To ask you to celebrate my son trying new food?

[Mysonatesomething]

I know this is super trivial compared to the stuff on here but I could cry at the breakthrough today.

My son is 4 and a very fussy eater. He eats:

Weetabix
Fruit purée
Yoghurts
Tomato pasta
Jacket potatoes
Peanut butter sandwiches

That's it.

I've been working really hard with the childminder to get him to try new foods.

Yesterday he ate 2 chunks of apple and today he had 3 fish fingers.

It's been years of coaxing, exposing, rewards, bribes etc. and I finally feel like we're making progress.

I've been terrified how he'll cope at school in September and I'm allowing myself to think he'll get there.

I know it sounds daft but I could cry.

Please ignore this post if it's too trivial - I totally understand!

High five! That's super.

Aw I totally remember how happy I was in the same situation with dd (who is now 5)

I also found that she eats more of a range in school with her friends than she does at home with me so try not to worry about school.

I celebrate when she tries something new still :-)

2 bits of apple and 3 fish fingers is fab - Well done OP's DS xx

Lovely to hear! Well done to you both.

To be fair what he has been eating was fairly healthy already so well done to you for that! Well done for getting him to try more foods as well!

Yay! Well done your son! My 4yr old also ate some orange pepper today after promising a biscuit if he just ate one strip. He did and now he likes it,(tomorrow he probably won't).

Anyway. At school they will quite likely try some stuff they will never touch at home just because everyone else is eating the same. Don't worry about it and don't rely on school lunches to do anything other than fill a gap. Have usual stuff ready for dinner on school nights and cross your fingers.

This is Fantastic. I am pleased for you [and him]

Congratulations!

Oh wow! Thank you for your replies - I feel like such a moron crying about this (which I am) but all my friends have these kids that eat everything and I feel like I've done something so wrong for him to be like this.

You're all so kind to reply

I have a fussy 4 year old (and 30 odd years ago I was a fussy 4 year old!!) and I know how fucking soul destroying it can be.

The amount of waste [I try to expose him with every meal int he hope he'll just bloody eat some veg and it never gets eaten]

I understand how much of a breakthrough it is so high 5

No its awesome

Both my boys were fussy eaters

Its a massive breakthrough

Well done to your DS.

Congratulations to you and your DS!

Interestingly i was reading an article the other day about overcoming food phobias and it suggested the best time to introduce new foods to children was not at mealtimes. Maybe worth a try?

Trivial? Mate it's fucking ACE!

Well done! It's a horribly stressful thing to deal with and you're clearly making great progress with him!

I'm so proud of him - I can see how hard he finds it and I'm so glad he's finally trusting me enough to give new food a go.

There is a suspicion he has some food sensory issues but he's very confusing to HCPs as he doesn't seem to fit any diagnosis so it's very much 'see how it goes' without any real advice or support.

Whathaveifound - that sounds like a great idea - I'll definitely try that.

Ds1 went through a period of just eating petit filou, swetcorn and rice cakes

It was a bloody nightmare especially when we tried to go on holiday assuming sweetcorn woukd be the same everwhere. It isnt...apparently

That's great news! I have a DS2(4) who is quite similar - today he tried oat flakes and I did a bit of a silly dance because of it. Breakfast for the past three and a bit years has always been me trying to get him to eat a little bit of something - anything really just so that he would have something to keep him going, for a while there he survived on plain pasta, watermelon and fish fingers.

This was a bit of a shock to me because when DS1(10) was growing up he ate everything, fruits, vegetables, seafood, anything really. I remember having a wee cry to my dsis about DS2 and her saying that her ds was the same - even now he's 14 he will not really eat anything unless she makes it for him.

Nursery has really helped with DS2 as I think he saw the other children eating the food and so copied them - and the staff were really patient and helpful with him, so hopefully it will help your DS too.

Good luck for further tasting breakthroughs!

Sorry should have said school will probably help not nursery...

Well done to you all, I'm sure he will be eating EVERYTHING and then stealing off your plate soon, and you will laugh about the times he struggled x

Thank you all for your kind words of support. I feel so positive about the future

Brilliant! I was a really fussy eater when I was younger but now I eat most things (even though I don't think I'll ever shake off feeling like I'm fussy). I still sometimes get very anxious when people try to push me to eat something I just don't fancy, because it brings back that feeling of being forced to eat something I didn't want to put in my mouth, but I have definitely grown out of my fussiness to eat all sorts now. Well done your DS and also well done to you. It can't be easy.

Well done, that's fantastic. My DH was a fussy eater, chicken, peanut butter sandwiches, tomato soup and cereal was apparently his staple diet when he was four. He eats anything now.