I was a very very fussy eater as a child. I especially hated foods that were all 'mixed up' - so stews, casseroles, mixed soups, pasta sauces with bits in, anything like that. I wanted things that were obviously just one thing. I liked baked potatoes with butter on, fish fingers, roast chicken, mashed potatoes, that sort of thing. I'd eat apples, but not apple pie, I'd eat raw carrot batons but not cooked carrots mixed with cooked peas.
The boys next door were equally fussy. But my mum and their mum treated us very differently. My mum usually asked me to taste something, especially if I hadn't tried it in a while - "just in case you've changed your mind" - and then let me eat what I wanted. I went through phases and lived on fish fingers and baked beans for maybe 6 months, and then moved on to turkey steak and potato croquettes for 6 months. My mum never ever made a fuss about my eating, that I remember.
Next door's mum used to put a full plate of whatever it was in front of them and scream and shout until they ate it all. They would sit there for hours in front of their plates, sometimes in tears, sometimes begging, sometimes throwing casseroles on the floor, sometimes sitting for three hours at table with a cold dinner while everyone else went off to watch telly. They were miserable and their mum was stressed. They're still fussy eaters now, although they eat more than they did.
I got to about 12 and made a conscious decision that I was embarrassed to be so picky. It was when I went away on a dance course and stayed with other girls in a flat for a week. I was too embarrassed to admit I lived on microwaved baked potatoes and cold ham, so I just ate what they ate, and discovered I liked pizza and chinese takeaway, and chicken kievs, and spaghetti bolognese and so on. Nowadays I eat pretty much everything. And I get on better with my mum than the boys next door do.