to think that when you say " a plain cheese and tomato pizza for fussy kids"

[DanDruff]

you mean not one with REAL tomatoes and green stuff on it?

arf i know i ABU really - but if you knew the kid was fussy would you go green?

Its funny how people seem to look down on the parents of fussy eaters, its not always nurture rather than nature you know sometimes children and adults just dont like certain foods for no reason at all. For example my sister and I were brought up eating the same foods, I will eat anything - in fact a bit too much of anything ahem - and she is incredibly fussy and always has been.

When my DDs friends come over I wouldnt dream of serving something they dont like or trying to 'faze them out' because they are a bit fussy thats very harsh IMO.

Have you fussy people any idea how irritating you can be. It's not something to be proud of, it's just rude.

When I order cheese and tomato pizza (or 'margarita' as I like to call it) for ds I give explicit instructions that nothing that resembles a tomato must be included. I usually also reconfirm those instructions at the end of my order. Ds will eat anything (he ate all sorts of game on holiday in SA that I wouldn't touch) but draws the line at tomatoes.

enough with all the smug 'my kids will eat anything and if yours don't then you are obviously doing something wrong'

does my fricking head in

To me it's a plain pizza with only red sauce and mozzarella.

Cheddar on a pizza? never seen or even heard of such a thing.

I have one that will eat anything and another that is so fussy that it does my head in. Must be due to my bad parenting.

I always say that my dcs weren't fussy. Then I remember the 28 year old who won't eat "red stuff" this being puddings, fruit and jam, and the 26 year old who can't share the same air as a mushroom. But this doesn't stop them eating exotically.

Really fussy people are an utter pain in the arse. Like my friend's vegetarian husband who refused to eat any green vegetables and most fruit. What particularly pisses me off is the enjoyment that the fussiest take over their food. I don't want to impose my eating habits on anyone but dinner out should be about more than a list of what they can't/won't eat. Just stay home!

My two DC are ok (mostly) but have their moments depending on mood, appetite etc. We try not to make an issue of it and all seems well with the world.

What does piss me off though is asking for a child sized portion and getting a huge plateful. Children are not supposed to eat as much as adults FFS!! I'm sure the restaurant or whatever are trying to be generous but it really gets on my tits!

I wouldn't expect a Margherita pizza to have sliced tomato on it but I would only expect it to have mozzarella (preferably buffalo mozzarella) cheese and no other sort of cheese on it and also basil.

How can anyone know exactly what kind of fussiness a fussy child is going to display? Ds is not very fussy, but the one thing he struggles with is that totally failsafe dish of Bolognese sauce.

Having 2 dcs who eat anything, including salad, cabbage, lentils, sprouts, and one diehard super-fussy ds, I can say with some certainty that it's not as simple as I used to think.

If I hadn't had him, maybe I'd still be smug and sure, who knows. I like having to change my mind, personally.

I think it's pretty reasonable for any child- or adult for that matter to have likes and dislikes!

I used to pick mushrooms out of bolognese sauce when I was a kid
and the liver out of liver and bacon
and kidney out of steak and kidney pie

my mum didn't pander to fussiness either but it didn't mean that we ate or liked absolutely everything

Riven - yes, I think DC4 is far fussier than he would have been had I not given him the same as I gave very fussy DC3. He grew up on a bland, same-ish diet. DC4 is a food ponce, though - refused to eat sausage and beans at a friend's house last week (I ws mortified) but will eat olives, chorizo etc.

Re the pizza issue - for my fussy DC3 it's no to bits of tomato, green stuff acceptable but NO to cheddar. Has to be mozzarella (blander taste).

To answer riven, I don't know how some kids get fussy. Nobody has ishoos with food in our family - other than not liking junk - and nobody has ever been forced to sit in front of cold, congealing dinners. My mother never expected me to eat anything I genuinely hated (I was expected to try stuff first though)and I had the same approach with my dcs. How, ds1 ever developed this hatred of red food absolutely baffles me but since it only involves sweet stuff that could very easily be lived without, it didn't seem anything worth making a huge palaver over. DS2's detestation of mushrooms seems to be a genetic thing. My mother holding the same views.

I do know how specific kids got fussy and very often it stemmed from health problems early on. Like my friend's child who lived, for a couple of years on half a round of sandwiches - made with white sliced bread (cut square) and filled with Kraft cheese slices - with only the occasional teaspoonfull of spaghetti rings in tomato sauce. She'd had feeding problems as a baby which resulted in weight loss and hospitalisation and my friend couldn't bear the thought that that this might happen again. Child knew this and simply played on her fears.

There has to be a meeting halfway IMO.
You have to try and cater a bit for likes & dislikes but if the child is seriously fussy you're just going to get it wrong sometimes and in those cases the fussy child should show good manners. And the parent should not bitch about you getting it wrong! The most infuriating thing in the world is when you think you have catered for them and cooked something you would never normally cook, only you've slipped up somewhere and they still won't eat it.

DH blames baby-led-weaning for my fussy DS1. He's convinced I should do purees at 4 months with DS2 like I did with omnivorous DD.

I have what amounts to a phobia of real sliced tomatoes and their horrid gooey pips, and I wouldn't force it down me out of politeness not even if you were the Queen and not even if you gave me £1m. But I don't mind cooked tomato sauces, which is what you're supposed to put on cheese and tomato pizzas imho.

'The most infuriating thing in the world is when you think you have catered for them and cooked something you would never normally cook, only you've slipped up somewhere and they still won't eat it.'

I suspect it is precisely because you have cooked it that the superlatively fussy may refuse to eat it! Things seems to go way beyond food and involve the "wrong" sort of presentation on the "wrong" plates and cutlery. Ultimately, it comes out of the "wrong" kitchen and onto the "wrong" table. At which the child is sitting on the "wrong" chair.

Puppy that must be very difficult. Have you sought help?

Puppymonkey - so can you scrape 'em off and eat the rest of the pizza, or are you unable to eat any of it?

Have you people who'll eat anything any idea how irratating you can be. It's nothing to be proud of howver much you prsent it as such.

Anyway, there is a differnece between preference and fussiness imo. Preferences are allowable, fussiness is more extreme and accepyted in kids in the knowledge they'll no doubt grow out of it, but unattractivbe in an adult.

Not sure why poele make food into a moral crusade though, it's meant to be enjoyable, dinnuer tiem sounds like Gestapo headquctres at some of yor houses.