please HELP ME fussy 4yr old

[savy57]

any ideas/tip etc.. would be much appreciated

as a toddler he eat everything and anything all veg all fruit cheese eggs etc

once he got to 9 months he stopped taking his baby milk but would not touch cows milk hes now nearly 5 and has never in this time drank any milk, as the years seem to go on his food list gets smaller and smaller the only good thing i can say is he loves fruit every kind and eats it by the bucket load but all he will eat for dinner is chicken nuggets

ive tried loads of things today i went to butchers and bought him lovely tomato sausages gave him these with sweetcorn and baby potatoes needless to say he eat the sweetcorn but wont touch anything else, ive tried making things like homemade pizza with him but again he will only put tomato sauce on it and a tin of sweetcorn NO CHEESE and no meat

what else can i try how can i get him to eat other foods he wont even try things he just says he doesnt like them ive tried every bribe in the book nothing works

an idea of what he will eat sweetcorn chicken nuggets homemade pizza fruit yougurts and bread and thats pretty much it, im honestly losing the will to live with this situation its diar have to say i love cooking proper meals and feel guilty while im tucking into a proper dinner n hes having crap :(

I would just feed him what he likes for now, he will eventually get bored and feel like he is missing out. Make out he is eating kids food and one day he will want to eat food that bigger boys and adults eat. Also if u don't feed him snacks between meals he will be more hungry and maybe more willing to try GROWN up food. All kids want to be bigger and grown up, so just keep mentioning how ONE day when HE'S BIGGER he will enjoy other foods and not miss out like he is now. And don't force him. It's a bit like reverse psycology which does work.

It's a while since mine was this age, but it may just be possible that your anxiety is rubbing off on him, making him reluctant to try more stuff. Not particularly helpful, as have no advice as to how to relax, sorry. It sounds like he is getting most food groups, bar vegetables. You've probably tried carrot sticks already... You can make home-made chicken nuggets, if you have time. I suppose if you use fresh chicken, you could make a load, and freeze them. Is there a multi-vitamin for his age from Boots or somewhere, mightd make you feel a bit better? You can get chewy ones IIRC.

many thanks for the responses yeah ive been trying the grown up thing for months telling him he will get big muscels etc if he eats his veg ( he never stops talking bout wanting big muscels lols) but its doesnt work he wont even try any food he just refuses and says he doesnt like it

i only give him homemade chicken nuggets i even made him a chicken burger one day(exact same as nuggetts only diff shape again he refused to eat it because he didnt like it)

and yeah i give him a little multi vitamin but because he eats so much fruit im not really worried about that but i suppose i was just worried because pack lunches are a nightmare and with him starting school also chicken nugetts every night surely cant be good for him can it

If they're home-made they won't do him any harm. Sounds like he'll be fine.

I think it sounds like you are making it worse by being anxious about it and bribing him,bribery is the worst thing to do in that situation,i know its difficult but it really wont work.Te best thing to do is to make him whatever you and dh are eating,dont force him or bribe him to eat it,but dont offer him anything else if he doesnt eat it.Accept that we all have likes and dislikes and that sometimes he may genuinely not like something.Dont make a big deal out of it,kep ofering new and exciting foods,along with some of his favourites,and in time he will grow out of it!

I agree a multivitamin might make you feel better while hes not eating very well.

good luck!

Things that worked for me and fussy DS that age. (He would be purple and howling when faced with a new food. Trauma!)

• Alternating old favourites with new foods.
• Serving up a very small amount of the dish and then ignoring him and leaving him to it i.e. not asking 'do you like it', bribing, threatening, disguising it etc. etc.
• Removing the dish if he doesn't like it, not making any fuss but not offering alternatives. Big praise for trying something new.
• Inviting other children around for picnic-type buffet teas featuring lots of tasty bits and pieces. Other children merrily eating different things made him want to join in
• (Similar) Inviting the human dustbin 'try anything' kid round for tea and praising them for being so adventurous. (DS was wildly jealous when this happened) :)
• (Similar) Sending him to someone else's house for tea. Often came back raving about something they'd eaten and why couldn't we have it.
• Keep offering dishes over and over again. This makes them become familiar.
• Separate the elements e.g. Shepherds Pie becomes mashed potato, beef and carrots rather than all together. Don't know why this worked.

DS is now 12 and we're still doing a lot of the above although the list of favourites is now a lot longer and he's a lot less fussy about new flavours.
Good luck.

So the problem is that you are bored cooking the same things for him? Ok, it isn't the widest range but it covers the main food groups. DS (just 5) also has a very restricted diet. I would love to be able to cook beautiful meals for him, but he won't eat it, so I make what he likes and hopefully one day he'll decide to have something different. (And DS is another who just has tomato on his homemade pizza. Sometimes he'll put some pepparoni on it but will pick that off before eating. )

What does he have for lunch now? Fruit, yogurt and bread doesn't sound all that bad. Will he have anything on his bread? DS has had chocolate spread on his sandwiches every day this year. Or cold pizza maybe?

My top tip is to give tiny tiny portions of something new eg just one or two slices of the sausages you bought him for example.
It might stimulate the appetite (so he eats more) and it's not too daunting for him, after all he's only got to eat such a small amount for you to be happy!

thanks for the replys i think mabe im making things sound worse than they are when i say i bribe him i just mean i say friendly if u atleast try this we can do such and such if he says no i just leave it, ive seen on programms when parents force feed their children or indeed coz an all out war at dinner times because their children dont eat its nothing like that in my house, i just ment for me personaly away from ds i was worrying a bit about what hes eating, reading all the replies im guessing i was worried about nothing but i never showed ds any of this worry
we sit down at the table just me and ds every dinner time i just feel guilty sitting down to a different dinner every night while hes eating chicken nuggets again but will for sure try all suggestions above

and at lunch time just now and for the last 2 years while at nursery his packlunches have been sandwiches sometimes he asks for meat on these he will however take the meat off before eating the bread and butter and because he loves all fruit i just full up his box with different kinds of fresh and dried fruit and a yougurt sometimes a little tub of jelly but again i dont make any fuss about this its what ive made him for years but away from ds i was conserned because he wont even try foods but also if im honest what nursery teachers must think because he has the same thing every single day

my DD was a very fussy eater, she is now 5 and is so much better. Not sure if I have anything to do with it, I think it's just because she's older.

I used to give her a plate of food with at least one thing I knew she'd eat, and not look at her when she ate, just did the dishes or something. But if I saw her try something new, even a lick, I'd make a big fuss. (and did a reward chart thing)

Try to get him to help you prepare stuff. Sometimes even handling the food can be a step forward.

Don't worry about what the nursery staff think, honestly.

You may find that once he starts school he will eat better (this didn't happen with DD though but I've heard a lot of people say it's true)

Really, the only thing that is guaranteed to work is to put food, any food, in front of him, in very small (which can be tricky to get right - start with just one bite's worth) amounts, and then back off. Praise him each time he tries something new, but don't worry if he doesn't (i.e., don't punish him and don't bribe him), don't offer him anything else and don't stop feeding it to him at other times, regardless of whether he eats it or not. Don't rack your brain and work yourself into a frenzy trying to figure out what to give him - start with what you'd like to eat yourself - no matter how "grown-up" it sounds! Give him the "proper dinner" you make yourself. And I agree with PP - don't worry about the nursery. Let DS continue to eat what's familiar when he's away from home, but give him more variety when he is with you.

Every time I see this query in MN, I think/say the same thing - He will not starve. Kids always eat when they are hungry, and if they are hungry and the only food on offer is something they "don't like", they will eat it. If they don't eat it's because they're not hungry - full stop. As I have said before, kids go through growth spurts and growth slowdowns, both of which naturally have an impact, either positive or negative, on their appetites. As adults who have finished growing (well, upwards, anyway!) that's hard for us to remember to factor in. Your DS may push away today something he gobbled up last week, most likely because his growth has slowed down and maybe that food wasn't ever really high on his "pleasure list", but he ate it last week because he was so hungry and this week he feels he can do without it. It's easy to panic that he is becoming fussy, but keep calm and keep offering it. The next time he is really hungry he will eat it. The more he eats it the more familiar it becomes and the higher it goes on the "pleasure list".

And one final thing: DS sees right through your "try everything" approach, and he's worked out that the more you "try", the more attention he gets. It's so painful to think of him going through a mealtime not having eaten ANYTHING, but he can't do that for a full day - he just can't. You're absolutely spot on to want him to eat a variety of foods, and it CAN be done without aggro.

Good luck!