AIBU and PFB about custard?

[DappledThings]

DS is 1 in a week. Started BLW at 6 months which went he took to brilliantly. Dare I say we may have been just a touch smug about him eating rabbit stew and all sorts of vegetables on holiday at 8 months. Anyway he's long been walking down pretty much everything.

Started nursery 3 weeks ago where it turns out they give them custard for pudding at every lunch time. A week after he started he started rejecting everything we've been offering. Last couple of days he's started taking a few mouthfuls of chicken and pasta but rejecting all veg. Picked him up yesterday and they said he refused his salmon and pasta but wolfed down the custard.

Is there any chance this is just a phase or is he really now just obsessed with custard and won't eat anything savoury again?! WIBU to ask nursery to not let him have the pudding unless he's had the main? I know he's too young to understand cause and effect but I don't want him just hanging out for custard.

Or am I being a total tit about it and and should just accept he'll get more sugar now and will eventually come back round to other foods. He is in nursery 2 days for now and 3 from mid-March

They all go through phases... My DS would eat red peppers at nursery but not at home, If i mentioned he ate them at nursery he was in complete denial.

Just keep doing what you are doing. He will learn difference between home and nursery..

However my DS was not given processed sugars before he was one and if you don't want your DC to be given them then don't However be aware he has now tasted it.

I think the custard is a red herring. His tastes happen to have changed at the same time he has been introduced to the admittedly delicious taste sensation that is custard.

I ate rabbit stew and custard from an early age btw. It's not that unusual. Not together, of course. That probably would be.

I would ask the nursery to not give your DS custard. Toddlers have small stomachs and my DC seemed to survive on one substantial meal every two or three days (like a tiger or large snake) and tiny snack sized meals the rest of the time. If they had been given custard they wouldn't have had space for anything else for the rest of the day.

They did seem to switch from eating anything and everything to hardly eating anything at around 12 months.

Just keep offering a variety of foods, they go through phases, I think how you react to them is important.
I have a video of DC4 at 11 months eating a really hot curry, crying with the heat but carrying on shovelling it in drinking milk after each mouthful. DH tries to take it away and he screams for it back, just over a year later he was asking for fish fingers at every meal and often going to bed having eaten no dinner or just carrots. Now he is 4 and he is just about back to eating most foods.

Just keep offering a variety of foods, they go through phases, I think how you react to them is important.
I have a video of DC4 at 11 months eating a really hot curry, crying with the heat but carrying on shovelling it in drinking milk after each mouthful. DH tries to take it away and he screams for it back, just over a year later he was asking for fish fingers at every meal and often going to bed having eaten no dinner or just carrots. Now he is 4 and he is just about back to eating most foods.

We go through the same OP and it always coincides with teething.

Well he woke up hangry after only an hour's nap and then ate an entire banana, a few chunks of sweet potato and carrot and the tiniest bit of broccoli so that's a bit better!

Yeah sorry OP, I know it's frustrating. DS would eat anything until he stayed with ILS for a weekend at 9 months and they fed him Heinz baby jars and try he would t touch anything we made. I was devastated he's 3 now and he goes through stages. He still hates my meals but he'll eat all the fruit in the world.

I think the custard is a coincidence. Mine happily ate everything while weaning till about a year old and then got very fussy, about exactly the same foods as she'd wolfed before. (She didnt go to nursery till she was about 3. )

She stayed fussy, very gradually improved though still has some definite no-nos ... but it seems to have done her no harm whatsoever.

sirfredfredgeorge

DD was like this. A brilliant eater as a baby. Then at about 10 months she learned how to spit. THAT was a fun couple of weeks.

From about 13 months she has eaten some things brilliantly on some days, and on others she can be a total pain in the arse.

Interestingly, I read a theory this often fits with them learning to walk - some sort of instinct that harks back to little cave babies who might wander around eating berries and decayed dinosaur kicks in to make them realise that stuff can be poisonous, so they stick to safe bland things they know. Like custard (or little cubes of cheese in DD's case).

My DS was amazing when weaned. Would eat anything and everything. Now he's 2 and the only things I can guarantee he will eat are

Fish fingers
Chicken nuggets
Chips
Beans
Roast potatoes
Fish cake
Ham
Any type of biscuit
Cake
Grapes
Strawberries
Cornflakes

I'm trying not to get stressed about it as I'm sure it's a phase. He has never eaten pasta though. He won't even entertain spaghetti hoops.

DS used to eat everything, now at 2.5 only veg he'll tolerate is potatoes/sweet potatoes unless its onions/tomatoes in cottage pie/pasta sauce. When he started nursery I said no pudding apart from fruit and plain yoghurt and they stick to it. I do allow birthday cake/biscuits if they've been decorating, but I don't think babies and toddlers need pudding every day.

I wouldn't ask them to not give it to him unless he has eaten his main. This way he may not end up eating and just fill up on snacks anyway, which are probably sugary raisins, banana and rice cakes. There is also the risk of him learning associations of getting a reward for food and then thinking he is owed a reward for eating. He is quite young though.

Fwiw, my lb (15m) stopped eating most proper meals and veg at around 1 year. He just had milk, peanut butter sandwiches, yogurt and fruit. 2 weeks ago he started eating everything again! I am so pleased but it shows it's often just a phase. I just kept offering him all foods regularly, even though the waste was frustrating.

Hoping to take a moderate line with food - custard isn't the end of the world. Daily custard is a bit excessive though.

I'm learning a lot reading this thread. Thanks much.

Introvertedbuthappy and GoesDownLikeACupOfColdSick posts on how early humans ate are quite interesting and also helped me to understand my toddler's eating habits roller coaster.

I'm wondering why anyone would be smug about their childs eating habits
Because everything someone's DC does right is because of their parenting technique. Obviously everything they do wrong is because the child is not ready / it's a phase / etc.
I am including myself in "everyone"

FWIW my DTs have been weaned almost exclusively on jars and toddler ready meals until they were 18mo (not proud). At now 3yo they eat everything with no fussiness at all. Go figure...