What does your Fussy Eater eat on a typical day?

[A1Mum]

I have a very fussy eater who is 3.8 now. Became fussy after a bout of food poisening at 2 and has had a limited food range since. No cooked foods what-so-ever! I have asked the Dr periodically if this is a problem, do I need help but she insists ds will grow out of it, I'm not so sure.

I just wondered what everyone else's fussy child eats on a daily basis. What, when and how much?

I think if it weren't for peanut butter he would be a shadow of his current size which is a healthy weight.

Also if you had a FE who suddenly decided to try new foods I'd love to her about it.

Many Thanks.

DS1 is 3.8 and verrrry slowly becoming more amenable to trying new things. Quantity is not a problem but variety is still limited. He eats basically the same for breakfast and lunch every day (but so do I!) and about 7 hot meals on rotation for dinner (a year ago this was more like 2 meals).

Today he has had:
Breakfast: toast and cereal
Lunch: toasted muffin, cheese and yoghurt
Tea: spaghetti and meatballs (served in separate bowls without sauce!), yoghurt
Snacks: banana, apples, grapes, breadsticks, biscuit, crisps, rice cakes

So a plain diet but not unhealthy. I can live with that!

On a good day
Breakfast: cereal, toast, blueberries, strawberries
Snack:Biscuit/cereal bar
Lunch: Pizza pitta, breadsticks and dips, yoghurt, blueberries and strawberries
Snack:Fruit toast
Tea: Jacket potato, beans and cheese

Bad Day
Breakfast:few mouthfuls of cereal
Snack: blueberries
Lunch: Spaghetti hoops
Snack: Nothing
Tea: Fishfingers, beans, wedges

Vegetables are virtually non existant except for peas and occasionally brocolli (sp) he likes dried apricots and raisins, blueberries and strawberries but that's it. My saving grace is that spaghetti hoops count as a portion of veg (somehow!)

Same everyday...He is six.
Breakfast: Either small BLUE bowl of dry Coco pops,or dry white bread with crust cut off.Maybe an apple also,peeled and cored,cut into segments.
Lunch:At school,small crusty roll,used to be dry,now puts butter on it ,thanks to teachers,yay! Small piece of fruit/slice of plain cake.
Snacks: Grapes/strawberries/dry plain biscuits or little pack animal crackers.
Lunch at home/dinner everyday: Alphabites,sometimes M&S little Haddock goujons.

He will also eat McDonalds chips,which are a treat.He likes plain ice cream,loves jelly and jelly sweets. Very occasionally he will eat white rice at school.

He does see a dietician,he is not deficient in anything.I give him the jelly vitamins in the morning.He also takes warm milk-still in a bottle before bed. He was always very odd about food.Doesn't really enjoy food or eating.Otherwise he is a star. I no longer fuss about it.No point in having endless arguements about it. He is what he is.Great wee boy.

My DS is 22 months and steadily getting fussier and fussier. We struggle between thinking we're pandering to him and wanting him to eat

Here's what he ate yesterday:

Bfast toast, butter & jam

snack apple slices

lunch peanut butter sandwich, slice of cake, slices of cheese

tea cheese & tomato pizza

he drinks milk and juice mixed with water

Should have said DS is 19 months and was BLWd in an attempt to prevent fussiness!

Thanks Ladies. It's reassuring to know yur not the only one. Still suprising how few posted

We are going to see the in-laws over Christmas and we have a plan. We offer ds same meals we have, he can chose what he wants from whats on offer. If he says 'no I want something else', his usual response, we tell him this is it take it or leave it.

This is very very hard to do without emotional support. We did do this at the begining of last year and it took 7 days of crying, screaming begging and waking up during in the night pleading with me because he was hungry. It was an awful experience for me and I fear I would have cracked if I was on my own. I have no support of family in the UK (all deceased) so it's something I don't feel I can do on my own as I feel like I'm the worst Mother in the World when he's crying. On the flight home last time he picked up a virus, quite a bad one and everything we went through was ruined.

Now 7 months later it's time to try again. His Grand-Parents are fantastic and very reasonable and calm so I know I have excellent support when I feel I can't take it anymore. It's worth trying again as the last time he had started to try everything we put in front of him and he found he liked it as he was so hungry. Looked quite slim on the way home and was very lethargis and has lost all his character but I can't think of any other way.

Do you want me to let you know how we get on this time?

Just let me know.

My ds is 8 and very fussy, on a good day he will have

Breakfast; one of only two types of cereal or porridge.

Lunch: peanut butter sandwich, fruit winder, yoghurt, cheese, juice, penguin bar

Supper: plain spaghetti or fish/meat (steak or pork only) carrots, peas and potatoes followed by an ice lolly.

He doesn't touch fruit or any other veg apart from carrots or peas.

On a bad day he eats NOTHING, and i mean nothing.

DS 3.3

Good day

Cup of milk
pick of a bit of lunch if it anything other than chicken or fish
half an apple
chicken or fish - plain and with NOTHING else
cup of milk

sigh

ChocolateMonkey - I would be interested, yes! There is so much conflicting advice about feeding it is unreal.

My DS is a lot younger at 16mo but on a good day he will eat

Breakfast - porridge with banana, half a pear or other seasonal fruit

Lunch - Philadelphia on toast/bread/bagel, those Organix crisps, satsuma or other fruit, biscuit or raisins

Tea - will eat meatballs, or fishfingers, with roasted sweet potato sticks. No other veg. Yoghurt.

That's really about it. At nursery he has eaten NOTHING for weeks.

Meant to add - I just wish he would eat pasta, or rice, or potatoes, or something that counts as an actual meal! You obviously have the same problem.

Good luck - hope it works that your DS tries more foods and isn't too upset by the whole process.

wow choclate monkey! yes will be interested to check back.

Thing is my DS NEVER asks for other food, he would just happily leave what was there and never wake up in the night hungry - doc said it was fine they hardly need anything at this age. Besides - he does try stuff without a lot of fuss, just won't eat any of it

My 22 month old would only eat 4 things if it was down to her: peanut butter, weetabix, ready berk and ham .She would also drink litres of milk if left to her own devices. Thank god for pears (the one fruit she will eat without fail) and a vegtable pasta sauce I make blitzed to no lumps whatsoever or she would have scurvey by now.
On the other hand my 3 year old literally eats everything, turns down white bread in favour of brown and can be found eating tomatoes over biscuits at parties . She hates milk though which caused me anguish when she was under 1.I can honestly say I did nothing different when weaning.

DD 3.8

Bf: cereal (non sugary) or bread, butter and jam
Lunch: macaroni cheese / spag bol / pizza
Tea: bread / pancakes

Snacks: fruit (eats most fruit)and lots and lots of milk.

No veg unless it's hidden in the spag bol sauce / pizza sauce.

We regularly give her new things to try but she generally spits out anything not on the list above. I'm really hoping she'll just grow out of it.

If it helps to know, I was brought up on a very limited diet of chips and beefburgers. I'm neither overweight nor a fussy eater now so I think they will survive a few years of living on bread and pasta :)

DD is 2.4. On a good day she will eat:
B - small bowl of shreddies with milk & maybe 1/2 banana, & a fromage frais
L - slice of toast with butter, handful of grapes, some cubes of cheddar (but only cheddar and 'no orange cheese mummy') and possibly a few crisps (not a packets worth)
D - she has what we have, it is our biggest battle & she mostly won't try anything new! So sometimes she'll eat a couple of chips, she might eat a couple of bites of sausage. She won't eat cottage pie/lasagne (anything with mince) She likes the spicy sauce on fajitas & chilli, but will just dip bread in it. The only gurantees for things she will eat at dinner are pasta in cheese sauce, mashed potato & garlic bread! Everything else is subject to change!

We have cut out snacks in an effort to get her to eat more at meals. It is working, sort of! She won't eat vegetables at all, maybe some peas on the odd occasion. We also have introduced a sliding dessert scale! If she doesn't have any main course & kicks up a fuss she gets nothing. If it's something new & she trys it (even if she then doesn't eat any) or if she makes an attempt at eating some of her dinner, she gets fruit or a yoghurt. If she eats alot or all of her main course, she can then have a 'treat' ie. cake, ice cream, jelly. It is working, but it's slow progress!!

This thread is wonderful just to know that I'm not alone - I have a very fussy 2.10 DS....

B - readybrek or porridge
L - toasted sandwiches -cheese and ham (minced) / rolls with philadelphia / pate
D - Pizza / Pasta (has to be fusili with baby tomato & basil sauce) / Macaroni Cheese (again has to be fusili) / Fishfingers (won't eat if the breadcrumbs have fallen off) / M&S chicken nuggets / oven chips

Obviously will eat ANY cake / ice cream / yoghurt / biscuit!!!

No fruit (he has two ella fruit pouches a day) or vegetables

chocolatemonkey VERY interested to hear how you get on with your plan - very tempted to try something like this.

I was hoping that he would "grow out of it" but sounds like this might not be the case.

ds is 4.2 & has ASD

breakfast - toast with peanut butter, butter or nutella, shreddies/whetos (sp?), croissant
lunch - pasta & pesto or peanut butter on toast
dinner - pasta & pesto or fish fingers & smiley faces

drinks - water, milk or apple juice from a small carton (very rarely orange juice but only from McDonalds)

snacks - yoghurt(strawberry only), pancakes with chocolate spread, very rarely an apple, assorted junk food (crisps (walkers ready salted only), malteasers, chocolate chip cookies).

He was BLW'd & breastfed until he was nearly 4 - at 18 months he ate absolutely everything (my dd1 was fussy & I was so relieved when ds was a good eater) - over the year that followed he'd drop a food or two a week. He also has sensory issues & will often vomit if he sees other people eating which just reinforces his food phobias :(

obviously meant he has one of those choices for breakfast (or not - he often won't eat at all until lunch time) rather than all of them!

Wow FrostyPhlebas you breastfed ds until he was nearly 4! That's impressive!

On a typical day my 3 year old fussy eater will eat toast and yoghurt. And that's it.
I was like this yesterday as I got him to eat some spaghetti and it felt like such a big deal.

He gets offered plenty but everything is, "Too hot, Mummy," or is simply, "Too yukky, Mummy."

We just leave him to it and hope he grows out of it but it's hard. He's somehow a tall solidly built wee monster anyway.

Well done santarissaCripslock on the spaghetti victory!!

I'm hoping that my nearly 3 yr old will start trying a few more things when watching his 8 month old little brother eating fruit and veg! So far it doesn't seem to have made any difference.

Its encouraging to see that it doesn't really matter how you wean them I'm sure its more to do with their personality.

PS Has anyone had any joy with advice in books - I've seen that there are quite a few fussy eater manuals. Any recommendations?

my little man would only ever eat veg n mash. The veg had 2 be pureed. This happened after he choked on a cream cracker and after that he would not eat anything else.

He has seen a dietician who told me he would grown out of it and give him vitamins in the mean time.

2 years later (and lots of patience and perserverance and one emergency visit to hosp) my son now eats a regular 3 meals a day:)

He is still fussey on the way he eats his food for example beans need to seperate from his toast.

He is a healthy happy boy now. :)

Middlechild - a friend recommended Ellyn Satter. Have read one of her books and the advice was good.

See www.ellynsatter.com for the basics of her principles. Essentially: you are responsible for offering good food at regular intervals, they are responsible for eating it.

I work with a 2yr old who will eat custard, yoghurt, ice cream, jelly..........anything without lumps in it. He won't eat any solid foods what so ever and if you try to give it him he will retch cry and get anxiety. This child lives off milk and sweet puddings with no lumps in it. Would be grateful for any advise on this matter.

Today my 3 year old nightmare eater ate!

A beaker of warm ovaltine milk at 6am

Dry chocolate weetabix mini's (breakfast) (dry, I know)!

Innocent smoothie and mini cheddars (snack)

Slice bread with cheese spread, 2 mini sausages and a yoghurt (lunch)

Babybel (snack)

Chips, chicken breast in breadcrumbs, spaghetti (dinner)

Beaker warm ovaltine milk (bedtime)

Thats a good day, at nursery she often doesn't eat a morsel!!

I've quit getting upset about, the doctor told me 'no child will every voluntary starve themselves', which is true!