Fussy eater

[Dadlad88]

Write so my little munchkin is a lot like me when it comes to food he knows what he likes and nothing else comes close, usually this is chicken nuggets and chips which he doesn't have everyday but he would be loving life if he could have it. I cook for him as I'm home first but he turns his nose up to it or finds something wrong with it. Tonight I decided to let him pick something from Sainsbury's other than chicken nuggets so he chose Heinz Ninja turtle shaped pasta and that was it. Safe to say this didn't go down well with the OH! What do we do as so far I think we have tried everything and also was I wrong to just let him have the pasta?

*Right not Write

No, you weren't wrong to let him have the pasta at all - it was good that he tried something different - and maybe taking him shopping and getting him involved in choosing, preparing and cooking might encourage him to try more things? You could start with home-made chicken nuggets

There's a really good book by a lady called Bee Wilson that I read recently called First Bites which explains (in simple terms) how we develop our palates and also how to encourage children with a limited range of accepted foods - might be worth a read?

Do you ever eat with DS? If not then that might be worth a shot - if he sees you eating something then he might be more willing to try

He loves getting involved with the cooking the only problem is we don't get home till 6:30 so it is all a rush to get him fed, bathed and to bed at a decent hour so he has enough time to think of all the reasons in the world as to why he cannot sleep.

OH doesn't get home till 8pm weekdays so I usually wait till she gets home and we have dinner together however this will change in March as OH is going part time so for 3 weekdays we will all have dinner together a bit earlier and DS can get involved a bit more.

Thanks for recommending that book I will order it so me and OH can have a read.

Is your other half the one ranting on another thread about her DP giving their toddler ninja pasta?! Did you also give him Cheerios?!

I guess if you're very fussy then there may be an element of copying you. Perhaps seeing you try to find new things you like might inspire him to copy.

Also, I'd think about what he likes and then see how you can tweak it. So if he likes e.g. spaghetti bolognaise, give him spaghetti with something like a tomato, ham and mushroom sauce.

I also think it's really important not to only offer stuff you know he'll eat. Otherwise how's he going to get chance to extend the range of food he eats? If he's otherwise healthy he won't starve himself! Very difficult though if you only eat a limited range of stuff.

Can you give some more examples of things he does eat? Then people may be able to give ideas for similar things that can gradually be adapted to new dishes. For example if he eats chicken nuggets could you try making cod nuggets be breaking chunks of cod yourself?