5 year old boy only eating white foods

[FreshHerbs]

Help !!!
My five year old son is a very fussy eater and is currently only eating white foods which include cheese sandwiches, toast, pasta, chips, chicken nuggets, Rice Krispies, yoghurts, sweet corn, garlic bread, etc.

Before the health police attack me it hasn’t always been like this....... over the years he has eaten a normal varied nutritious diet but slowly started unliking most things until we’ve been left with the white/yellow foods.

I have two other children and have no problems with their diet just my son.

I have tried literally everything and am at a loss. We’ve been to my doctor numerous times, nutritionists and various health professionals. Nothing has helped.

Even bribery doesn’t help. He will sniff his food first and if doesn’t seem right he will not eat. He has no behavioural problems and he is not overweight/underweight. Very active boy who’s loves the outdoors, he does kick boxing, swimming and football classes so is very fit and energetic. He is doing very well in school and is a popular member of class so not getting bullied or anything like that, he doesn’t suffer with any kind of stress and rarely gets ill, very outspoken and talks to me very openly about if he’s feeling sad or happy.

Just he has a very unhealthy relationship with food which I can’t understand nor cure.

Can anybody relate or can anyone give me any advice or tips, can’t go on like this

I can relate. My daughter was like this. She didn't have a preferred color, just a very short list of things she would eat. She's now 15 and doing much better as far as food variety.

I did some research into the question of why this happens and the best answer came from evolutionary psychology. Everyone has a bias towards eating things you've eaten before because you know they won't make you sick or kill you. In most people, as they grow up reason and curiosity allows them to broaden out to more things, particularly as they see others eat new foods and not get sick. In others, the sense of caution remains stronger.

My son was always a more adventurous eater than my daughter. I think it's also partly a matter of personal temperament. See if you can get your son to take a children's multivitamin. Otherwise I think you are just going to have to wait it out.

I’ve been looking into zinc supplements as seen numerous articles on the net explaining how they can open up the taste buds to more tastier foods. Don’t really want to use my son as a guinea pig but am at a stage where I’ll do anything. My son is already taking a multi vitamin which does contain zinc but have not seen a change.

The loss of taste and appetite is only a problem if he's got a zinc deficiency which he clearly doesn't if it's in his multivitamin. I wouldn't add additional zinc at this point.

I think you're going to have to fall back on watchful waiting, as we say in healthcare.

By the way, my picky eater is now a star rower on her crew team and doing brilliantly in school, so her history as a picky eater doesn't seem to have had a long term negative outcome.

I had a picky eater who would only eat pink food for 2 years then one day just asked for something orange and it didn't bother her again.

Ham, prawns, beetroot, thousand island dressing or beetroot coloured mayo, mash with beetroot in it, only those pink chocolate mice for treats. I had to use pink beetroot/thousand island dressing to cover the bread before she would eat it too.

She would venture to dark pink so rare steak or maybe raspberries occasionally almost red/purple would pass her test of 'pinkness'.

Oddly she refused to wear anything pink, always has and still does . She doesn't wear any 'pink' make up, not blusher or lipstick either.

My nephew was like this from being weaned to his parents splitting when he was 12. His dad had none of it and forced him to eat something other than Pringles at breakfast, cream cheese sandwiches at lunch and chicken nuggets with potato letters (or smiles or other breaded mashed and fried potato product) and apple caprisun to drink. I'm not suggesting his dad went around it the right way, (there's a massive back story to do with autism) but he basically forced the situation with things like telling him there was no apple caprisun anymore, or just leaving him to go hungry. His dad (my bil) is very very old school. What really worked though was his dad telling him you can have a choice of a/b/c but you won't get anything you normally have till you've had a, b or c first. Within 6 months he was eating veg, enjoying roasts, various take outs, curries, salads. It was a real turn around.

Could you buy some food colouring and let him experiment? Maybe if he realises it's fun to eat lots of different colours?

Thanks for all your replies. Seems like it’s not just me going through this. Maybe it’s just a phase. Time will tell. Will update if I come across a system to make him eat.

If he's healthy just ignore it. Make no comment on it. But try not to pander to him too much. At home he can have white cheese on white bread, bananas, the inside of very pale apples etc. But if he's out in a cafe with you and they have no white food, don't let him kick up a fuss. Explain he can ask for milk to drink and a bread roll or choose the palest food they have or wait until he gets home, and that he might get a tummy ache from hunger but he won't starve.

DS2 was incredibly fussy. Now he's not at all. But it took years of me fretting then years of me ignoring it to get him to the point where he began to be adventurous about food.

He's about old enough now for you to explain what different types of food do for your health, and how eating rainbow food makes you strongest and healthiest of all. Then tell him when he's ready to start doing that to let you know. He will eventually.

Beige diet appears to be annoyingly popular with a lot of kids.

So does he eat healthy white foods like apples, bananas and natural yoghurt or is it more of the crap end of the spectrum? IMO the reason this beige/white diet is popular with children is that it is loaded with sugar and sugar is highly addictive. I would be with Annie's BIL but then I am very old school. I can understand if a child has SEN and food/sensory issues but that doesn't sound the case here.

Wait till he gets REALLY hungry.

Regarding your reply timeismovingon my son eats bananas, yoghurts. Apples without skin on. I cook wholesome nutritional meals every night for the family and have no problems with my other two children. Sweets are limited to once a week if kids have completed chores/homework etc. Out of everyone in the household my son probably consumes the most sugar which is due to the white foods. He is the most energetic but he does a lot of after school activities and is enrolled in various sports programmes which he enjoys very much so.

He hasn’t always been like this, month by month, year by year he has slowly disliked all the good stuff and now we are left with the white foods.

I’ve tried cooking foods in various ways, disguising foods in various ways, smoothies, shaping food into letters, shapes etc, even getting him in the kitchen and doing cooking lessons with him, and last of all bribery. We also grow tomatoes and herbs in our garden and he loves helping me tend to them but just won’t eat them.

He sniffs his food first and if all smells well then he will eat, probably his way of determining if mum has hidden something in their

If we are watching television as well he will always take interest in the marks and Spencer’s and lurpak food adverts which ironically show food in all its glory in lovely bursts of colour.

My son is 14 and is like this. Only veg he will eat is sweetcorn, and also carrots but the carrots only in the last couple of years. I stopped stressing over it, because it was actually my problem not his. He is perfectly healthy. He had bloods done for something a few months back and all normal.
He does eat meat though, like chicken (breast meat only) and steak, spag bol and shepard's pie. And a roast dinner - again only coping with gravy on potatoes in recent years. And...breakthrough now eats apples with the skin on.
Mine will eat mashed potato (and chips and potato waffles of course) but no other type of potato. He wouldn't dream of eating anything green, ever.
My son has a very sensitive palate. If I put a teaspoon of honey into something, he can taste it. He also has a very good sense of smell. Think they are called 'supertasters'. He can't help it, born that way and all that.

Sadie9 yes maybe I’ll just stop fretting over his eating habits and let him continue with what he likes. Maybe he will get bored of this crazy diet one day and tuck into a proper meal, if he’s happy I suppose I have to be too. Glad to no it’s not just me going through this, it’s more then I thought.