Children who are deemed 'fussy eaters' seem to have no problem hoofing down sugary and fatty foods!

[pingu2209]

I have at least 4 friends whose children are deemed 'fussy eaters'. Whenever they come to play and have a meal with us, the parents/mothers always apologise in advance, during and after at how their children 'eat nothing' and are 'really fussy'.

My house rules are if you don't like something, fine then leave it. However, you don't get a pudding if you don't eat your main meal.

ALL of the so called fussy eaters are given chocolate biscuits or cake or crisps as soon as they get home, then refuse to eat their dinners but their parents allow them a sugary/fatty pudding anyway.

Is the reality that there are no fussy eaters, just parents that let their children develop a taste for junk food and allow them to get away with eating nothing but junk food?

here - have my first

That may be your experience but it's not mine.

We never eat pudding...except at Christmas/Birthdays. Not for any particular reason, it's just how I was brought up..so I don't think to offer it now.

With regards to fussy eaters, yes I do firmly believe most parents indulge their children far too much.

Having said that, it's difficult as we all worry our kids don't eat enough at times...so I suppose indulging them is understandable, but it becomes a slippery slope towards a child that controls each mealtime and their parents.

If your child eats nothing you will be pleased if they eat anything, no matter what that anything is!

do you give your kids 'pudding' like jam roly polys, that's right bad for you

I don't agree OP. Certainly not in every case and certainly not in my experience.

YABU

(and I expect you know that)

You can't blame parents for their kids being fussy eaters. I'm lucky with my DD she's a good eater

YABU.

DS is a fussy eater - and he won't eat cake, or ice-cream, or biscuits, or most types of chocolate.

Altogether now: the plural of anecdote is not data.

I was a fussy eater as a child, it was due to supertaste and deep-seated anxiety issues. No amount of pudding withholding made any difference.

The only thing that cured it was leaving home & learning to cook for myself.

YABU. My DS fussiness extends equally to sweets, ice cream, juice and all puddings apart from yogurt - which he only gets if he's eaten his dinner btw.

my ds(17) was really fussy and i used to chase him with ice cream he still doesn't like it and loved apples instead

I have noticed this too and ...

I am learning not to take it as a personal slur, if my children or their friends don't like something I have cooked.(I know this is not what you were saying :))

My three children are given a healthy diet, they all like different types of healthy food...it is so much fun

Many adults have childish tastes, I think there is no special real reason why.

It is annoying more than anything else isn't it?

what a smugtastic OP.

i have a fussy eater. i've offered him out on several parenting fora for some genius to send him back fixed but no one will. everyone is full of cures and judgements but i've tried them all, and continue to. i've managed to add 3 previously uneaten foods to his diet this year, small victory i suppose. his sister will eat anything going, and with relish. i wonder how i've over indulged and ruined just one of them

I agree that there are a lot of kids that won't eat anything but sweet/fatty foods. How those kids got like that I don't know. All I know, is that, like you OP, unless my kids eat a good proportion of their main course, including vegetables, then they don't get desert. Their desert is usually fruit and yoghurt. They have cake or sweets occasionally.

yawn

YABU. Depends.

My ds is horribly fussy - but even if you were to stick a bag of crisps or some sweet dessert in his face he's likely to turn up his nose.

Sure lots of kids like sweets - your kids must do if you offer desserts. We rarely have puddings in this home. No point.

I think you can blame some parents for their kids fussy eating.

When I was growing up, my Mum used to make a stew/casserole/general home cooked dinner for the whole family (7 of us)

There's no way we could be fussy because we simply weren't allowed to be. There was no such thing as microwaves/frozen pizza/oven chips...or most of those convenience foods.

Therefore there was no alternative to offer....in turn, this made us eat what was given to us or end up with a slice of bread and butter.

Some kids will only eat chicken nuggets and pizza for example...so clearly over the years, they have been allowed to become fussy.

i think it's kind of damaging to be so food obsessed. some people just aren't bothered by food

I was a fussy eater when I was a child.

We didn't really have junk food in the late 60s/early 70s.

I don't like late 60s/early 70s food, especially when cooked by my mum, bless her.

So I would sit heaving at my chops, boiled potatoes and tinned processed peas. I wouldn't be allowed any pudding but I didn't care as I didn't like my mum's lumpy custard any more than the main course. I even thought I hated chips - because my mum's chips were rank! I was astounded at the age of 10 when I ate some proper ones and found they were really nice.

I was hungry all the time, but just couldn't eat it!

I fantasised about sweets and crisps but we never had any in the house.

At the age of 7 I weighed 3 stone.

My DD was exactly the same as me but now junk food has been invented she will eat least eat chicken nuggets and pasta, roast potatoes, apples and grapes. I didn't want her to suffer like I did so I have let her have that restricted diet. At the age of 7 she was 4 stone, which is an improvement I think.

sigh.

Oh, how nice for you not to have to try and get food into an SN child!

Stop being silly.

YABVU.

Okay - I was more than a bit generalist! I have my neice and a friend's children who have over the last 4 days really pissed me off because I feel it is all to do with the child/children being controlling.

These children all eat copious amounts of sweets and cakes and biscuits and then the parents say that they are fussy eaters. I don't think the children are fussy, they just prefer junk food and manipulate their parents so that is what they get.

.......oh, and my eldest son (SN) is a very "fussy eater" - has a very limited diet BUT only drinks milk and water and has never eaten chocolate or sweets (doesnt like them) Is that ok then???