Is there such a thing as a child who cheerfully eats whatever you put in front of her / him?

[YunoYurbubson]

My children are 2 and 4. I don't think of them as particularly fussy, and they eat a wide range of things.

But OH for a meal time where they didn't peer suspiciously at whatever is on their plate. Or announce they don;t like it before trying it. Or asking for ketchup.

My dream is "That looks nice mum!" "Thanks mum, may I please get down?"

Possibly with a little jovial conversation or anecdotes about our day thrown in.

Does this exist?

Or has everyone had to ban the words yuck, disgusting and eurrrgh from the dinner table?

My 6yo will eat virtually anything that is put in front of her, in whatever portion size she's given. She's not keen on salami or smoked salmon, but anything else disappears pdq.

Of my other two one doesn't like mediterranean vegetables (courgette, aubergine, peppers) and the other doesn't like curry (as in it makes him actually be sick, which is a bit of a downer). Apart from that most things are fair game, though they do have their particular favourites.

I think you need to stamp on the 'yuk' and 'eurgh' noises though -- it's really rude, completely unnecessary and a major social disadvantage not to be able to deal with facing down food you don't particularly like. I say to mine, "If you don't want to eat it that's fine, just leave it quietly at the side of your plate. We don't all need to hear about what you don't like, it's really not that interesting."

My eldest eats anything, dd is a bit more fussy and always has been. My youngest is getting better but gets away with more than the others but has surprised me by asking for apricots and dates the last two days.

This is very interesting. Ds is 18 mths and up until now would give pretty much anything a go and surprise us with the sheer volume he'd eat. Suddenly he seems to be eating barely anything (he's nit teething or Ill). I have been persisting with just giving him whatever we all are having and if he doesn't eat much not offering anything else or even encouraging him. But just this evening I had a wobble and wondered if I should be making an effort to get him to eat more or if it'd be counterproductive and just perpetuate his new fussiness?

I really hope he grows out of it nancydrew - we had dinner together a few weeks ago and had pretty much the same thing and, apart from a few moues, he ate it (grilled pork chops, sauteed potatoes, carrots).

We have just moved house though which is really stressful for him so I'm not pushing variation at the moment

DS (8) eats everything- the only thing he cannot stand are overcooked vegetables.

DD(21mo) is going through a fussy phase at the mo- but will eat most things- not keen on vegetables, though, except broccoli.

I think what helped was that they were weaned onto the food that we ate. Also I've never tolerated any 'yuck' etc with DS.

Mine always ate nearly everything.
DD doesn't like mushrooms.
DS doesn't like courgettes. That's it really.

They attracted attention at one Christmas meal when DD said 'It's not fair, he's got more sprouts than me."

I didn't do anything special, just served up dinner and they ate it.

Just read winnybella's post. I agree, I weaned onto our food, not jars or fine purees.

I used to (almost) have one - his list of "don't likes" was limited to pineapple and cream.

It's a LOT longer now, and his general glass half empty view of the world seems to extend to food.

..and the other one always starts from a position of assuming she won't like it, unless it is chocolate based (she does eat almost everything, but not without question, sadly)

I have a 'try anything' child with only a very few things she isn't keen on (tomatoes and honey.) I think some children are easier than others though - I know some very down to earth sensible parents who have always given their kids nice home made food....but have fussy kids. Why? Who knows....

I think one of the factors is that she has always been a good weight (quite big baby and bf/gained weight well.) I have never had a worry about her gaining weight, so on the few occasions she tried the 'I don't want it/wont eat it' I had no worries about saying breezily 'ok, you can get down then', without rushing to offer alternatives. I am not a complete fierce parent - if she consistently says she is not keen on something (like tomatoes..) then I don't keep trying to 'make' her eat them.

My dd nearly 6 used to be very fussy, now she will eat most things, not everything but she is always open to trying new foods.
My ds 3 years old on the other hand has recentely become very very fussy, I am hoping this is just a faddy stage as I can't stand it any longer .

I'm trying to teach ds1 that you are allowed to lie about dinner. We're working on "ooh, that looks delicious but I'm just not hungry" - as an alternative to bursting into tear and running away to hide. He is 5.5, and chooses to go hungry until visibly losing weight, rather than sit breathing in the smell of something he considers disgusting.

He was weaned onto real food, since he refused to eat anything off a spoon - food refusal started early! Actually, it started with throwing up milk.

My niece, otoh, would eat the carpet if you let her.

It would be boring if they were all the same, wouldn't it?

It sure would, dinner time would be easier though .

I think it's entirely down to their personality-
I have 1 that eats anything and everything - and will always try everything, even if she then decides she'll not have any more, and 1 that eats nothing, I struggle to get even bananas or porridge into him some days, and those are the 2 things he actually likes.

That said- the one who eats doesn't sleep, the one that doesn't eat will sleep any time any place... so it's all swings and roundabouts really.

Yep - my DD (17 months).

I just think she was born like that. Brilliant feeder too when she was a baby, right from the off.

Think its a cycle too - if you have a baby/kid who feeds/eats well, then on the occasions they don't eat so much you just don't have any emotion about it.

My DD was born at about the 60th centile and hasn't budged for 18 months. So if she leaves some of her food I really don't worry about it.

My godson on the other hand was always dropping off the charts so his mum was always worried if he didn't eat, as I woudl have been in that situation.

Mine eat most things. It was Thai Red curry yesterday and when DS2 asked and was told what it was he said 'yessss!' very enthusiastically.

DS1 has said, on being offered chips for dinner once 'I don't really like chips, can we have something else?' but I don't cook chips often at all, so maybe that's why?

There are a few things they aren't so keen on, DS2 wasn't a huge sprout fan, but I always put a few on his plate and not he quite likes them. I have never forced them to sit and eat something but they are very aware I expect them to at least try new things.

Mind, maybe I have stange children as they love moules marinier and in fact all shellfish, including oysters and things like olives too.