Were you a fussy eater as a child?

[WomenHour]

I wasn't but know others who were.

No, my mother was/is a very good cook and we always had really nice meals ... there was the occasional thing I didn't like much but generally ate most things. We weren't pandered to, no special meals, everyone ate the same.

Yes, I was very fussy and didn't eat big portions. I was really small for my age and don't ever remember feeling hungry.

I was force Fed a couple of times which was horrible and made to eat cake at a brownie holiday as I wasn't eating the other food. I also promised to eat all my dinner one night and threw up as it was physically too much food for me.

I hit puberty and suddenly grew. Became vegetarian and am not fussy at all now. I think it probs my set me up with some bad relationships with food.

I am very relaxed with my children and food. If they choose not to eat the dinner I make that's fine. I won't make anything else but it's there choice not to eat it or leave some.

Yes. I think I probably still am as there's lots of foods I don't eat. I don't make a big deal out of it and can always find something I can eat in a restaurant. Luckily for me as a 60s/70s child I was never forced to eat anything I didn't like so I don't have issues with food or eating.

I was very fussy. No sauces, didn't like food touching etc!
Now I eat virtually anything and everything.

Yes, I was incredibly fussy.
Now I am pretty adventurous, but I still have issues with some textures.

And I would struggle with a fair few of the foods that I was fussy about as a child - things like fish fingers, mixed frozen veg, chicken nuggets, tomato ketchup, spaghetti hoops, cheap frozen pizza, the list goes on...fortunately as an adult I can avoid them all easily and not appear fussy at all.

No, there were a few things I didn't thoufh, and I was still expected to eat them.
It baffles me now.
Why the big deal because I didn't like peppers or tinned peas?

Yes. But

1. My mum is not a great cook.
2. I suspect I have autism.

tinned peas?

Tinned peas should have never ever be invented😂🤮 Luckily I encountered it first as an adult and it was more of a curiosity why I bought it. Frozen all the way

There were definitely foods I didn’t like but, like others, I was forced to eat what I was given. We weren’t allowed to eat the table until our plate was empty.

One thing I promised myself as a child was that I would never force my own children to eat anything they didn’t like - and I never have.

The other thing I promised myself was that no subject would be taboo in the house. I had the kind of relationship with my mother than made me feel too embarrassed to tell her I’d started my periods.

Yes and no.

I was fussy and had lots of texture issues (possible asd).

In our house, it was not permitted to leave food. Additionally, my mum didn't have a vast repertoire of dishes, mainly meat with boiled veg, no pasta, rice or "foreign muck".

Fortunately I'm now a lot better and there's not much I won't eat.

Leave the table FFS 🤦🏻‍♀️.

We were allowed to leave food, but not meat. I think that makes big difference rather than having to eat what adults did

Yes, I think I was fussy but I also think I just didn’t like what was being served that much. My mum did all the cooking and was very, very traditional. Very British and basic cooking - nothing that involved garlic or spices or depth of flavour, and certainly nothing that wasnt traditionally British.

For example, I was at university before I had pasta, pizza, curries etc.

I cook pretty much everything from scratch and there is very little that I don’t like now. 12yo Ds is the same. I make Moroccan tagines, Thai curries, Indian curries and sides, paella, loads of pasta dishes etc. As do most people, I’d imagine.

Perversely, it is my parents who seem fussy to my DS as my dad won’t eat garlic or any spice whatsoever (rules out so many things) and my mum won’t eat shellfish or pasta or anything Thai (random).

Yes, my oldest brother and I were both fussy. My mum has been forced to eat things she hated as a child, and as a result was very relaxed with us and cooked us what we liked. We’re both healthy adults with varied diets now (although I still don’t like fruit, weirdly).

Yes I was very fussy but I was definitely pandered to. I was about 14 when we were invited to DP's friends for dinner to find that their son who was training to be a chef was cooking. I remember DM hissing at me "it doesn't matter what it is, you're eating it". Never looked back.

I was considered fussy but I think I just knew what I liked and what I didn't!

Couldn't stand wet textures or food touching but grew up in a house of stews, roast dinners with gravy made from the water the veg was in, and fish in parsley sauce.
You sat at the table until everyone's plate was clear which could take hours, and there was no pudding if you didn't 'behave' at the table.

I now have huge issues with food -over eat the foods I was denied and don't have an off switch

I will, however, eat wet foods now as long as they don't taste like over boiled veg

Yes I was a very fussy eater, DS went through a really fussy stage too! My mum never forced me to eat anything I didn’t want and would always make something she knew I would eat.. she still says to me now food isn’t worth making into a battle you can teach them what’s the right thing to eat but they don’t have to like/eat it and not to waste tome worrying their childhoods away over food as they nearly always eat most things as an adult.

I believe that a lot of this "fussy eating" come from the culture of where , when, with whom is eaten. If the adults at the table have the same stuff on their plate and eat it, that is an example for the child. If a child is sat in a highstool or fed separtely from the adults how can she /he even begin to learn that what comes on the table is all there is.i. So many parents sit their kids away from them eating, make so many "kid firendly food" i understand that the kids get "fussy". a meal is a shared experience and everyone learns that this is what is on the table.

I was!! I would eat sausage rolls, jacket potatoes and beans. And crap of course like chocolate and ice cream. That was it. I also used to eat like a mouse too.

I have no idea why I was like this, but now I will literally eat anything except cooked salmon. I eat like a horse too!

If you asked my mother, yes, I was a very 'faddy eater'.

If you asked anybody who knew how to cook and thought that children deserved access to good quality ingredients and many different flavours (especially savoury ones), spices, herbs and lightly cooked vegetables, seasonings and proteins, I was an absolute dream of an eater and they wished their own children would eat so well as I did.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to eat at other people's houses often.

Massively but from what I remember I genuinely felt too scared to eat certain things or actually disgusted by them.
I wasn't being difficult or putting it on.

I ate everything except onions, olives and grapefruit.

Now I'm an adult I don't think there's anything I don't like. It worries me the amount of children that will only eat chicken nuggets, and considering these are a relatively new form of food I don't believe it when parents blame their child for it. Surely there wasn't thousands of children starving 50 years ago because there were no nuggets?

I never try to coerce my 4yo into eating. We put dinner out and if he doesn't eat it he won't be offered anything else but there's no blackmail or being made to clear plates etc.
90% of the time he eats his full meal or most of it depending how hungry he is.

Was not allowed in our house.

Nope I ate everything put in front of me. My mum was a good cook though and we all ate a home cooked meal as a family at 6 o’clock sharp every evening. Never had (or needed) snacks though apart from a bit of fruit occasionally.