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Original poster

New ideas to try on very fussy 3 year old and non fussy 19 month old

15 replies

PetitFilou1 · 10/04/2007 15:58

I am bored of salmon, pizza, ham sandwiches, omelette, roast chicken, fishfingers and pasta with no sauce. Please can you give me some ideas. Ds won't eat mixed up food without mealtimes turning into world war III. Sometimes I can stomach trying kedgeree or lasagne and sitting there for an hour before he eats one mouthful and gets down and sometimes I just can't! But..... I would just like some ideas for what goes down well. Please.

OP posts:
moondog · 10/04/2007 15:59

Cook what you like.
Serve it.
Ignore all moaning.
Don't force them to eat.
Clear away.
Repeat as necessary.

Don't pander. Males life much more complicated in the long run.

LittleSarah · 10/04/2007 16:03

Home-made chicken nuggets, chicken and ham pie, macaroni cheese, toad in the hole, spaghetti bolognase. My dd (3) is quite fussy and she happy to eat all of those. I do try and get her to eat other things with a like it or lump it attitude but those are the things she does like!

amidaiwish · 10/04/2007 16:20

cauliflower & broccoli cheese
fishcakes
pitta breads with scrambled egg
good quality sausages
spaghetti bolognaise (my foolproof "you are going to eat a load of veg today meal")
chicken and vegetables stirfried with noodles

amidaiwish · 10/04/2007 16:21

oh jacket potato with tuna (tuna mixed with just a bit of mayonnaise and some sweetcorn if you want to risk it!)
jacket potato with cheese and beans - can do sweet potato for a change
home made burgers (beef/chicken)

Original poster
PetitFilou1 · 10/04/2007 16:31

Moondog I am coming round to this school of thought but how long do you leave it before you clear away? I can't stand the 'I don't like it......cue loud prolonged whingeing' as soon as he sits down to something he is not familiar with or doesn't like the look of. If I didn't make him eat some of everything on his plate he would only eat the meat. And do you give them pudding if they eat none of their main course? Or do you think I should serve that regardless - I think he'd just wait for the pudding if he could get away with it.

OP posts:
moondog · 10/04/2007 17:03

Petit,I pit everything out and only respond to whingeing with a bright comment such as 'Don't eat it then.
I never bribe,cajole or bargain.

We don't tend to do pdding but I do let them have fruit any time they like,so if they ate no dinner,I would let them have three bananas five minutes later quite happily.

Honestly,it saves so much aggro in the ling run.

DumbledoresGirl · 10/04/2007 17:14

No pudding if a reasonable stab at dinner is not made. Although, if mine ate piles of fruit like Moondog's, then I wouldn't object to that so much.

I have heard said that half an hour (or was it 20 mins?) is a reasonable length of time to leave a child to eat their meal.

moondog · 10/04/2007 17:15

And Petit,my dd is incredibly fussy.
It is however completely ignored.

She won't eat anything I will be making tonight.

It's tough though because dh,me and ds will love it.

DumbledoresGirl · 10/04/2007 17:19

Oh I thought your children were good as gold in the food department Moondog. Funnily enough I was telling dh about your non-fussy eaters only yesterday!

moondog · 10/04/2007 17:20

lol lol
Dd is a real moaner.
Would live on cheese and pickle sandwiches.
That and mountains of apples strawberries and raspberries so not tooo bad.

It infuriates me but I never let it show.

paulaplumpbottom · 10/04/2007 17:21

quesadias

put grated cheddar & chicken into a tortillia, fold it up and microwave for a minute or so (till the cheese melts. You can put onions and tomatos in yours and eat with sour cream and guacamoli

castlesintheair · 10/04/2007 17:21

Agree with moondog. DS (now 5) was like this at 3, now he eats everything quite happily. DD1 (3) ate everything until she turned 3 and is now fussy. I learnt with DS and don't worry about it or hassle her. If she's hungry, she'll eat.

DumbledoresGirl · 10/04/2007 17:21

Oh, another tip from me if your children are fussy about vegetables: blitz them all up with a hand held blender so that they have no idea what is in their food. I still do that at least twice a week only now my children are old enough to cope with knowing there is something "nasty" in the sauce, as long as they can't actually see it. It is progress of sorts!

amidaiwish · 10/04/2007 17:58

i used to totally stress about food - hours of serving up organic food to have it pushed away...

now i cook in batches and freeze
use fish fingers, baked beans, jacket potatoes, frozen organic vegetables, nothing wrong with a shop bought pizza base with tons of veg on.

anyway, it seems the less effort i make and the less bothered i seem, the more they eat!

toddlers only need a handful of food per day anyway. it really isn't a lot.
as long as mine aren't filling themselves up on rubbish i don't stress about it. if they don't eat i serve dessert but only if it's something i still want them to eat (like fruit, or yoghurt...) we don't have dessert after every meal so they don't really notice if they get it or not.

Original poster
PetitFilou1 · 12/04/2007 13:19

Moondog - ds won't eat fruit - except apples (he quite likes those but will still have to be bribed to eat about 3 bits of one) so I consider you very lucky if you have two children who both eat it!
Anyway, did well today. I gave him a choice of two things for lunch and he chose mash inside a potato (baked potato) and tuna. I served up tuna/sweetcorn/cheese/mayonnaise mixed together next to the potato. He ate it with relish, no complaints. Wtf. I'm happy though!
I am definitely moving towards your approach .....

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