If you have a fussy eater, what WILL they eat?

[BurningBright]

Just curious about the ranges of foods other fussy eaters will actually eat.

My DD ate everything placed in front of her, with gusto and enthusiasm, until she was two. Two and a half years on the list of what she will eat has dwindled to:

Bread
Breadsticks
Pasta (without sauce)
Hummus
Pizza (sometimes, but only cheese and tomato and it has to be fairly light on the tomato)
Cheddar cheese
Soft cheese (Dairylea type cheese)
Fishcakes
Smoked mackerel
Other fish in breadcrumbs (occasionally) but never fish fingers
Weetabix (without milk)
Porridge
Yogurt/fromage frais
Quite a few fruits - mango, banana, strawberries, apples, pears, cherries.

NO vegetables at all. She just won't try them. Even though brussels sprouts and broccoli were huge favourites when she was tiny.

She has small quantities of chocolate, cakes, biscuits etc every now and again. But she often leaves them only half eaten. She just isn't very interested in food.

Written down like that, the list actually looks longer than I expected. But it's still very restricted.

What will your fussy DC eat?

bread (white)
plain walkers crisps
oatcakes
salad - cucumber, red pepper, spring onion
veg - carrots and broccoli
fruit - apples, bananas, satsumas, grapes
double gloucester cheese
yoghurts (smooth only)
marmite
as of this week wafer thin ham

and rarely has
chocolate
some biscuits
some sweets
occasionally chips but he's really fussy about them

he's 6yo

my 14 year old stepson will only eat

carrots , iceberg lettuce , grapes , apples

bread . only a spoon full or rice or pasta . no potatoes .

nothing wet , that's no soup , stew , pasta sauce , curry , gravey, tinned beans etc , shepherds pie , pie etc .

he eats certain pizza . and most meat . cheese that's it .

Ds (10) eats:

Pasta (no sauce)
Ready salted crisps
Fish
Chips
Sausages
Cheese & tomato pizza

And that's about it at the moment.

bread (only the really cheap sliced stuff, never the yummy stuff from the bread machine)
breadsticks (occassionally)
apple
garlic stuffed olives
salami/pepperoni
baked beans
mayonnaise
chips
batter from fish in batter
sometimes pasta/rice/couscous
hoola hoops
twiglets
soya yoghurts (smooth only) - he has a dairy allergy

he's nearly 3.

Dd is 8 and she eats:

Bread/toast with butter or choc spread
Dry cereal
Cheese sandwiches (reluctantly)
Pasta with olive oil (a sprinkle of cheese if I can get away with it)
Rice
Couscous
Noodles
Plain chicken
Plain beef or lamb (dry, no sauce)
Salmon
Sausages

She drink milk, water, apple juice and lots of Innocent smoothies

What do you all do about your fussy eaters? I'm still trying to work out the best way forward. How do you know if it's just fussiness that they'll eventually outgrow or if there is a more deep-rooted problem?

We are seeing a clinical psychologist about ds2's eating (or lack of). Basically working on the basis of give him what he will eat and otherwise ignore. I realise this may not be the same for an older child, but at least it does more or less get us through mealtimes without major fuss (good for ds2 and for me).

Dancergirl - I've come to the conclusion that as long as DD is growing and alert and healthy (which she is) I shouldn't worry too much.

I've tied all sorts of things to encourage her to eat a wider variety of foods, from reward charts when she does try new things to being quite firm that she doesn't have to eat it if she doesn't want to, but there'll be no thing else until the next meal. She really isn't that interested in food though. Speaking as someone who loves good food and who was basically a greedy child, I find this quite hard to fathom! But even when she's eating something she really likes, she stops as soon as she is no longer hungry.

I have a horribly fussy 9yr old. I thought I had tried everything, but someone suggested instead of asking my dd if she liked xxx to ask her how much she liked xxx, 1 being loving it and 5 being hating it. It hasn't fixed things overnight, BUT it is breaking down her all or nothing approach to food.

I am a reasonable person, so if it gets a 5 she doesn't have to eat it, and 1's or 2's we eat frequently. I did have to call her on it at first because everything was either 1 or 5. But she's got used to it now and is being a lot more reasonable about her eating habits.

a few weeks ago I wrote down everything she ate or drank and there were only 20 things on it, then she went off 3 of them the next week, and everything she ate had to be cooked perfectly eg, no crispy bits on chicken.

My 2.6 year old eats no vegetables at all, nothing with sauce, no pasta, no meat / fish except fishfingers, sausages & sometimes meatballs / chicken nuggets.

He eats bready stuff, fruit, yoghurts etc. Omelettes too but no other eggs.

Recently we decided enough is enough & for 10 days now we've gone down the 'this is the family meal, eat it if you want, if not that's it until next snack/meal' route. Frankly, it feels liberating! We haven't seen huge results yet, but DS did try half a freshly made salmon fishcake which I was delighted with. He also had quite a few roast potatoes yesterday (which he would have refused previously). So I'm hopeful, & I am now wondering whether the fact that I was catering to his preferences meant he ended up even more fussy?

my 2:5dd is a picky eater with fruit&veg&wont try any new foods at all!
eats
baked beans
some sweetcorn sometimes!
cherry toms(but wont touch the big ones)
cucumber
celery
lettuce sometimes
roast pots
roast parsnips(only cuz she thinks theyre roast pots!)
grapes
apple sometimes(but not cut up)
raisins

chips
waffles
wedges
bread(br&w)
cheese
sausages
fish fingers
garlic sausage
skips
wotsits
marmite
choc spread
honey
raspberry jam
weetabix(but wont try the new choc ones!)
rice krispies
cornflakes
coco pops
crackers
pickle
heinz farmers market lamb&root veg soup!(but if i do homemade stew with same stuff in she wont touch it)

18mo only eats:

Ready Brek
Most fruit (but seems to have gone off strawberries since last summer )
Babybel and occasionally ordinary cheddar
Philadelphia cheese
Bread/toast
Fishcakes (Cod or Salmon)
Fishfingers
Sausages
Chicken goujons
Meatballs (but seems to have gone off them recently)
Sweet potato
Butternut squash
Yoghurts
Breadsticks and crisp-type snacks
Anything sweet at all

No pasta. No rice. No sauces. No ordinary potato. No other veg. If I put eg broccoli or cherry tomato on his plate he immediately gives it back to me (which is quite cute but utterly frustrating).

Ds1 4.9 will only eat:

Pasta with pesto or tomato sauce (unless he spots veg hidden in the sauce, then he rejects it out of hand)
Crappy ham ('thin ham' as he calls it)
Philadeliphia
Smoked salmon
Smoked salmon pate
Pancakes
Scambled eggs
Other pate occasionally
Baked beans occasionally
Breadsticks
Weetabix
Oatibix
Fruit squeeze tubes
Yoghurts
Strawberries
Very, very occasionally a banana
Bread but only one type
Bagels

My sister was a fussy eater and ate:
hotdogs
applesauce
crisps
ice cream
peanut butter sandwiches on plain white soft bread with strawberry jam
pasta with non-red sauce (alfredo/4 cheese)
cheese pizza
vanilla/white cake
ranch dressing

sometimes you could get her to try things if she was allowed to put ranch dressing on it...

My mother who had 5 children at this point all of whom had their own likes and dislikes started telling her if she didn't want what she made then she had to make herself something else (she was 6...my mother was very harried working PT and going to school PT too as well as having us kids She actually never followed thru, she always ended up boiling up a hotdog for her or making her a sandwich)

Some of your fussy eaters are quite adventurous compared to mine :o

He will eat:
cereal (is actually okay about trying different kinds)
toast/bread - with peanut butter or philly only
spinach & ricotta tortellini with pesto/philly (but no other kinds of pasta)
frubes/fromage frais/muller crunch corners
apples
bananas
pears
chips
sweetcorn
fishfingers
chicken fingers

That's it. He's nearly 4 :(

ds (3.5) eats...

pasta (will tolerate some sauces, depends on mood, but has eaten tomato sauces and cheese sauces)
Pizza very occasionally
Sweetcorn
Peas
Raw carrots (not cooked)
Bread - wholemeal, has never had white bread
toast with butter and nutella or jam
cheese sandwiches
breadsticks
philadelphia
some fruit - apples, bananas, grapes, satsumas, pineapple
raisins
crisps
chips, oven or homemade in the oven (won't eat potatoes, insists chips are made of something else )
tomato ketchup
fishfingers
chicken nuggets
Occasionally ham, if he's in the mood.
cheese (babybels and cheddar only)
yoghurts

Looks quite long but tea times are a struggle sometimes. I alternate between pasta and fishfingers/chicken nuggets mostly.

Your DS and mine would be able to eat together HeadFairy. It's a real bloody struggle when he goes to other people's houses normally

haha, fancy coming round for tea tomorrow? When I say ds is a bit fussy people are always very sweet and say oh don't worry, we'll do something simple like sausages and mash, but ds won't eat either. I think they think I'm a terrible mother to tolerate such fussiness.

We'd love to :o

And yyy to the sausages and mash thing. I've had people proudly say 'well I've done hotdogs as all children love them'. Err not mine :(

Headfairy your list is also identical to what my DS1 will eat!

Pasta no sauce
Smiles/jacket wedges
Yorkshire pudding
corn on the cob but not sweetcorn kernels
peas, carrots
bread
ham, pork, sometimes chicken
cucumber tomatoes
fruit
gravy
sausages
fish fingers
baked beans
jacket potatoes

My 2.7 year old will only eat:

cereal (cornflakes, honey nut cornflakes-without milk
pasta without sauce
cucumber
bread/toast-without filling/marg
apples
bananas-only sometimes
grapes-as above
pears-as above
rice-without sauce
raisins
yogurt-only smooth
milk roll
chips
pizza-only sometimes
rice cakes
sweetcorn crisps things

and will only drink juice, sometimes water and formula milk. Sigh...

He used to eat almsot everything I made him..

cereal
peanut butter sandwich or bagel, but no other kind
rice cakes with peanut butter
fish fingers
sausages
beans
pasta- plain or with a tomatoey sauce with no bits or onions or herbs etc
rice-ditto plain
cheese
crabsticks
bananas
pears
tangerines
tinned peaches
anything sweet.

no potatoes, no vegetables, no bits, he's lactose free too.

We'll have to have have a mass picky eater tea one day soon then, Meg can bring the pizza, I'll bring the pasta and Ladybiscuit can bring the, erm... babybels? :o

I honestly don't know how ds manages to be so energetic sometimes. He can't have more than a 100 calories some days! (ok slight exaggeration)

I will bring babybels and laughing cow cheese with breadstick dippers

This thread has made me feel a lot better. I feel such an utter failure for having a child that eats bugger all. He just doesn't eat unless his tummy is rumbling. He has a smartie egg that he's eaten about 1/3 of sitting around and he hasn't touched it in days.

Clearly hasn't inherited my glutton gene :o

Cereal (rice krispies, corn flakes, anything crunchy)
Bananas
pears
Grapes
Egg Mayo
Tuna mayo
Yogurt/fromage frais
Pizza
Omelette
Sandwiches
Toast with jam/Nutella/philly
Baked Potato with cheese/tuna
Frozen smoothie sticks
Water
Linda McCartney sausages
Peas
Chips (rarely has them)
Crisps, biscuits and sweets (usually from DP)

If she could live on sandwiches and biscuits, she would. She is nearly 3.