Limited diet and won't try new things

[dakirk]

Please has anyone any ideas?

My 4 year old has a very limited diet mainly tinned spagetti shapes, spagetti shapes and sausages, chicken nuggets, carrots, potatoes, carrots, dry bread, home made spagetti bolognaise, occasionally baked beans and coco pops. She eats all the "junk food", crisps, biscuits, McDonalds, sweets etc. She doesnt seem to be unhealthy and seems to be in proportion height / weight wise.

I have tried bribing her to try new things, shouting, ignoring, cutting out snacks and drinks between meals. How can i get there to try new things, I wouldnt mind if she tried things and didnt like them but she won't even try new things. Has anyone got any ideas or experienced the same. Please dont suggest Ananbel Karmel cheese hedghogs - been there done that !!! Any help gratefully received

Are you sure it's not my ds your describing? He is 3 3/4 and his eating habits are as bad as your dd,he will only eat fish fingers,chips,potato waffles but not potatoes,yoghurt,bread and butter,chicken nuggetsor chicken o's.He too seems to be totally healthy and in proportion height/weight wise.Just like your dd he won't try anyhting even if only to say he doesn't like them,ive tried all the same things as yourself.His older brother eats perfectly sprouts,broccoli everything but if i so much as put anything untoward on his plate he has an absolute fit.So im sorry that i cant offer any advice but i take great comfort in knowing im not the only one.Good luck ,if you find anything that works pass it on PLEASE!

Can I just tell you that my son is living proof that you can get to the ripe old age of 14, and reach 6'1" in height by eating an even more limited diet than that!! He ate only fromage frais (only petit filous - everything else had 'bits' in it!) plain bread, toast and marmite, and minced beef with rice very occasionally at Grandma's. I actually would have been pleased if my son had eaten what your daughter does!! I don't think a vegetable beyond a potato or a fruit beyond apple mush at 6 months has ever passed his lips, so imagine my shock when my neighbour told me over Christmas that he had eaten pork steaks with caramalised apricots at her house!!! Don't worry about it, just keep offering new things and take them away if she doesn't like it and don't get in a state about it!

PS: just found some pasta that looks like large grains of rice which he will eat with quorn made like bolognese - this week, but next week, who knows?!.

He will NOT touch baked beans or spagetti hoops at all!!

Can I ask a question... do your children eat on their own or with you at a dinner table ? If they can see food as a social activity and hear others delighted with other foods your child is likely to be more tempted. Also, don't make a fuss... if you give her something that she won't eat, you can tell her : fine.... it's a shame because it's really good (maybe eat it yourself then) and let her get on with what she wants to eat. If she is regularely offered healthy food she might slowly take it up.
Does she eat fruits ? If you could slowly introduce fruits as snacks rather than cookies, it will be a start...

dakirk, my ds is the same (3yrs and 9mths)he eats only spagetti bolognese and fish fingers and is healthy and developing normally. Dont worry! Christopher Green is excellent on this in Toddler Taming by the way. I used to get worried about the limited diet until I read his chapter on Eating. Imagine someone trying to make you eat something you dont like the look of!

Kia, You made me laugh talking of your ds. My ds is now 9 ,tall for his age ,top of his class in his summer exams and as healthy as an ox. Absolutly never ill! And he does all this on a diet of waffles and smilie faces.
OK he will also eat the odd fish finger and bread. He eats fruit and yoghurt and has conflakes for breakfast. He will also eat chips and Mcdonalds but that is about it.

Every christmas I pray he will sit down and eat a proper dinner with us but no . He tucks into waffles instead.

what you mean he may never grow out of this bizarre diet and will still be doing it when he is a teenager,god help me,lol

Dakirk, Oh I'm so glad I'm not the only one, my dd aged 4 is exactly the same just delete Spagetti bolognaise and add roast chicken and you are describing her to a tee. When she eats with friends we try encouraging her to eat what they are and she just says 'no thank you if they like it they can have mine too!' argh!!
Anyway can't offer any advise just moral support.

My tall, teenage, muscly son has never had a day off school for illness and never even gets a cold (he was breastfed, mind!). He has always been very picky, and when he was little he said 'I don't eat anything red or green' which rules out all virtually all vegetables and fruits except banana, pear and potato (which he only ever eats mashed - hates chips, can you believe it). He does drink fruit juice. We have always eaten together as a family, and I rarely make anything special for him - now he's older if he doesn't want what everyone else is having he makes his own. He will eat bits of what we eat and fills up on bread and butter. When I think about what he does eat, he doesn't go short of anything, as I imagine he makes up his vitamin quotient in the little fruit he does have, and the fruit juice.

Dakirk, your dd's diet sounds fine. Everything she needs is there.

Socially, it's a nuisance when one of your family refuses to eat 'normally' but that's all it is - a nuisance. When we eat out (usually Italian), my son has a pizza but they hold the tomato : ). If we go somewhere else he has a steak, and, um, that's it, unless there is mash on the menu.

I can promise you, there are far more things worth fighting over than food - and fighting and pressurising never does any good at all!

Oh I forgot, he will eat Yorshire Pudding and gravy - I knew my genetic heritage would have to come out somewhere!! But, do you have yours on its own with gravy or all together with your meal?! When my Dad was taken up north to meet t'relatives for t'first time, tha knows - on being served his Yorkshires and gravy separately he got up and took his plate to the kitchen when he'd finished because he thought that was it!! Funny chaps these southerners, y'know! The other thing he faced down the Pub was 'there's a fella here from Chelsea, you might know him'!!

Kia, Hailing originally from the Midlands (which is up North to most of my Southern friends) my Grandmother used to serve us Yorkshire Pudding with homemade Blackberry vinegar as a pudding and I loved it!

Thanks everyone - I know its a cliche but it does make you feel better if you know there are others out there experiencing the same.

Just to update she probably eats 70 percent of her meals with someone else at the table, unfortunately, I dont eat meat, my husband is often either away with work or late so its not unusual for me to be cooking 3 or 4 meals at different times !!!! - if there are any vacancies for fast food chefs - let me know, I have the training !!!!!!!!!

Also, another big worry - packed lunches. At the moment she has plain bread sandwiches (I'm surprised nursery have not sent round social services), which i have cut into many fun shapes and she still doesnt eat them ( Oh for Ananbel Karmels knack !) - what do other people do ????

Yes Viv! My Grandma used to serve Yorkshires with golden syrup or sometimes heavy clotted cream or both! And I wonder why I was a big strappin' Yorkshire Lass!! (it's less of the lass these days, but I'm still strapping, more's the pity.) sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread! Tonight, mummy's little soldier ate half a tesco's chocolate trifle and has gone out to play hockey. I should worry!

Yes Viv! My Grandma used to serve Yorkshires with golden syrup or sometimes heavy clotted cream or both! And I wonder why I was a big strappin' Yorkshire Lass!! (it's less of the lass these days, but I'm still strapping, more's the pity.) sorry didn't mean to hijack the thread! Tonight, mummy's little soldier ate half a tesco's chocolate trifle and has gone out to play hockey. I should worry! Oh by the way, he hasn't a single filling in his mouth! So I don't know what the dietician would say about it!

sorry my machine cut out half way through!

Can anyone offer some advice on how to introduce a healthier diet for my 10 year old? He eats mainly 'fast food' chips, chicken nuggets, fish fingers etc as well as most fruits. I am not worried about the nutritional aspect so much (he is rarely ill and has healthy teeth etc,) however he is putting on weight which seems hard to shift and he has raised the fact that he feels that he is bigger than his friends.

Hi mills. My ds is 9yrs old and also v fussy. I have posted below what he eats which mainly consists of potatoe smilies waffles fish fingers and fruits. Although this list mey get smaller as he has just announced tonight that his potatoe smilies have changed shape slightly(so therefore taste different} and he doent want them anymore.
I DESPAIR.
He will though also eat chips sausage and macdonalds quite happily but we limit this till weekends.
He too is v healthy and never ill and top of his class so I have stopped worrying,
Its funny though cos every time I have tried him with vitamins he gets the runs and sore tummy even though I have been v careful with the dosage.
I guess he gets everything he needs from his limited diet.
I have to admit he does not have a weight problem though and is tall and slim but he is v active too.
All i can suggest is trying to limit the junk foods to one day a week and sticking to your guns by serving him a healthy alternative the reat of the time.
Perhaps he could choose the healthy foods.
But stick to your guns as he wont starve to death especially if he a little large already.
Also try encouraging to keep active perhaps swimming classes or a football club.
You will be doing him a big favour by doing this and remember your not being cruel by serving him something healthy your helping him.

It is good to know that there are so many fussy eaters out there. L is 21/2 and has a very limited diet. I have learned to be more patient and stop shouting!! and it does make a difference - sometimes. My main problem now is the length of time it takes her to eat anything - even the things she likes! This makes it really difficult trying to get out of the house in the morning or getting ready for bed at a decent time. Any suggestions on speeding her up. She always seems to end up eating cold food, and this surely can't help her general enjoyment of food!

My daughter is 21 months and will barely eat two spoonfuls of breakfast, hardly touch lunch and a couple of mouthfuls of her dinner. As soon as I try to put her in the booster seat, she stiffens up her body, cries and shakes her head. The HV says that it is a phase and will pass, but she has always been like this.

Also, she has no interest in feeding herself so I feed her, just for her to eat something. She will eat finger foods. What can I do to get her to eat more?

Meadow - I have been through what you are going through now, when dd was between 12 and about 18 months old. At one time she existed purely on dry cereal which I left lying around in bowls because that is the only way she would eat anything. My only advice is to leave the booster seat and eat elsewhere, anywhere, until the phase passes. We have even eaten in the bathroom!

Loopster - dd has now graduated into what you are going through, at the age of 27 mths. She will attempt things now, but a mouthful can sit there (in her mouth) for 10 mins plus. I think she often eats rather than see me 'cross' as she calls it. I know the theory, have read all the books, and I should take it away after 20 mins max, but it is hard to do when you worry that they eat enough.

Sorry, no wonderful answers but its good to know she isn't alone!

Meadow, I agree about getting rid of the booster seat and eat anywhere at all. When my daughter was around a year old she almost stopped eating altogether and we just let her snack where and when she wanted - not ideal but it gets the enjoyment back inot eating and that is the most important thign. They must see eating as a positive and happy thing. Also eat with her as much as possible so she can see how much enjoyment you get out of it. (sorry I'm lapsing into professional mode now! - I'm a speech and language therapist!!)

DD will eat from my plate, only small amounts though, and seems quite happy to walk about whilst eating.

Loopster - this is spooky, but she's actually seeing a speech therapist, but that's another thread!

If anyone has a child who seems to exist on chicken nuggets and chips alone, here's three things we've tried that might work to expand their diet: roast potatoes (frozen ones seem acceptable!), little pieces of grilled/fried chicken breast (at present we're using the little fillet from underneath) and Chipmates from Iceland (chips made from mashed potato, some mixed with peas and some with carrots. The joy is indescribable, as are my son's cries of "this is good"!