy failed to thrive or succumbed to disease.

Christ Almighty. I am so sick of the term 'fussy eaters'. In most cases, it is not being fussy.

Do you call someone with anorexia a fussy eater? No. It is an eating disorder, and extremely difficult to treat, if at all, and people can (and do still) starve themselves to death.

Food refusal / ARFID / sensory issues / whatever you want to call it - they are eating disorders too, and very difficult to treat, and to live with.

It often didn’t and only added more trauma. It’s was a ‘tough love’ approach to eating disorders in the late 70s early 80s, eating disorders were never discussed by many families back then, nor the reasons you had developed an eating disorder. I do think mine was caused by the ‘eat it or starve’ mindset. I simply got used to being hungry if I didn’t like something and got used to that hungry feeling if that makes sense. When I hit my teenage years there was a pressure to be thin and there were no body positive messages like there is now - it was all about being thin and fitting in so it was pretty easy for me not to eat and it not be noticed at first until I was hospitalised. The odd thing is I wasn’t horribly underweight, I was 5’9” and 7 stone.

I’m so glad times have moved on, especially for children who aren’t forced to eat what’s served to them especially if they have sensory needs.

Basically children sat at the table until they had eaten their food. Not unknown for any leftovers to reappear at the next meal
Children would have turned up to meals very hungry, no fast food, crisps or snacks available. Bottom line, not so many fussy eaters.

Read my posts. Try again.

I remember that food I didn't like made me feel sick and flavoues were much stronger than they are as an adult. Early pregnancy reminded me of being a child, as anything other than beige food made me feel queasy.

I was also very sensitive to textures and have always disliked anything 'lumpy'. My mum says I was weaned at just a few weeks old (as was the advice in the 70s) and often used to choke on lumps in food, and puts it down to that.

Ah yes there was so much pressure for teens and women to be thin then. It gave my sister life long issues with her body image after puberty. Makes me sad and angry because she was the healthiest of all of us as a child, so robust.

I can see why you’d have gone under the radar @DaisyDaffodil back then

I’m one of those ‘back in the day’ crowd you mention. As I said in an earlier post I was brought up in the 70’s. Well, I was born in 1968 if that makes any difference. I’m certainly not smug and I didn’t grow up much different to you as both my parents had been children during the war. This isn’t a race to the bottom and I hope you’ve managed to live a life where you can eat food you choose to.

I was only fussy if I had to touch stuff with my hands as cannot abide sticky fingers or crumbs on my hands. So I was fine with stuff like liver or any strong flavour or texture. I have an abiding hatred of donuts as the thought of sugar ion my fingers makes me heave,

I know you just responded to the OP but it's really worth reading everyone's posts. Many of us just went hungry for days, many were ill as a result.

@DaisyDaffodil I'm referring to the people that knew no one with allergies, we ate when we were hungry, this didn't happen, it's all because of snaking and fast food , bloody snowflakes ,being fussy is a luxury etc. types.

Fussy eaters/sensory issues would still have existed generations ago, they would just have had a smaller pool of different foods to eat.

I imagine they would’ve stuck to bland carbs, bearing in mind that chips and nuggets are bland and carby too…

I'm a child of the 70's.
There was much less variety of food, much less processed food.
In our house you ate what you were given or would get a lecture on starving children in Africa. If that I would get a good hiding and made to sit at the table till I'd eaten it. We were more scared of our parents back then so did eat it, yes gulped down with water and tears.
I have a Terrible relationship with food, until recently couldn't leave any food on my plate, I'm overweight.
Not sure what happened to kids with medical conditions?

I think I have a strong disgust mechanism - so meat, fish, cooked tomato, beetroot, runny egg would revolt me.

It's similar to how I feel about insects (especially dead ones). And also a factor - and I'm trying to not be offensive here - in my lesbianism. Men are kind of meaty, aren't they?

Obviously it's not that simple (especially the lesbianism) but it is a strong factor. Worth noting that my mum was very no nonsense about food, and both my brothers are great eaters and great cooks too. Of my own children, one had definite food problems and the other would happily eat anything. I do get bored of all the mum-blaming that goes on over this.

Just remembered that my gran (born 1924, still very much with us) has always disliked meat. I must ask her how she coped!

Oo

Sorry, but I laughed at your comment about men being meaty!!

Is your gran still with you born in 1924? That's amazing if so! My dad was born in 1925 but we lost him coming 18 years ago.

OMG I hated that milk!! Either it was freezing in cold weather or it was too warm! Why children were forced to have that I have no idea!