My daughter turns 5 in a few days. She's very fussy with food, to the point that for the past two and a half years, she's only eaten beige, bland foods (chicken nuggets, chips, toast, sausage rolls etc - although they have to look exactly right - she wouldn't touch long sausage rolls, or chunky chips). The only exception to this was spaghetti carbonara (the ready meal, I've tried making it myself but it doesn't look exactly the same so she won't touch it).
A few months ago, she stopped eating any meal except microwavable hot dogs (again, a regular frankfurter in a hot dog bun would be met with total disgust, it had to be the microwavable kind, and no sauce) and the spaghetti carbonara.
A week ago, she decided she didn't like the hot dogs any more (presumably sick of them) and would only eat carbonara. Every meal time I give her whatever I'm eating, to encourage her to try, but she complains and clasps her hand over her mouth and nose and makes a drama, then says she's not hungry a thousand times to make it very clear that she is hungry. Every day she ended up getting her way and eating the carbonara.
Last night, she said she didn't like carbonara any more (unsurprisingly, a minimum of once a day for a week would sicken anyone) and ended up not having a meal. She ate fruit and picked at a piece of toast but that's it. Again tonight, no meal, but she wouldn't even look at toast. I'm in tears. I don't know what to do.
I've spoken to the health visitor about this on numerous occasions but just get dismissed with the usual "oh, fussy kids haha" and "you're describing every dinner table with a young child!"
What do I do? Please, no "a child won't starve themselves!" comments. She will. She won't look at or touch, never mind eat, any food that's not one of "her foods" and that list just dropped to zero. She's had half an orange for dinner. I'm distraught at the idea of sending my child to bed hungry but she WON'T EAT because she's so fussy so I don't see a choice. Does anyone have any experience of this?