What do your DCs really eat?

[TheMightyToosh]

DD (3.10) seems to only like REALLY basic stuff: crackers, cheese, fruit, yoghurts, bit of salad (toms/cucumber), backed pots, the odd mini pizza, fish (plain), pasta, etc.

If I try to mix things up with a cottage pie or anything with chunks of veg, pulses, or rice (oooh adventurous!), she refuses it.

Is this normal, or a reflection of my poor abilities in the kitchen? I'm worried that by pandering to her and giving her only the things I know she likes, she will grow up with a very limited diet.

Or might she grow out of it and venture towards a minestrone soup one day?

Incidentally, DS (1) eats anything. Boy thing?

Totally normal (I hope) you've basically described my DDs (3.1) diet almost exactly. Except she won't even eat pizza as it apparently has 'too much flavour'. Aagh. My DS (1) eats blimmin' anything and has restored my faith in my abilities to cook edible fare.

My 2 year ld is the same, so I tend to give him half a plate of what he likes and half a plate of what everyone else is having. He does try things this way, but we are yet to have a clean plate.

Dd aged 4 will not touch sandwiches, cheese, pizza, mash, pasta, salad oh I could go on and on.

She loves Fish fingers, chips, tuna (steaks or tinned) carrots, peas (no other veg unless its blitzed) Will eat shepherds/cottage pie as long as you take off the potato, so effectively its just mince.

I am hoping its something she grows out of this soon, she will be full time at school come September and will have a packed lunch, She cant take cold dry toast now can she? :o

mine will eat anything, really

clearly they've inherited the greedy genes

am not being smug - i think it's a bit odd, tbh... most dc are fussy but they'll scoff most things from the shite to the exotic

Bah. ds2 (4.0) was always quite a good eater but over the last few weeks he's become impossible. There is now practically nothing he says he likes. Except puddings/biscuits, obviously.

We've just today added eggs, hummous and pizza to the list of 'I've gone offs'. I'm hoping it's just a phase and he'll sort it out soon once he realises that he'll get a bit hungry if he refuses, like, everything.

Coffee, my neighbour's DD was similar and when she started school this year the school advised her to send her DD for school lunches every day. She very quickly got less picky . I'm thinking of taking the same approach with ds2 if he doesn't get his act together before he starts school August.

Dd1 is very fussy, will eat fruit but not veg, loves cheese, hates most hot foods, wont touch anything in a sauce/gravy, nothing mushy(mash), nothing too dry and nothing green, she lives on pizza .

Dd2 will eat anything appart from oranges and berries.

My 2 yr old eats pretty much anything. Spicy food, strong flavours (garlic,herbs etc), any fish/meat and almost all fruit and veg. The only things I have found she won't eat are kiwi and raw tomato.

My 5 yr old is quite fussy and likes plain food - no 'bits' (garlic, onion, herbs), fussy about sauces, nothing spicy, only likes chicken and processed meat (sausages, ham etc). Fussy about a lot of veg and some fruit.
He was verging on phobic at about 2/3 yrs old, and for about a year survived on sausages, spaghetti hoops, yoghurt and grapes .

There is a wide range of 'normal', imo.

Midnight, we are on a tightish budget and Ds 10 will be going up to Comp, its going to cost me a fortune in school dinners isn't it!
Dd's is £1.85 per day and Ds will need at least £3 in bus fare (30p each way) and dinner money! ARGHHH

I know, it all adds up, doesn't it? Maybe you could do it just for a few weeks at the start? That's what I thought I might do - try it for a month and then let him have some packed lunches.

God I sound like a right cow.

ds, now 16 had a phase like this between about 3.5 and 4.5. he now he anything and everything.

lots of his friends were the same i seem to remember, so in my experience it is probably only temporary

please insert eats into 2nd sentence!!

DS (8) will eat everything, except overboiled vegetables.

DD(23mo) used to eat everything, but now is in the fussy stage. She won't eat most vegetables, except broccoli, potaotes and green beans. Loves apples, pears, raisins, avocado, eggs, porridge, roast meat and smoked salmon. Sometimes she'll eat everything, sometimes will barely touch it (like tonight-she had maybe 7 pieces of penne pasta, one tiny bit of beef stew, pear and a glass of milk).

Not at all midnight, sounds like a good plan to me, I will ask whether she can do that! Thanks!
She will eat fruit all day long, chooses that over chocolate, wont eat sweets at all, so maybe I will send her to school with dry crackers and fruit haha poor pickles! :O

Do you have to choose one or the other Coffee? We can mix and match packed/school/home lunches. Hadn't thought it might be difficult if you have to choose one or the other.

Phew - thanks for the replies, sounds like she's about normal.

Marne - snap on the 'hates most hot foods'. Aren't they strange

I was worried but now feel normal (MN is sooo good for that)!

I often rely on 'meat and two veg' type meals where the veg are steamed or microwaved (often leftover from our meal the night before) and the protein is often fish or fish fingers or pate or ham. So for lunch it could be pate or ham with chopped red pepper, carrot, cucumber and a few breadsticks; supper might be fish or sausages with green beans and peas. The other thing she loves are omelettes, which I tend to do with spinach and mushrooms, and cheese.

'Mixed together' things she likes include: spag bol, pasta and pesto (I put peas in or broccoli), pasta with fried onions, sweetcorn and frankfurters, pasta with broccoli and garlic cream; veg stir-fry (usually carrot, broccoli, mushroom and red pepper) with noodles or rice; rice with things stirred in eg sweetcorn, peas and snippets of ham (sometimes with an egg stirred and cooked in to make egg-fried rice).

I don't have an oven so there are a lot of roast / baked type foods that she has never been exposed to. I am getting one soon though and plan to bombard her with home-made pizza, pies and roast veg til she submits to them. She isn't a fan of potatoes unless they're chips - I'd really like to change that.

Part of the problem for me is that I tend to eat low-carb so can't quite work up the enthusiasm for making, say, a risotto, knowing that it's only for her and she may not eat it. With the new kitchen I intend to become a lot more adventurous!

(NB I've found condiments to be very helpful. DD loves soy sauce which I put on stir-fries, and sometimes rice. I tend not to give her ketchup as then that's all she eats. She also likes butter and mayo and mustard if it isn't strong. We also treat parmesan as a condiment - she will eat almost any pasta if it's drenched in that.)

Meant to say DD is a bit younger than yours.

Midnight, sorry I went to bed!
They are funny with regards to changing over, So I will go in today when I take her to nursery and find out. Would be great if they can allow her to do that though! Thanks for the tip!

thereistheball - thank you, there a loads of ideas in your repertoire (sp?) that I will try out. DD will probably start by stripping the red peppers off the tope but I will persevere until she grows out of this stage!

top, not tope!