What do 6 year old eat?

[Marylou2]

Advice please. My six year old daughter eats anything and everything so it never occurs to me that other children can be so fussy. Just done tea for 2 of her friends and they wouldn't eat a thing. I served tiny chicken sandwiches, vege spring rolls, mini tomatoes, peppers, dips, doritos, cheese and pineapple stick- 70s retro style. Also strawberries. The only thing they would eat was cadburys mini rolls. Any suggestions gratefully received.

My 6 year old DS would have eaten most of that. He doesn't like tomatoes but would have eaten cucumber if you served that. If you had asked him beforehand he would tell you that he prefers cheese sandwiches but will eat chicken ones quite happily.

He would sell his grandmother for Doritos and dip

I have discovered that sometimes, when people say of their primary aged DC "s/he'll eat anything"
they mean anything that you'll find on a pub children's menu ie fish fingers, nuggets, burgers, sausages, pizza.

just shove a pizza in next time. playdates are not the time for haute cuisine or expanding anyone's culinary horizons.

Dtwins would eat all of that except dd doesn't go for spring rolls or peppers. However, ime kids are less relaxed about food when they're not at home, so lots of kids come to my house and never touch a vegetable or any of the fruit. I just serve a standard thing such as pizza or sausages (always the nice ones we'd usually have) and put salad/veg as help yourself in the middle. I also just put out help yourself ice cream and fruit fr pud. It's not my business to make them eat a balanced meal-just to give them the option.
If you feel you must make something then spag bol or roast dinner are usually ok. Jacket potatoes with various fillings too.

You served varied and good things but I have similar experience with DD's friends and as for DD she is harder still so would only eat the pepper and Doritos or chicken if was on its own!
Even friends whose mum assure me are good eaters haven't tried my food (a mild chicken curry DD loves).

I either make a list from asking them favourites (most say sausages) or keep lots extra things in fridge to bring out as nec (humous, ham , carrots, cucumber etc etc)

I'm lucky enough to have children that eat most stuff too and as s result don't have "kid food" (fishfingers, nuggets, waffles etc) in the house often.

When dc have friends over I usually do sonething like plain pasta with a selection of toppings for them to add themselves, pizzas as above, wraps too. Roast chicken with a selection of veg for them to choose from... I've never had anyone eat nothing yet.

Thanks everyone, this is so great! I'm not usually so unsure of myself just having a bad moment. Just got a box of mini magnums out, they've eaten those. Amazing!

Agree, just give them a pizza or chicken nuggets and chips. One of DS friends will eat virtually anything. One that we sometimes have over wouldn't eat a burger last week because there was fried onion in the burger mixture and he doesn't eat vegetables...

I've kind of given up cooking proper food for visiting friends - they get pizza fish fingers or sausages now I'm afraid - usually with chips and veg (broccoli, carrots, peas) to make me feel a bit better about it!