Am I being unreasonable to suggest that kids who are faddy eaters have been "allowed" to become so?

[Lucia39]

This will no doubt get me "flamed" but hell, I don't want to watch the Champions League final so have left other half and teenage son to do so on their own - a good opportunity for some "male bonding" with some beer!

So, what do other parents think? Are faddy eaters born or made?

I recognise that we all have certain foods that we don't particularly care for or like but once those dislikes have been identified surely everything else should be accepted and eaten? I always advocated the "taste it and see" approach which generally worked. Although I wouldn't suggest that a two year old be given red hot Indian food just to "taste and see", but .... you never know!

I also often wonder if some children are faddy because their repertoire has been so limited and/or bland that they view anything that looks or tastes "different" with suspicion.

When I was growing up there was always an option at meal-times "take it or leave it" and my mother held to the view that when we were hungry enough we'd eat. I am also quite sure that a day without solid food will not actually harm any child!

I have 1 faddy eater and 2 good eaters. So no it's not something that always comes from the parents.

Why would you want a flaming ?

Are you a loon?

But to answer your q, have you had a child with a self-limited diet?

sorry- been done before

parp

I agree with you 100%.

Picky eaters are made, not born. Unless there are underlying special needs issues.

But other than that?

You eat what I put before you.

YABU

Bolleaux OP, full of crap assumptions

Apologies for a duplicated thread.

I suppose I thought I'd get a "good dressing down" because from what I've read on other threads it seems there are a few contributors who have children that really are faddy!

no, they're born like it imo..

ds(15) very fussy and picky with food since birth

ds(7) eats anything and everything

i was a fussy eater though too, think i have odd tastebuds, maybe hyper sensitive .

How many children do you have, Lucia? People often congratulate themselves on their superior child-rearing skills when their first sleeps through the night at a tender age, or isn't fussy about food, or whatever. Then no. 2 or 3 comes along with personality all of their own and you realise you just struck lucky, first time.

I only have one but am well aware of this pitfall as I was a fussy eater. Thankfully ds takes after dh (that was a bloody relief). My poor mother is an excellent cook, people rave about her food, but was cursed with two fussy eaters.

Nothing she did made a blind bit of difference - not even when she got to the end of her tether and served the same omelette up to my sister at every meal for two days running! (Omelette was one of the very few nutritious foods the fussy blighter would eat, and this was the day she announced she'd 'gone off' it.)

I have a Ds who wil eat virtually anything, and has always been pretty good at trying stuff.
I have a DD who is a fussy little mare, and I have no idea why! If I have pandered to her and made her a fussy eater please tell me what to do next, since you seem to know so much.

faddy,picky eaters....made.....kids aren't actually always as hungry as we adults think!!

back in the times of Oliver Twist i can't imagine many of them would say no to ANY food offered...

I dunno - I think it's more than possible that you're posting with the assured self-confidence (smugness?) of someone who has never come up against the will-power of a fussy eater

All I can say is that I have 4 DC, all of whom ate what the adults around were eating from an early age. I never fannied around with bland "kids' food". 3 of those DC have continued eating like normal people, 1 of them (DS2, 10) now eats a diet that consists of pasta and fruit. And that's basically it. There was nothing different in my approach or in his childhood. He is Dyspraxic, but then so is DS3 and he eats anything, so I don't think that's it.

Somewhere between the ages of 2 and 3 he became fussy, and strong-willed, and it's bloody hard to have every mealtime as a battleground. And on the basis that food is something you should enjoy, I increasingly accommodated his fussiness. He won't just eat pasta and fruit forever.

My child is a very fussy eater and I tried everything to get him to eat, I think he will get there in his own time eventually but no end of staying up with him waiting for him to eat,coaxing or bribery will make him less so. Taste and see does not work, id get a right out 'dont like it', without even going in his mouth. If I made a meal I wanted him to eat and said take it or leave it for every dinner time he would inevitably go without having anything, and would make me very stressed as it used to. so for now I have accepted that he will have very few things for dinner.

I don't know why people think that it is so wonderful when children "will eat anything". I like my children to be discerning eaters, and to have personal tastes and preferences.

They are born,not made.

My brother and I ate practically anything mum gave us.Our youngest brother ate just pasta with pesto and fishfingers for about 3 years.Drove mum nuts.(He is 24 now and eats a wide variety of foods,is in fact quite a foodie so those with fussy eaters panic not )

Apparently some people really are more sensitive to some tastes than others, btw - think they are called 'supertasters'. And toddlers go through a phase when they become very sensitive to bitter tastes, so will go off green veg like broccoli. Thought to be an evolutionary reason behind this, possibly stopping human young from eating berries without supervision the minute they could get free of Mum.

In one family you can have children taking on roles like 'the good eater' and 'the picky eater'. Children are very good at taking the roles they're given.

Or some kids pick up on parental eating issues and some don't.

Also you can have children who dislike lots of food and childrn who don't.

No hard and fast rules, and it's not really anyone else's business.

I'm fairly sure they're made like it, not born. Otherwise, how do you explain the fact that so many children in Developing Countries with little food will eat anything they're given?

DD eats fairly well. She's never been extremely fussy. I've never really had a problem with her liking or disliking things and have never forced her to clear her plate, so I suppose you could say that I've consented to her choosing to eat certain things over others.

I was a ridiculously fussy eater as a child. My mother allowed me to be so.

I remember children at school, though, when I was young, who had to clear their plates. There was no debate. They were expected to eat everything and they did.

So, yes, I think fussy eaters are made.

i find it quite interesting edam. as i've got older i'll try almost anything, but was fussy even up to my early 30s - go figure.

ew i just remembered being forced to eat a whole spam fritter at school lunch eugh

yep YABU.
luckily my boys are great eaters.
However one of my bf is an editorial food stylist, who cooks and writes recipes for a living.
I'm extremely jealous of her fridge and kitchen which is full, constantly, of incredible food.
She has 2 girls both of whom have been offered an amazing diet from birth and were blw. One will eat everything. The other will eat hardly anything!
It is a constant source of dismay to my friend and she certainly hasn't been allowed to become a faddy eater in the sense you mean.

edam, that's right - apparently you can see a supertaster's extra taste buds if their tongue is dyed blue. Get everyone in the family to suck a blue smartie (no, not the same blue smartie) and see if anyone's tongue is different. Haven't tested this, but was told it by a moderately reliable source.

No they are all different. Born for sure.

I have good and and faddy eaters. My dc6 is a really crappy eater, not faddy as such he's just not really into food and is skinny as hell. Luckily because he's my 6th I don't care!!

If he were my first I'd be down the clinic every week having him weighed and tearing my hair out

yes and no.

My dd would eat anything and i mean anything ds is really really fussy but has been since weaning. I plod along though and he has started getting better and trying things.
I can't understand how some kids will just eat chips and chocolate because i would just never allow it.