fussy eater

[samalexholly]

I have a 4 year old son and he is a very fussy eater.
I struggle on a daily basis to get him to try new foods.
What he will eat

super noodles
pasta (occasionally)
tomato soup
plane toast
baked beans
pizza
macaroni cheese
chips

Anything else he refuses to eat and its driving me mad!
he will try anything to get out of eating it (like saying it hurts his throat) when its quite clear he is trying it on.
Please can someone give me some advice, im at my wits end. It frustrates me to a point im nearly in tears sometimes.
I cant get a proper healthy dinner with veg down him he says its dirty! Its also starting to make me feel like a bad mum for giving him too much junk food, but what can i do if thats all he will eat?

what to do?
:(

is that toast cut into the shape of a plane?

sorry I'm sympathetic honest
my five year old has less then that on her list of foods she will eat and I have no idea what to do

i have tried making it fun for him in many ways
and it still ends with the same way.
I have tried hand puppets, getting him to help me make it, making faces with the food and just plane encoragement. nothing works.
I have just been trying to get half a slice of toast and peanut butter down him for the last hour or more and now i feel like screaming

I sympathise. DS (3.8) has a similar list of acceptable foods. Does your DS have any sensory problems? Mine has issues with texture, taste and sounds. It is only very recently he can be in the house while the vacuum is on without being in pain. And don't talk to me about hand dryers! But with food, he likes things either very cold (so frozen peas are good) or hard (so dried uncooked pasta). I've learnt to go with his tastes as long as they are safe even if they don't appeal to me.

The thing that keeps me sane was that "freaky eaters" programme that was on BBC3 a while ago. There were people on there with appaling diets (think pizza and crisps only). They had massive issues with food but were actually healthy. The programme made them have all these blood tests and generally all that was said was "you'll have problems in the future if you carry on like this." Some of the people were in their 40's, were slim and looked perfectly healthy. Obviously it is best to have a varied diet with lots of "good" foods, but actually the body seems to be very resiliant and will take what it needs from what it gets.

So although it isn't great what my DS eats, I feel I will do more long term harm making food a big issue. Hopefully as he gets older things will get better. That's just my way of dealing with it though!

Sorry I can't be much help, but there are others out there.