Ideas for feeding fussy children please!

[CruCru]

I've realised recently that my son, in particular, doesn't have a particularly varied diet. Basically, he eats hamburgers / fishfingers / pasta / a load of white carbohydrates. He has a list of things he hates (raw tomatoes / most veg apart from carrots and broccoli / most seafood - apart from fishfingers / chicken etc). The other day I made a chicken noodle soup with carrots and baby sweetcorn and it wasn't a hit.

I've noticed that he's getting rather tubby - I've entered his details into the NHS BMI calculator and it's come up as overweight. I know that there is a chance that he will shoot up and eliminate some of the problem but I don't want to rely on that.

I also have a younger daughter who comes up as a healthy weight for her age and height.

Do any of you have any ideas? Part of me thinks I should just ignore the list of stuff he won't eat and serve him bloody peas but it does seem unkind to give him things I know he hates.

[SplodgyNurdle]

Dancergirl: diagnosed. But this came after his ASD diagnosis. Before that we were left in the dark a bit. Referral to CAMHS about it when he was 4 .... told to relax by the paediatrician there, and go with the flow. Then referral to a dietician about aged 8, 18 months of her help at the end of which she said she felt it was something different to what she could help with (as nothing had worked that normally did). Finally got a diagnosis at aged 10 of ASD, and then managed to get Occupational Health Therapy assessment and SPD came up from that. Am currently trying to get an Occupational Health Therapy assessment for my younger child ... due to the ever changing way things are funded these days, one moment it's one body, then another. Having a few problems getting his assessment. GP could no longer refer, have to go through school who are dragging their heels. If you feel SPD could be something your child has, you have to fight all the way to get someone to listen and do something about it! But fight the good fight, it's worth it. Helps you understand your child so much better and takes so much tension away as you get information (usually your own research!) and school tends to be nicer to your child once they have that confirmation in our experience

[SplodgyNurdle]

Hazeyjane, you will get told all sorts of rubbish. You have to push, push a bit more and keep pushing! It seems it's much easier for those who are there to help children with difficulties to try and avoid responsibility of helping you these days.
I spoke to the NAS about how awful our experience at CAMHS had been and was told it's very much a lottery draw about where you live, as to whether the service you get and the assistance or diagnosis.
My second child they wanted to give a diagnosis of ASD. I refused this. I said he had Aspergers like my first, as I knew the signs by then. They told me that they find it unhelpful to use the term Aspergers and every child is now just labelled ASD. I informed her that this was ridiculous. Everyone understood what Aspergers meant, and that if she was going to tell me someone like Temple Grandin or Tony Attwood were wrong at championing Aspergers, she was very wrong. Sorry have wandered off topic a bit.
But food is a real issue for some children on the spectrum ... it's all part of the sensory overload they can experience. They will be very controlling over their diet because they try to control lots of things in their lives due to how confusing the world is to them. They are over loaded by a neurotypical world.

[ThinkOfTheHorses]

How is chicken seafood?

[ThinkOfTheHorses]

Misses point of thread

[ThinkOfTheHorses]

I miss read - I'm an idiot

[kateandme]

rom what you've said it doesn't seem lots.not enough to be putting on weight to overweight points.so is it the portions.
ask him to pick.they love that feeling all adult about what veg the family will have with tea.or get a new cookbook and say lets start a challenge.ask him to pick a few new recipes a week.even get himt to help cook it.mine loved that and tried sopooooo many new meals.even offal! yes offal.
what about protein.that helps the full enough feeling.
make his own pizza with wraps or pittas
jacket potatos.and then sweet potatos? ours love making mini shepherd pies. cook your potato then scoop most of middle add shepherd pie mince base.then top with middle and sprinkle with cheese.he then branched out into all sort of fillings for them.cheese and leek,med sausage and veggies it was a great and exciting way to get him to try things in his own mini jacket pie thingys.

[CruCru]

Okay, so I had mixed success with this dinner. At first, he just ate the raw carrots and then sat there looking horrified. When it was obvious that was it, he ate the plaice in a cheesy sauce. He said the sweet potato and leeks were awful.

My daughter ate a bit of everything and said it was nice. She ate all the plaice.

[CruCru]

Here it is.

[CruCru]

I like the sound of the things you've listed kateandme.

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

I'd eat it CruCru looks delicious!
I just wonder if portion size maybe the reason for weight gain. That looks quite a lot of sweet potato, but I suppose it counts as veg so maybe I've got that wrong. Also difficult to tell the size of the plate. I guess it will be interesting for you to see if he moans he's hungry in half an hour.

[CruCru]

It's a tiny plate. I used one sweet potato and one leek between the two children. I cut the sweet potato into 1.5 cm cubes.

Well, he went to bed having pretty much only eaten some cheesy plaice and raw carrots and didn't say he was hungry. So perhaps he'll be okay.

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

Ah ok in which case portion size sounds spot on!

[CruCru]

Although I do see your point about the sweet potato (it is very carb heavy). I probably could have given half the amount and it would have been enough.

[CruCru]

Ah, cross posts.

[Crumbs1]

Just work out a healthy meal plan with a few favourites in there then stick to it. This is what we are eating, there is nothing else. If they eat it they'll be full up and if they don't they'll be hungry.
Good child friendly stuff might be

• a tomato and vegetable risotto with carrots and celery diced very small topped or with chicken added in.
  
• Fishcakes made into fish shapes
  
• spaghetti bolognese with hidden veg or finely chopped veg.
  
• vegetable lasagne
  
• salads
  
• shepherds pie with veg in it
  
• homemade breaded chicken

[CruCru]

Tomorrow I'm doing duck breast. Lets see how that goes.

[CruCru]

I have done risotto in the past but he would only eat the rice and left all the rest. In particular, chicken is met with dismay. Thinking about it, my FIL absolutely hates all fowl - even the thought of it disgusts him - so perhaps this is genetic.

He will happily eat fishcakes, spag bol, lasagne and shepherds pie.

[Fioniac]

Hey! I have been very lucky in that my daughter was a very good eater from weaning onwards though I started noticing she was becoming reluctant to try new things and go through fussy periods where she would eat nothing but chicken nuggets/waffles/beans on toast.

I just started cooking things and telling her that if she didn't at least try something (or eat the meal that I know damn well she would eat if Nanny put it in front of her) she would not get any puddings and actually following it through. She soon got the message. And by just putting small portions of new food into a meal that I know she would eat after a couple of days she would usually end up eating it.

It's hard not to stress about things like this but I think the fact that he eats a lot of fruit is a really good thing!!!

[TheDropBear]

Is it the taste of veg or the texture? I recently saw a risotto recipe which had a load of roasted veg pureed and then stirred through. Mince based recipes can be easy to hide stuff in, grated courgette and red lentils both cook down enough not to be obvious. Other than that I'd look at seeing what he already eats and then doing similar things.

So if he'll already have meatballs with spaghetti you could try Scandinavian style ones with mash and veg. Or a fish pie because he ate the plaice and has Shepards pie. Broccoli cheese (which you could gradually try adding cauliflower to). Would he be more willing to try other veg with a dip like hummus or guacamole?
You could make and freeze little omelette muffins for breakfast, loads of recipes online. I wonder if you could do his favourite breakfast overnight in a slow cooker. There are slow cooker French toast recipes so it may work.

[FlukeSkyeRunner]

It's very easy to serve options of carbs, that are far too big. Maybe pay extra attention to prob size of pasta etc and switch ti wholegrain pasta, brown rice, wholemeal bread etc - the white versions are nowhere near as nutritious or filling.

[slightlysoreboobs]

I had similar problems with DS now aged 11. About 18 months/2 years ago I started giving him a really big breakfast with lots of protein, so half a tin of baked beans with 2 slices of whole meal toast and butter. Or eggy bread made with 2 eggs and 4 slices w/m bread. Sometimes a veggie sausage sandwich. That, plus fruit or veg snack mid morning has revolutionised his eating and actually his mood as well. It felt like he was constantly asking for food until we got into a rhythm of a good breakfast. He's happier and calmer overall.

Things he likes for tea:

Spag bol - made with quorn mince
A very very mild chilli - brown rice, quorn, kidney beans
Jacket potatoes with cheese and beans
Homemade pizza
Fajitas with lots of different bits he can choose to put in his own wraps

He's relatively limited in which vegetables he likes, wouldn't thank you for a mushroom, but he eats broccoli, carrots, peas, sweet corn, tomatoes and cucumber

I know you said mornings were really rushed and you didn't have time to make his favourite breakfast and I totally get that - it can be like Armageddon in our house in the mornings, but the big protein rich breakfast has been the game changer for us.

[CruCru]

Yesterday I did duck great with noodles, carrot and courgette (I spiralised the carrot and courgette so they looked more like the noodles) in a coconut milk broth. My daughter ate a bit of everything and said it was nice. My son tried a bit of the duck and said it was horrid. He are the noodles and the carrot but was horrified by the courgette.

[lljkk]

OP does not have a fussy child.
Great if you've found good ways to get more veg in him.
But should not be described as a fussy child.

[Cagliostro]

I grate a load of carrot and courgette into spag bol. My DCs haven't realised, it was cooked really slowly and the veg just sort of disintegrates.

I also snuck some lentils into a tomato pasta sauce but I have to be careful with that one as I put too many and it changed the taste/texture just that little bit too much