RIGHT! I AM GIVING UP!!!! No more decent food going in the bin, no siree. RANT!!

[oliveoil]

Fed up to the back teeth of it.

I am tried and tried and tried to get them to eat properly and am going to give up.

I am consistant and give them a variety, take the plate away without commment (usually!), no alternatives, only fruit blah blah bastard blah.

And I am sick of it.

They don't get crap but the only thing dd1 will eat without whining is cheese sandwiches.

And I am sick of throwing veggies away all the time.

"oooh but it takes up to 20 times for a child to try a food?" Oh does it Annabel? YEAH RIGHT! I have been trying b@st@rd broccoli for a year.

Nuggets and chips here I come.

PAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thank you!

I am still persevering as I love food and we are a foody household and I will not stand for it GOD DAMN IT.

But I may post a ranting thread every now and then.

good tips on here too, I will try and rise above it

I think that the research says 10 times, but as a mother of a large family, I know that some children are 'easier' than others. My eldest and most 'tricky' one, food wise is now a student, albeit the 'I prefer white bread type'. He has asked me to organize a cooking demo to encourage his mates to cook, when they change the kitchens in his college in the autumn, so don’t despair.

I might be glad of inspiration - they are only going to have a glorified microwave.

In my experience if you can find the time for a wee bit of mess and supper at midnight once in a while, older children will eat /try foods that they have been involved in the preparation of .

I think the majority of 3 year olds are fussy. My 4 year old is getting better. He ate mussels the other day [smug grin]. We had no intention of even offering him them and told him "they are adult food and you probably won't like them". 5 minutes later he was plowing his way through them.

Maybe using similar tactics you could have a week of cheese sandwiches "no I'm not cooking you anything else because you only like cheese sandwiches don't you?". Whilst serving up something very grown up for adults only.

p.s. just to add, although my 2 are ok eaters, I used to be the fussy eater from hell. I remember my mother chasing me round the table at about the age of 12 with a pea shouting "just eat this one pea or I'm going to smack you soooooo hard". I ate nothing but chips, cheese and pasta - absolutely no veg - until I was about 15. I now eat everything and love my food !

I have clear memories of people saying things like "how do you know you're not going to like it until you've tried it?". It makes me cringe when I hear it now. As far as I was concerned I knew I didn't want to eat it, and no-one could make me. Not sure what my point is other than it will pass....eventually!

Poor dear OO. Isn't it ghastly being mothers. My dd3 (age four) won't eat AT ALL, except every two days or so. The odd yogurt. I don't know what is going on.

Well .. OUR CATS won't eat either!!

I have taken up meditation and find that helps with my aggression ..

Good luck.

I have a very fussy 2 year old and I had basically given up giving him anything other than what he likes (-no veges ) but one day I got sick of eating it with him and decided to try something new and the novelty value combined with boredom worked! I gave him breadsticks, pita bread and carrot sticks with tzatziki to dip in and fully expected that the breadsticks and pita bread would be eaten and he'd leave the rest but to my surprise he ate some carrot sticks and even tried dipping once though he didn't like it. Since then I have given him the same a couple of times and each time he eats some of the carrot and tries the dip! Yesterday he even ate some peas and corn after he'd finished his fish fingers - his expression wasn't positive but he did have a couple of spoonfuls!

So don't give up! Perhaps you need to either bore him to death with cheese sandwiches so that he'll try anything else (-as per ruthydd), or try something new and different! Eventually it will happen for you too!

Sorry, "bore her to death with cheese sandwiches so that she'll try anything else"!

This is the first time I've posted a message on this but OO you've driven me to it - I am in total and utter agreement with you, stuff Annabel Carmel, stuff all the theories that are supposed to work, DD1 (3.5) just sticks to about the same few basic foods - though bizarrely she likes broccoli to the point where we've nearly put her off it by giving it her so much. DS2 (nearly 2) is exactly the opposite for no reason at all, even though he's treated just the same. (So it's not our fault). Ditto bedtimes and sleeping - DD1 doesn't respond to ANYTHING that any book says will work, DS2 is significantly better for no apparent reason. I hate smug b*s who think it's their wonderful parenting skills that result in good eating, bedtimes etc when it's just down to the child's personality and the luck of the draw. I always secretly wish that their next child will be the child from hell (that'll teach 'em).

I've come late to thread (don't know how I missed it!), and my 4 yo dd is just the same . Would happily eat cheesy pasta (i.e. pasta with grated cheddar) for every meal , given half a chance.

My symapthies, OO

I only ate peas as a vegetable as a child. My older brother went through a phase of eating(apparently, not sure how true this is) bread, salt and oranges. He was even fussier than me. My mum also had my two sisters, who ate anything.

I vividly remember the horror of being made to eat things I didn't like,or even to "try a little bit" not by my mum, who had presumably been worn down by my brother, but by school or when round at a friend's house. As a consequence, I have never made any of my children eat anything they don't like, or made it a discipline issue at all.I just don't engage with them - if they don't like it, they don't have to eat it. I cook one meal, for everyone, which contains some food everyone will like but I don't try to get dd1 to eat fish, or ds1 to eat sweetcorn.I provide an easy alternative for the bits they don't like and if they like none of it I'd just give them a bit of bread and butter.

Three of them are good eaters, and one is like I used to be - actually, he is better than I was because he will eat more vegetables than the humble pea. Perhaps those of us who were/are fussy eaters have lower expectations, so it's easier to be laid back about it? I like a far wider range of food now than I did as a child, but am still quite fussy, I suppose. I have to be honest and say that I still do not like broccoli after 39 years. I do not think I would like it no matter how many times it were offered to me. I consider it amazing that 3 of my children will eat it.

sorry - i'm just posting so i can find this thread later - have to go to work now but sooo want to read it as think it i have 2 the same ...

It is so wonderful to know I am not alone, OO. I think Annabel Karmel needs a good slap for the guilt she instills in all of us. I have 2 fussy eaters. dd now eats since being allowed school dinners (which are crap...unidentifiable meat and choc ices, agh!) which she loves. Ds sees mealtimes as a power struggle so I leave fruit bowl on the coffee table, and pots of dry weetos lying around which he eats when he thinks I'm not watching. They are thriving, healthy children but my love of food has been destroyed by all the thwarted attempts to feed them well over the years.