Do i have the fussiest eating child??

[wurlywurly]

Ds1 used to eat everything, but now his limit is fish (normally fish fingers) sausages, sausages rolls(you can shout at me later), hamburgers, pasta and potatoes. No proper meat or chicken - he gags on it. Will only eat carrots, no green veg at all, but will have a go at most fruit.

I know earlgrey - whatever other people's children eat always seems better than your fussy eater - I used to sit there and watch my friend's child who only ate oranges and potatoes and wish I could swap! I have unlimited sympathy with anyone going through this - it just affects every part of life. I have a friend with a five year old who only eats jam sandwiches. It's at times like this that I could throw every annabel karmel book I own out of the window - and I wonder if these cookery book writers have ever had to deal with a child who would prefer to photosynthesise than eat.

sorry to hijack but raggydoll i am trying to arrange a meet up so come over here i have just discovered you are in kingswinford too. where abouts? i'm up by the summerhill.

I wonder whether any of you have read the book 'The manipulativr child'?

Bear with me, as teh title of the book is a pretty awful by line for hte book really

The book is about the way in which some children try to control their environments to suit their needs/wants rather than compromise their needs/wants to fit in with teh environment they are in. Fussy eaters imo, definitely fall into this type of behaviour.

The book doesn't specifically deal with food issues, but on family issues as a whole, including sibling rivalry which is what lead me to buy the book in the first place.

I thought it was a good read adn gives some good suggestions of how to parent children who do this.

It might be worth a read

Hello all who have a child who will only eat 5/6 different types of food! My ds 7 will only eat pasta, sausages, bacon but only in a sandwich on a saturday after football!!!!, mini rolls, lemon slices, fromage fraise, cheese and hoola hoops! Decided yesterday that i woul get all hard and not let him eat pasta for tea again but now cant bear the thought of him going to bed hungry! Have reverted to making him try one small thing every day; carrots, potato, fruit. I take it other peolpe have had the same problem. Has anyone got any other ideas of how to solve this one?

I am so relieved to see your messages. My 4 year old is a nightmare. There are some healthy things she likes, nuts, seeds, fruit, but she will not let a vegetable pass her lips and she hates sauces on her pasta so no hiding it anywhere, although I did buy a parnsip and vanilla ice cream (which I have never found again) which she liked! It is sooooo frustrating trying to think what to give her for dinner, and on the occasions when I go to great effort to concoct something from a recipe book using ingredients I know she likes singly, she refuses to even try and I have wasted effort and food yet again. I have tried being really strict, that is it and you dont get anything else but she is a very strong willed Aries and would rather go without, which doesnt help me when she wakes up constantly all night long wailing she is hungry. Why do all the books tell you how to introduce good foods to babies/weaning which I did and she ate a lot of the veg then, but they dont tell you what to do if it all went to rat-poo and somehow without realizing you now have a fussy eater. May be a texture thing??????

Hello zophiella! At least we r all in the same boat. Have had 2 nights of success now. He tried cheese last night and chicken tonight. Dont get me wrong, he didnt eat a whole plate, just a couple of mouth fulls but better than nothing. I guess after 7 yrs of bad eating, it will take time. We have also starting using a star chart with him, which I thought he would be too old for, but he is really proud of himself when he gets to put a star up. Anything that helps hey! Will keep persevering and hopefully one day he may well eat an apple!!! You mentioned the texture thing and i have often wondered whether it was a colour thing with my ds. Pasta, bread, hool hoops, all quite beige! I dunno! Lets keep going. Am looking forward to not getting disapproving looks from other parents!!!!

we just try something new everweek. He has gone passed the stage where he will put something in his mouth and try to make himself sick. He just chews and swallows it and then tells us if he liked it or not. Also we try not to make too big a deal of it when he says he doesnt like something, more praise for actually putting it in his mouth.

He does quite well with things that arent dinner (if that makes sense), he wanted to try bagels and found he loves them, same with sweet waffles and pancakes.

Oh and i do agree that its a texture thing. When ds was a baby you could tell by the look on his face that he had meat in his mouth as he would go green

So how do I get her to actually try something new? I have even offered her dessert type things that are new (wondering secretly if I was mad because it wasnt something I really wanted to encourage her to eat anyway, but I figured if it wasnt always of the vegetable variety maybe she would start trying things and it would be an inroad......nooooo).