Fussy eater hell help!

[LetsGoRoundAgainAgain]

DD is 4. There are possible signs of autism

She is becoming more and more restrictive in what she will eat and it's driving me mad.

Acceptable things are (everything is home made)

Breaded chicken
Fish fingers
Baked chips either sweet or normal
Sausages
Broccoli
Peas
Carrots
Peppers
Cheese
Ham
Sandwiches
Pure peanut butter
Apples
Bananas
Grapes
Berries
Oranges
Pineapples
Natural yogurt
Cereal
Wraps/bread/bagels

Tomato pasta is a battle. She did like homemade burgers but now refuses. She will eat a roast but not the meat. She did like carbonara but tonight has announced she doesn't anymore

I'm so fed up of cooking only for it to be rejected. Everytime I do something. She apparently likes she then decides she doesn't. Two acceptable meals are off the list this week.

Any tips please?

Honestly, stop worrying. Thats a decent sized list. She can get a balanced diet from that. I also had a fussy eater, he now eats everything and anything. Please stop worrying.

Sorry but that list is not that restrictive to be honest. You really have nothing to worry about. She's eating fruit and vegetables and eating home made foods. You have 3 dinner mains to rotate for her and she's eating chicken, fish and pork. My ds with autism at age 4 was totally meat free and all foods had to be beige, no vegetables or fruits were tolerated by him at this point - now THAT was a nightmare.

So do I literally do each of the three dinners twice a week?

Yip pretty much. And accept that she will not be eating the same meal as you and the other people at home, as I assume you wouldn't want to eat those same meals on repeat lol. This is unfortunately the life of autism, if that's indeed what she does end up diagnosed with.

i know this might not be helpful to hear but honestly I wish my fussy eater would eat even half of that list!!

I also think that’s a decent list. I wish my DS would eat half of that. I was a very fussy eater as a child though and still get stressed thinking about my parents trying to force me to eat so we just keep mealtimes chill. If DS has the same dinner every night for a week, so be it.

Can’t see the problem
you home make sausages?

Depends whether you’re up for ‘like it or lump it’ or are happy to continue as you are.
A lot of kids have beige diets nowadays as it’s almost the norm so I’d imagine the majority will think that list is pretty good.

Kids generally just get used to what/how they’re fed. None of my kids will eat beef or custard (there’s probably other things but they’re ones I’ve noticed) simply because I don’t make them because I don’t like them. I didn’t notice this until they were offered them at others.
I have no idea if I like caviar, snails or octopus, because I’ve never tried them and tbh it just doesn’t appeal so I probably wouldn’t choose to.

TBH I would not give it too much attention and just let her eat what she wants at meals but not restrict it to the 3 meals. Ignore and don't stress over what she eats/doesn't eat. If she doesn't eat the meat a few times a week it will do her no harm.

Sometimes it is very hard to sit on your hands and see foods rejected. I speak as someone who had a dd with a really restricted diet including absolutely no veg who was also under the paediatrician for her failure to gain weight. It was very tempting to allow her to dictate an ever increasingly restricted list. So she got offered her dinner and if she didn't eat it then she could have cereal later.

I also discovered that some things - veg in her case - are much more desirable served 15 minutes before meal times. So if I "by chance" left a plate of sliced carrot, peppers, apple etc out on the table - chances are that she'd sneak it before dinner.

As a result my "I won't eat a vegetable" has now morphed into a 20 something who is a cook from scratch vegetarian and I wonder why I worried so much.

Offer a safe food on her plate alongside a tablespoon portion of whatever everyone else is eating to keep exposure up but don’t pressure her to eat it.