My son's fussy eating habits!

[allyackles]

I am at the end of my tether with my son's eating habits. He has always been a fussy eater but now its getting worse!
He refuses breakfast every morning and will only drink milk. At dinner and tea time now matter what I give him he just wont eat it! The only things he'll eat are yogurts, chocolate biscuits and crisps.
I have tried to not give him a snack between meals and I try to vary what he has each time. We all eat as a family too but nothing works. I am so worried he's not getting the right things in his diet but I'd rather he eats something than nothing at all!
Can anyone offer advice on how I get him to eat his meals?

I'm having similar trouble with my 2 and a halt year old. He will only eat cheese! If put cheese on pasta he will just eat the cheese.

By the way he's 22 months old!

have you read my child won't eat a great book :)

I have similar with my 2.9 year old. The advice I've been given is:

• Have small plates
• Put choices of food in small bowls in the centre of the table and get him to self-select.
• Praise any positive behaviour associated with mealtimes, even if it's just sitting at the table nicely.
• Ignore food refusals completely and don't battle with them about food.
• 1 small healthy snack morning and afternoon. Offer them a simple choice, either banana or apple. We often fail here and he'll have a biscuit
• Try to offer something familiar and accepted alongside something new (this doesn't seem to work with my DS as he just goes for what he knows every time).
• I don't know if others would agree but I was advised to give him a multi-vitamin supplement. I did for a while and actually I think I need to start again...

Also, I think he probably will need a snack mid-morning and afternoon at his age. If he's gotten too hungry by mealtimes, then his behaviour may be affected by that?

Give regular snacks (well one morning, one afternoon). You can't starve into submission plus you'll end up with a tnatrummy child.

Dont feed them.

Provide healthy foods every meal but do not bat an eyelid if they don't eat it.

Eat meals with them.

Ds goes through these phases. I've learned to grit my teeth and it'll pass. I eat with him, eat the same as him and encourage him to have just one bite (not feeding him). Then I get on with mine. Usually he'll have a bit.

Breakfast has been tricky - I think he doesn't want porridge in the hot weather. So have let him chose his cereal in the morning (from two choices) and give it with yoghurt which he loves.

I also give him meals which I know he'll love so it's not a constant battle.

Send him to a nursery that serves breakfast and a cooked lunch. Peer pressure is amazing!

Oh and just give him real food, Stop giving him yogurts, chocolate biscuits and crisps.

I hate to tell you this, but I have this with my 15 year old DD, and she has always been the same! But, in my defence, my 11 year old eats pretty much anything, and they were weaned the same.

DD15 wants to eat healthily, as she is a sensible girl, and is trying to eat 5 a day, but finds it difficult. The only fruit she likes are apples, although she will eat raw carrot, sweet corn and some vegetables. She suffers from IBS, and had reflux as a baby, so I think that has affected her feelings about eating. She also doesnt like sweets or fizzy drinks, so that's a good thing!

She generally likes bland food, such as chicken, potatoes, toast, one type of cereal etc. I could write a huge list of what she won't eat! I think she has a problem with texture rather than taste.

I would say to give small portions, and compromise, give him the healthy stuff that he likes, but limit biscuits etc! Also, don't make a big fuss about food as long as he's growing ok. When he's old enough, then explain about being strong and healthy, and set a good example by eating healthy food.

I agree with watermelon about peer pressure. Do you have any friends with older children that he looks up to? They could help influence him, if he wants to be like them!

Good luck, try not to worry. :)

Iggly is it really bad to feed them? I'm in the same situation (have been for over a year now) with DD now 2.8 and i resort to feeding her as as well as being fussy, she's reluctant to use cutlery and takes ages with fingers.

I'm in the same situation as you are OP, my DD is 23months, she just refuses to eat proper food and will only have snacks such as yogurts, crips, rainsins and apples. She loves chocolate but I dont give it to her very often.

Please don't worry!! It will come..... after 14 years of worry I now know I wasted my energy....
My son has reached 15 years of age, on a diet of only fish cakes, baked potatoes, jam sandwiches (still only seedless strawberry!) crisps, chocolate and baked beans and milk! I can't count the number of times I've had to change supermarkets as they stopped doing a certain make of fish cakes or jam and others would not do!! He's been this fussy since he was 18 months. He's now nearly 6 foot and the school nurse told him this year, after height and weight measurements were taken, that he was the perfect height and weight for his age and that (she did not know how fussy an eater he has been!) his Mum was doing a fantastic job with his diet, which doesn't really help my cause! He's always been very sporty, Football (school and local team), Rugby (school and local team), Table tennis (national schools champion) Golf, swimming, etc, etc and is doing well with his GCSE in PE, so I don't believe that having your 5 a day fruit and veg is the only way you stay fit and healthy! He's just completed his GCSE Maths a year early with an A* and science with an A, so don't believe having your 5 a day fruit and veg makes you any brainier! He's had his teen moments, but is also a lovely confident boy with lots of friends, he is now beginning to eat out with friends and is starting to try more variety and in the last year he's been abroad with his school rugby team and tried lots of different foods, so we can now add pizza and steak to his menu!!
I also agree that with my son, it has been down to texture of the food rather than taste.
I would say that as long as we watch their weight and include lots of activities from an early age, they will grow into fit and healthy teens whatever they eat.
Yes, I am very proud of my son and his sister, she's 12 and will eat anything at all, always has!
I hope that this puts some minds at rest, as Mums of young children we all felt the pressure to do exactly what we are told is right, but not all children are the same and we wouldn't want them to be, go with you're instinct and if they won't eat it, don't worry.

plenty of good advice for you on this thread, I only wanted to add that chocolate and crisps aren't a good idea for such a little 'un - and they can't get to it themselves, you are giving it to them! high fat high sugar, pointless foods at this age. I'm not being preachy, just trying to help :) Whilst I'm still in charge (my DS is 2.8) I feel its best if mine doesn't get anything like that, I know at one point, when he can choose or get his own stuff he will probably fall in love with some junk food or other like we all do (! me included!) at this stage I can control his diet so snacks here are raisins, crackers, breadsticks, banana, fruit slices... even what my DS calls 'cake' is malt loaf :)

I kept a food diary when mine went off his food around 18-20m and seemed not to eat/to refuse everything , and it really helped, a)with noticing things that he did like, i.e., textures he did or didn't like (he went off rice at this stage for example and has not touched it since even though I've tried making risotto again which he loved before, I think it is the texture he dislikes as he won't eat rice pud either), so from that we tried to go with the things that he did like, such as pasta or mash and he eats well now - so we have a ton of different meals based around pasta for him now with loads of veg within the sauce and things like tuna or mince or shredded turkey in as well, he likes pasta shapes, lasagne, spagetti bolognese; and with mash he will eat mashed potato/sweet potato/carrot and butternut squash and now things like fishfingers or falafels and green beans alongside it as he is a bit older and getting a bit better at trying new things. the food diary idea also gave me a a little reassurance that he was eating something as it felt like he ate nothing at the time. I add fruit smoothies to milk and give him a milkshake, thats worth a try. Don't panic, loads of kids go through this stage, keeping calm will help not make it an issue :) best of luck