8 year old fussy eater.

[Heavenscent86]

So the title pretty much says it all. I've got a very fussy 8 year old daughter. Pretty much won't eat anything but fish fingers and chicken nuggets. Occasionally pizza. Anyway recently I decided to put my foot down and she is now having exactly the same meals as me. Unfortunately though it's not going so well. Tonight she refused the chicken and bacon pie with roasted gnocchi I gave her and has literally only had half a tin of baked beans. I don't feel I can allow her to have dessert after that but I know she is going to go to bed very hungry and this happens repeatedly so I usually end up backing down and cooking her fish fingers after a few days so I know she's eaten. I don't want to do that this time but am I doing the right thing? I don't want to think of her going to bed hungry night after night because she won't eat.

She's had something though, she's chosen to eat just the baked beans and that's fine.

I think you have to decide how you want to play it. Are you going to keep offering alternatives, if you are you might as well put some on her plate.

If you want her eating more of what you eat, I'd just put one thing on her plate that you know she will eat and then the rest is what's being served up that night.

My DD is fairly fussy. Tonight we've had chicken fajitas. She point bland refused the chicken so just put salad in her wrap. That's her choice.

She will probably have a couple of biscuits when she gets back in at about 7.40 before she goes to bed but we did have tea very early tonight.

Thank you. That's a very good idea about giving her one thing that she will eat. I'll just make sure I don't give her a massive portion of whatever that is so she will hopefully attempt the rest of it given time. I don't want her to have alternatives. She needs to join in with the family and eat the same as everyone else.

Kids are pretty good at regulating their needs. I'm sure that once she realises that there there is nothing else on offer she will start trying things.

I'd try a mixed approach. As well as the suggestion of one thing she'll eat each night, I'd also think of the week as seven days and make sure that at two or three of the days are appealing to her. Don't think of this as backing down and giving way to her, just think of it as adapting your family meals to reflect the likes and dislikes of everyone in the family.

Personally I'd let her have pudding (yoghurt or fruit or whatever you were planning to give her) even if she hasn't eaten her main meal. That's because I don't like to teach my DC that sweet food is a 'reward' for having eaten the nasty savoury food.

A couple of nights of the week she is at her dads and she only ever eats fish fingers and chips there so I was thinking that I would probably do a treat night every two weeks or something where everyone has pizza or chip butties or something.
As far as pudding goes I didn't want to offer things that she is going to fill up on if she isn't eating because of course I want her to eat her dinners and not wait for pudding but offering fruit or a small yoghurt is not a bad idea. At the moment she'll reject most fruits as she will only eat bananas but once she realises that's her option for pudding hopefully she will start trying more.