Fussy Eater

[Reece]

Anyone out there with a fussy eater?

DS is a particularly fussy eater. Won't touch any fruit or veg. Still putting it on plate as advised but phase has been going on for over a year now. When will it end?

Had advice from books, health nurse etc but I still need ideas/tips as I've tried everything.

He doesn't like pasta, won't eat anything mashed together. He likes chicken, white fish, bread, ice-cream and cheese.(who doesn't) potato in the form of chips/wedges/faces/letter etc. Not jackets/mashed etc. The only thing related to fruit that he will eat are Humzingers.

I always get these guilty feelings that I am not giving my son a particularly healthy diet although he has to eat something!

He has been to bed many times without his dinner. Tried that trick too many times.

His meals must be very boring!

How old is he?
Have you tried him with mashed potato with a bit of carrot,swede,parsnip mashed in?
Have you tried pureed fruit (strawberries, banana etc) and mixing it with yoghurt/

Mines a very fussy eater too. DS now 20 months is getting better slowly. At his worse he gave up eating.

These were the tips I was given by my HV (and they are working slowly).

Give two meals a day they will eat and then try new foods on the third.

Have set meal times and snack times and stick to them whatever. Also place a limit on mealtimes - if they go without eating at all for 10 minutes the food goes in the bin and no more given till next meal time.

Use a multivitamin if you are worried about their diet (I use abidec cos its a liquid which I got from tesco).

Don't play games etc if they are not eating. Praise them for eating and ignore them through the tantrums and not eating - no eye contact etc.

Make picnic on a tray with lots of bits of different foods and plastic knifes for them to cut it up.

Try to make meal times as stress free as possible. Fix a smile on your face and grit your teeth if necessary.

Try and eat with him.

These things are working for my ds and he is getting better. It will take time though, but over 90% of kids grow out of it before they get to school.

HTH

I was a veeeerrrrry fussy eater when I was young. I hardly ate anything apart from marmite or peanutbutter and butter and bread and ribeana. My mum always offered me other foods but I just hated anything else. It had a lot to do with not liking different textures. I did grow out of it eventually but not until I was a teenager ( sorry if you were hoping for earlier) I don't seem to have any lasting damage and am very healthy.
Having said that I am very glad in retrospect that mum never gave up on the 'putting it on my plate' thing. It really helped to get over the aversion to other food. I would suggest trying veg cooked to different degrees as this produces very different textures and tastes, one of which he may like.... also may help coating them in butter or a little melted honey to bring out the sweetness.
Also eating with other children as much as possible can help as they see other kids eating different foods and become more tempted to fit in and try stuff however young they are.
Hope this helps.
good luck anddon't worry

some of the tricks that work for me

fruit puree in yoghurt
smoothies/milkshakes made with real fruit
homemade soup (blended)
homemade tomato and veg sauce (blended)

any good?

DS is 2.7.
Thanks LJ the mashed potato with veg does not fool, besides he won't eat mashed potato! The pureed fruit in yogurt is a good one. Have tried before and no joy but will try again.

He seems to be a bit like you were ecj. Maybe I will just have to carry on as I am. He's not as bad as I sometimes think. Some days he eats like a horse and then he can go 4 days with barely anything. I've heard this is normal.

I have been doing "all the right things" as you mentioned. Not showing disappointment etc. and it does have effect sometimes. I do think a lot of it may be to do with texture.

He does eat homemade veg.soup normally but even that has gone out of favour recently.

Gosh with fussy eating, potty training and a 15th DS that flihngs food all over the house we mums do have our work cut out!

will he eat dried fruit?
DS wouldn't eat any fruit except occasionally banana unless it was pureed until he was about 4.
I bought some fruit chewy things from the health shop - like sweets except they are just fruit juice and pectin, which he ate as sweets - then moved onto raisins and some other dried fruit. Eventually we got onto grapes as they are just "undried " raisins - he is still fussy re the fruit but will eat a limited range now at 5.5
ie mango banana grapes - dried apricots and raisins

I never had a problem with veg though so can't suggest anything else that pureeing in sauces if he will eat sauces that is.

You can get the NSPCC's free parenting mag' - Your Family - from Early Learning Centres - this month's issue has a piece on picky eating and what to do about it.

Thanks for that tip willow.
yes he does eat dried fruit. Mainly humzingers to be honest and sometimes he eats so many they give him the runs .

He does do raisins as well so I am getting something into him.

Its funny. Since everyone has been posting messages I am realising that he actually isn't as bad as I thought he was.

No to sauces though. Just keep trying....

My ds is nearly 7 and i thought was a blimmin nightmare to feed.But when i wrote down what he eats it wasn't as bad as i thought and he is getting a bit better at trying stuff.Like your ds he often went to bed without eating and the guilt was awful..then it becomes a battle of wills and is damaging for parent and child.There is some good advice on here and your ds's diet dosen't sound too bad at all.I do give mine a multivit and 5ml of Eskimo Kids[fish oil]a day.

My ds1 is nearly 5. He's always been very fussy until the last 6 months or so. I do have his nursery school to thank for much of it, as they've been brill perservering with him at snack time and now he'll try any fruit given to him, and asks me to buy fruit when shopping. A lot of his probs were that he didn't like touching it. He's still a bit funny with some things, esp those that are wet and gooey, but we found once he's got used to touching it, he'll happily eat it.

This is a trick that worked well when ds1 was than age.

Pureed carrot and apple in an egg cup, toast soldiers to dip - but the trick is this.

Dish it out for yourself and sit and eat it in full view. Don't opffer him anything, not even what you are eating. Let him se you dip it with every sign of enjoyment, but ignore him. When he approaches you for some, let him take it off your plate and do it himself - don't touch the bit he is eating, and don't show a deal of interest.

Wow colditz I'm going to try that one. Sounds interesting and my god would be great if it worked. Will let you know how I get on. Thanks.

ds is 19mths and v fussy, v limited repertoire. When I'm worried that he hasn't eaten anything/enough we get out his favourite activity of the moment, right now it's his crayons. While he's occupied I offer a mouthful of something I know he will eat, at the moment strawberry yogurt. Last week it was toast. After the first mouthful I keep chatting and keep the focus on the crayons, and keep his hands busy. When his concentration is definitely on the drawing I offer another mouthful either of the favourite or something else on the current "acceptable" list for variety/nutritional balance. No comments about the food, I just keep talking about the crayons ...and keep popping in titbits. Can take a while, and I know loads of people will say it's giving in, making bad habits etc etc but right now I don't care I'm just so desperate for him to eat, and we can work on habits and table manners later when he's more stable in his eating!
Don't know if this helps, but maybe there's an idea in there somewhere that you can try!

Kitbit - DS has always managed to eat something during the day so I haven't really had to resort to distraction. If it works for you then great. I know as well as anyone how heartbreaking it is when your child just doesn't seem to want to eat anything. You will try anything.

I adopted the approach of ignoring it, taking the food away after 10 mins or so and not offering anything else until the next meal or snack time. It took me a while to get to this stage as I was so overly concerned about his not eating. The thing is - if you keep giving your child extra attention when they won't eat, they cop onto it and this can lead to them being even more awkward about eating. I have to say this approach has worked. He doesn't eat every meal thats put in front of him but he does eat some of the foods I serve at 2 out of 3 meals each day. I have even seen some clean plates which really is terrific when it happens!

Everyone kept telling me that a child will never starve and I suppose they are right. When they are hungry they will let you know.

I wouldn't worry about your DSs table maners too much. He is only 19 months old bless him. Once they see the family sitting down to eat together they soon want to join in.

what about making some fruit purees - raspberries, strawberries etc and stirring them into some good quality vanilla ice cream ? then he'll be getting lots of vit c in a fun way.