Fussy eaters - have found a little trick that's helped us

[Itsdone]

DS who is 4 is a really, really fussy eater.

I've decided to try and crack a new food (with emphasis on veg) each week.

Sounds daft but he's been really taken with me making up little stories about the foods - sweetcorn aliens, 'beanlings' and Pea People.

Sounds so daft but it's working.

Hope it helps someone.

Whenever I hear about 'fussy eaters' , I always think about my granddad, who grew up in poverty in rural Ireland in the early 20th century.

When we were children, and being fussy about food he would say "You kids are too bloody mollycoddled. If you knew what hunger was, you would eat what you were given, and you would be grateful for it."

He was absolutely right.

Ours are not really fussy eaters but DC1 is nearly 4 and has a few minor foibles. Cheese is one. We never have cheese - Gouda, Parmesan, Edam, but never cheese. Sadly many other parents think pasta is best served with just cheese, and proudly present it while declaiming how much their children love it.
That reminds me, we're having aubergines with Parmesan and mozzarella tomorrow... Not sure about the aubergines actually - may have to fry them crispy and call them crisps.

Bonnie actually a lot of toddlers even in very impoverished countries are fussy eaters. It's a significant cause of malnutrition in older siblings of new breastfed babies when mum can't/doesn't want to BF both.

It's funny, BonnieF, your post has just made me think of my grandad, who grew up in abject poverty in rural Ireland in the early 20th century. He had a son, one of 7 children, who was an extremely fussy eater. I remember my mum telling me that he would only eat the same foods over and over again, they had to be kept seperate on the plate, he was very funny about textures - now looking back I realise that this (along with several other behaviours) was almost certainly because my uncle was autistic.

I have no sepia toned memories of my grandad, he could be an absolute bastard to be honest, but he seemed to be very understanding of my uncle's extreme food issues, despite the fact that they had very, very little when they were growing up.

we load a spoon with food then leave it on the plate for nanny, daddy or some random person we might have seen that day. Then deliberately turn your back and then look again with fake shock cos ds has eaten it. He thinks its hysterical. (and he eats it!)

I can't take credit for this idea, it's from a friend, but when DD won't eat something I get an adult sized fork out of the drawer and the big fork and little fork have arguments over who gets to feed DD her next mouthful. Sometimes this has to go on for a while, other times it will distract her enough from not liking something that she will carry on herself.

Will be stealing some of the tips on this thread...

Thank you for the idea, I will certainly give it a try. Does this mean you end up serving the particular food a number of times in the week?

My DD has just turned 4 & I despair at her lack of range of foods she eats. She never eats any meat/fish/cheese/potato of any sort cooked in any way/majority of veg. I honestly don't know how she survives....I sort of thought by 4 things would be better :(

"chatting about "chicken sausages" to bemused friends! "

Obviously they haven't seen Heck Chicken Italia Sausages - Tesco has them and Waitrose, they are rather nice (and Gluten free)

When mine ate raw veg or salad we used to pretend that the noise of them crunching it was too much. I would have conversations about how much they would love red pepper (raw) or carrots but I was scared of the noise. Then, reluctantly give them a bit all the while howling and covering my ears, shouting that the veg was too crunchy.

DD had a phase where she would eat anything given to her on a stick.
She also loved beans so everything became a bean for a while - carrot beans, chicken beans, etc.