New ideas for really really fussy eater

[Monkeyandanimal]

Hi all,
I need some new food ideas to try with my 2.5 year old . He eats all carbs as long as they are dry/plain/buttered - no sauces- he only eats the crust of pizzas! He eats fruit and raw carrots. But the only proteins he will eat are sausages, fish fingers or chicken goujons. He drinks milk and eats yogurts. Any ideas? And please, I'm not looking for advice on how to deal with his fussy eating; my four year old was just the same and is now through that phase. I tend to not make a big deal about it but provide a range of foods, let him eat the elements of a meal he likes, and take away the remaining without fuss. And yes, I do give fruit or breadsticks as snacks as he is unbearable when hungry and is very stubborn to the point of starving himself rather than 'giving in' in a conflict situation. I'd rather just play it down and keep offering the good stuff as i don't want food to be 'an issue'. So any ideas, esp for proteins?

Could you just make meals and put them in 'seperate' bits of a plate. Ie plain pasta in one section, meat in another and veg in another- and just keep persevering!!

As for the protein- could you make your own chicken goujons, fish cakes etc? Then you could sneak in puréed veg- ie very finely chopped celery, leeks, sweet corn etc?

I would also try these. I have yet to meet a child that doesn't devour these! Yorkshire puds with yummy meatball in the middle! Worth a shot! www.food.com/recipe/popovers-19554

Thanks for those ideas....I'll try the popovers. I really hate making chicken goujons, but you are right, Rumplestiltskin, so i'll try again. however, i have a feeling he only eats the supermarket ones because they are probably full of salt....

We do tend to serve bland little heaps of foods on his plate, but he'll leave meat unless it is processed, salted and covered in breadcrumbs! I long to be able to serve pasta bakes, stir fries and so on without it ending up in the bin (or in my tummy )

Also- remember there is protein in eggs. Do you think you could win him over with dippy soldiers?

Peanut butter?

French toast / eggy bread?

Mine loves carbs too. I give him
lots of tortilla wraps spread with soft cheese, mashed avocado, peanut butter etc.

He used to eat eggs but now won't. But the 4 year old was the same and now likes eggs again, so fingers crossed, I keep trying them every so often. I'd love to give them peanut butter, it is such a good food! But DS is quite allergic to peanuts, so we don't have them in the house; never tried with DS2, but we are steering clear for now.

French toast might be a goer....he won't eat anything soft and wet; just tried him with a lovely bagel with cream cheese; nope; it had to be butter or nothing! Wretch!

Have you tried tofu? seems a bit out there but in fact is a really mild tasting, white food, which meets a lot of small kids' criteria. 17mo DD eats it. Cauldron do a block for £2 available in most supermarkets that will feed a family of four, so won't cost you much to give it a go. I cut it into bitesize cubes, fry until a little crisp in sesame oil, and add to veggie stir frys.

Almond or cashew butter, if his nut allergy is just peanut? Whole nuts - walnut or brazil? Do you buy nutty or seeded bread?

Feta? is high in protein and firm. Could be offered without comment with the fruit and breadsticks.

Oh! beans (black / kidney / white) and chickpeas? I buy them dried, cook a big batch, then freeze. Can be defrosted very quickly and added to dishes to bulk them out or eaten on their own.

Tinned chickpeas drained taste really nutty and nice plain.

I used to do things like:

All yellow things, so - sweetcorn, saffron rice (actually turmeric rice, because it's cheaper!), chicken goujons (which are yellowyish), yellow pepper.

Or

A plateful of food consisting of items beginning with a certain letter, eg, dress as a pirate, and have a plateful of peas, pasta, peppers, pork.

Or dress as a cowboy and have cowboy food - cowboy beans, chicken strips (add cowboy rice, pasta or potatoes as appropriate).

Would he eat shredded chicken or strips of steak ?

Meatballs?

The to chickpeas . And mine love picking at sweetcorn and frozen peas.

ooh goody, thank you, these are all good ideas...some new things to try; i'll let you know how he does!

It looks like the breadcrumbs are your friend OP - me too. I think of them as the entry-level carrier drug...

DS now eats chicken, salmon and all other white fish, thanks to judicious applications of breadcrumbs, and we're trying pork tonight so wish me luck! We then moved on from 'things you like with breadcrumbs' into 'things you like without breadcrumbs' so he now eats a much broader range, but he had to make an intellectual connection between breaded pink fish being the same as non-breaded, so I don't know if that's a step too far for a 2 yo?

Will he eat baked beans? They are great for protein and I don't feel bad if he ignores most of his plate but eats the beans, at least he's had some protein that way...

Sweet potato home made oven wedges?

Has he tried roast carrots? Mine adore them. Raw sugar snap peas too. DD decided she liked broccoli "trees" when her dinosaur got to help out.

You could be very sneaky and serve him vegetarian sausages but best not to put him off what he does like imo

What about homemade bbq'd/griddled bits of chicken/lamb/pork on sticks? If you made very small cubes of lamb and smothered them in mint sauce, they would be nice and sweet. Gradually you could top and tail them with a bit of pepper for colour and interest?

I don't think his diet is that dreadful actually just boring - if you can homemake goujons and fish fingers he'll be getting high quality food. You can blitz left over wholemeal bread to coat them.

Does he like houmous? On the end of a breadstick or carrot.

Hi there, my fussy 5yo eats exactly the same foods as yours, I could have written that same list of carbs and dry textured foods! Two suggestions for you that I managed to persuade my ds1 to eat:

Cornflake chicken nuggets:
-Get your ds to bash up the cornflakes in a freezer bag with a rolling pin. Then just dip the cut-up pieces of chicken breast in beaten egg and then in the cornflakes, and then bake in the oven for 15 min at 180 fan.

Pesto chicken nuggets:
-Use some red pepper or tomato pesto to coat the chicken instead of egg, and slightly stale breadcrumbs for the topping.

Turkey and carrot burgers:
(ds1 eats these as I call them 'homemade chicken burgers' and he can't see the carrot inside...)
-Cook a carrot, then mash it. Mix turkey mince with mashed carrot and a spoon of tomato puree. Shape into patties then leave in the fridge for 30 mins to firm up. Dip in beaten egg then in panko breadcrumbs, then bake in the oven - mine take 18 min at 180 fan but obv depends on size. 250g mince makes about 6 burgers for me. I freeze them and defrost before cooking.

All the best x

The turkey and carrot burgers sound great for little people (the thought of eating turkey mince myself makes me feel a bit ill I'm afraid).
Off to cook with 3yr old.

Ha yes! They are surprisingly nice though. I couldn't find any chicken mince and couldn't face the thought of mincing it myself, but since making them I think they work with turkey - chicken would be a little too tasteless I think.

There's a book with good ideas in called Getting the Little Blighters to eat, really inventive.

Also My Child Won't Eat by Carlos Gonzales explains a lot of the developmental stuff and is really reassuring about what is normal (vs what we expect which is largely cultural, he is Spanish so not from UK/US culture).

OP when doing picky arse DD's lunch I had another thought which is quinoa - a good source of protein. Substitute for rice or cous cous or potato. Use in burgers and fishcakes. Am sure you could even use it as some sort of breadcrumb . It's a slightly acquired taste, I find, but I find it pleasantly nutty now.

Thanks guys, these are great ideas; i'll be adding to my shopping list for delivery tomorrow and trying out. I tried him with a variation on sausage rolls where i replaced the sausage bit with fresh salmon; would he eat them? would he heck! (4 year old demolished them though)and i thought they were pretty bland and dry, just how he likes things! ' I don't like sammidge rolls!' said he!

We are veggie so I'm always trying to sneak extra protein into fussy dd's diet.

Risotto or rice - add quinoa (a protein rich grain), it's just tiny circular grains, no taste, slight texture.

Cream cheese instead of butter with marmite.

Gram flour is made from chickpeas, I made sweet pancakes today and they went down well.

Egg pasta.

Peas are high in protein

Homemade flapjacks with seeds

Avocado chocolate ice cream (don't laugh - it's delicious!)

Really like the gram flour and seed flapjack ideas, Courtney

Intrigued by the avocado ice cream but DD a bi little for proper puddings still. Any other ideas for avocado? DD used to love it but won't touch with a barge pole now, it was my failsafe for protein and good fats

Rice crispy chicken. Chicken breast pieces dipped in mayonnaise then rice crispies and baked in the oven.

Do it yourself fajitas. Put a couple of mini tortilla wrap on a plate with some carrot sticks, cucumber strips, raw peppers sliced, mini sausages, strips of plain or breaded chicken, babybel cheeses.

Fish balls, www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/salmon-footballs

Chicken and apple balls, www.annabelkarmel.com/recipes/chicken-and-apple-balls

My dd wouldn't eat anything with a sauce at that age, but she would eat tortellini or ravioli as they didn't have a wet texture.

Turkey is v high in iron so we do turkey leg casseroles a lot. Turkey mince prob a good alternative.