To think if you like eating something, you'll eat it in most forms?

[Nobodyknowsme101]

My 13yo has been fussy with food literally since birth! Very restricted diet.
What recently is driving me mad is the fact that I've noticed he'll eat a certain food in one dish but refuse to eat it in another saying he doesnt like it 🙄
Examples :
•Will eat cheese on a pizza but insists he hates cheese and wont eat it in burgers, pasta, on potato etc.
•Eats chicken nuggets/breaded chicken burgers and roast chicken as part of a roast dinner but refuses chicken in any other form saying he doesnt like it such as cold in a sandwich or in homemade chicken nuggets which to me were not much different in taste to the frozen ones.
•Will eat fish from the chip shop but insists he doesnt like fish when I've given him homemade fish nuggets or even frozen fish fingers.
•Will eat bolognese or chilli from a jar but when I've done a homemade version it's too disgusting for him to even try. (Despite me and others trying it and it hardly tastes any different to the jarred ones)

I can't think of anything I like to eat that i dont like at all in certain dishes. I have preferences for the way I eat things but I cant say oh I love scrambled egg but hate poached because at the end of the day egg tastes like egg in most forms surely!?

Is he just being fussy or am I being unreasonable? Would love to hear feedback if you can relate to the way my son thinks because I just cant understand it 🙃

hhhmmm I don't know, my daughter hates cheese but she will eat it on Pizza.

I think it’s one of those things that if you’re not fussy you just don’t get. I’ll eat anything, but my younger sister insists that different pasta shapes taste different same parents, same upbringing, same school dinners, the works. I love trying new food and ‘live to eat’, she would happily survive on the same 3 beige meals forever.

For a lot of fussy eaters it's not the taste it's the texture. So cheese on meat and a bread bun is quite different texturally to mozzarella on flatbread, if you see what I mean.

I personally will eat absolutely anything but my brother is very restricted. He's a total beige food cliche. For him it's ALL about textures - he finds them really nails on a chalkboard repulsive. I actually get this because I have the same response to a lot of fabrics against my skin. Certain textures really give me the fleshcrawling horrors. It's totally visceral.

I live with another cheese hater (except on pizza)

I love cheese. So that's madness enough, to not like cheese I mean.

Dh has a friend who will only eat chicken, chips and white bread.

Chips have to be fries. Any thicker he won’t eat them.

Chicken has to be kfc style, or breaded in some way. Plain chicken is a no.

And bread has to be sliced white. Would not eat a baguette for example.

Sorry, went on a tangent there - my point was she’ll eat penne but not farfalle, loves spaghetti but hates tagliatelle. So it’s not just your DC!

It will be the texture as that changes. Think of all the different ways you can use tomato for example.

I love potatoes but hash browns can gtfo

I'm not otherwise fussy at all

I'm not a fussy eater usually but can only eat cheese if it's melted and hot, otherwise the texture makes it really unpleasant for me. Same with tomatoes, chop them up and cook them and I'm happy, but I won't eat them raw. Again it's a texture thing.

My mum used to dislike anything orange flavoured, but loved actual oranges.

But I agree some of the fussiness there seems OTT, especially the sauce.

DD hates melted cheese but will eat pizza. Other than that the only cheese she will eat is feta or Halloumi. Won’t eat pasta unless it’s the filled one. Won’t eat sliced bread, only wraps or very fresh baguette or similar. No chips but wedges ok. No cooked veg except cauliflower in a curry but loves raw carrots, broccoli and peppers

It can be taste, texture, even the look of the thing!
I have a bit of a mental block with eggs which I can't really explain.
I love eggs boiled, poached, or fried sunny side up, or in quiche, but cannot stomach them scrambled, in omelets, or fried both sides.

I disagree.

eg eggs
scrambled is so different to fried, that I can understand someone not liking the texture of one.

cheese tastes veyr different on pizza to pasta.

I cannot imagine any home made sauce tasting the same as a jar (personally I'd prefer homemade but there you go). Same with chicken nuggets.

combination of texture, shape, additives etc

Your son does sound as though he is very particular around food which must be difficult. I thought you were going to say it was a textural issue eg blocks of cheese v melted cheese. I love cooked tomatoes in all forms but have to be feeling very strong to eat them fresh for example. But I can't see much difference between the examp!es you've described.

Is he suspicious about the cooking process? Or are there particular herbs or spices he dislikes?

Perhaps try and get him involved and attempt to get him cooking. A lot of tweens and teens lose their fear of food if they become familiar with prepping it and start to have some control over the process.

Another one who can’t stand certain textures and I’m really sensitive to smells.

Much better now than as a child through desensitising myself to certain flavours etc but I would have been similar to your son as a child.

Likewise, temperature is huge, I don’t understand how you saying chicken cold and hot is the same! For me I cannot stand some foods cold that I love hot. For ages I wouldn’t eat microwaved lasagne because I’d been given some that hadn’t been reheated properly and had a cold mouthful which made me feel sick. I’m still super careful to nuke it now!

I think hot and cold can make a massive difference.

Put the homemade sauce in an empty jar? See if he notices the difference?

Mostly I agree except eggs, can't stand the white and yolk separate here so only eat scrambled and omelette. My dd is very fussy so I get the frustration

I was a really fussy eater as a child, and one of my main problems was textures.

The same base ingredient (cheese, eggs, potatoes, tomatoes etc) can have very different textures depending on how it’s prepared. Obviously I can only speak for myself, but it’s not just the taste of the food that’s important.

Also as a child, the only fish I liked was from the fish shop - it tastes so different from fish fingers (which I still hate!)

I agree with others that say it's likely to be the texture that's a problem in some cases.

I have lots of foods that I don't like but it's not about the taste, always the texture.

I love cold tomato 🍅 but will not eat hot in any shape or form.

I’m a bit like this, I’m afraid.

I like cheese, but not all cheese (hate goats cheese) and I like it melted on pizza or cheese on toast, but I literally cannot put any kind of gloopy, cheesy sauce in my mouth or I gag. Cannot stand macaroni cheese or the bechamel and cheese combination in lasagne.

Also beef is the only red meat I eat, but I only like some steaks and burgers, not all, and I don’t like beef stews or casseroles or roast beef 😬

YABU.

cheese suspicion is a biggie in our house. its a texture thing.

I have an adult friend who will only eat potatoes if they're chips. She won't even eat them if they're deep fried but not cut into usual 'chip' shapes. I shit you not.

No, it seems normal to me.

Generally I'll eat most forms of potatoes, but hate mashed and boiled. I like most pasta, but don't like spaghetti. I like chicken, but would only eat chicken nuggets if I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, and the only food place in sight, McDonalds had nothing else to eat! I love cheese but hate hard cheese hot - like cheese on toast, although mozzarella is ok on a pizza.

DH does not like hot and cold food on the same plate, whereas they are fine separately. He likes fresh tuna, but not tinned. DH heaves at the texture of sauces - like ketchup, mayonnaise, cream, etc whereas curry sauce is fine?

DD1 loves beef, but does not like it in a stew.

DS loves beefburgers, but does not like mince otherwise.

He doesn’t seem to like your own cooking, if anything. Not to be nasty but does your home cooked versions actually taste nice? He can tell the difference