My ds will only eat peanut butter sandwiches, plain pasta, sweetcorn and ham. Help

[Katiekin]

My ds1 would eat anything as long as it was with mashed potato but ds2 has porridge,ham or peanut butter sandwiches, and fish fingers or chicken with plain pasta and sweetcorn, carrots or broccoli almost every day. He does eat apple or banana but it is so limited and means I usually have to cook him a separate meal. We got him this far with star charts and bribery but he really seems to dislike new foods and although he will taste them, just licks them then demands water to take the taste away. Any ideas?

I have been reduced to a blubbering mess by eating problems once or twice, not very recently (am callous hard old cow now) but I know how it feels.

Thanks all, I'm off to bed now but I'll have a look tomorrow.

'callous hard old cow'
but with a heart of gold....

I would do the following:-

Give him what everyone else is having for every meal (but not huge quantities, just enough). If he eats it fine,and if he does eat it (even just some of it) praise him for that. If not, take it away after a reasonable length of time, but don't make a fuss, just don't give him anything else.

Repeat ad infinitum.

I definitely believe that some children are fussier than others, and with non-fussy children it is very easy. However with fussier ones, I think a calm, consistent approach can lead to them at least trying new things, even if they are never as experimental as some other children.

Another thought - DD has school meals and will try most things with her peers that she shuns at home.

'I like crunchy lettuce at school, but not at home mummy'
So I have capitalised on this by asking her to have a 'brave day' and try one new thing on Sundays. Sweet potato rocks according to DD.

I'm sure I've quoted my mother on here before "It's a parent's rsponsibility to provide appetizing healthy meals. It is not a parent's responsibility to make anyone eat them" Scary but liberating.
I think children have a right to their dislikes - neither of mine like tomatoes, for example, ds doesn't like sauce on his pasta, just cheese, dd doesn't like sprouts and ds doesn't like courgettes. So I don't serve them to them. And ds really really doesn't like anything spicy, so if we're having curry I'll give him something else to have with the rice. But apart from that, there's good food that they can eat or not,as they choose (although even f they don't eat they have to sit at the table with the rest of us) and there's unlimited fruit, raw vegetables and plain wholemeal bread available if anyone's hungry later.

I think 'sour old bitch' must come under the heading of Essential Skills on dinner ladies' job descriptions.

I deal with some who are vile to kids with real issues (Autistic kids) around food,waiting and socialising.

Oi moondog - my mum's a dinner lady

One of the nice ones though

She left a few weeks ago after 20 years to try something different & loads of the (high school) kids were sad to see her go. She couldn't bring herself to tell the sn kids she was going though 'cos she didn't trust herself not to get upset. Fortunately she didn't like the something different so she's starting back after the hols - she's looking forward to it

most dinner ladies were angels, just one who was like Miss Hardbroom from 'The Worst Witch'

I'm going to give some of these things a go. I might put him on school dinners for a week, maybe the dinner ladies will be able to work miracles
Anyway I will put him out the same as us with some veg/pasta as well and stop fussing him.
Thanks very much for all the advice.

Agreed with moondog.