My children are fussy eaters and I have come to the conclusion that I quite frankly don't give a shitty shite!

[oliveoil]

they will not eat casseroles, but will eat chicken and veg DRY. So what, it is the same ingredients

only raw carrots, not cooked. Only red peppers, not orange or yellow. Again, so what, still veg yes?

will not eat fish - so what, they used to and may do again

dd2 eats grapes and yogurt

but not if it comes out of a big tub only if it is in a small one

and toast

that's yer lot

she's still alive

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She also gets stuff she doesn't like on the plate, I just tell her to eat what she wants and leave the rest.

Apparently you should never force a kid to eat everything anyway, as they wont learn to stop when they're full and they end up having to clear the plate as an adult and get fat. Can't remember where I read that, some newspaper.

DD1 now tells me, but my tummy is telling me it's full, but I just breathe deeply and excuse her from the table, and feed her food to dd2, who has turned into the human dustbin

Totally agree with your approach, OO. I have a set rotation of meals (lots of hidden veg) and offer new things in small portions on side of meal. Last week DS1 ate tomatoes and asked for lettuce for the first time ever, after always refusing...have to admit to having tears in my eyes

I am ever hopeful that one day when she thinks I wont notice that she will eat some of the hot veg.

dd2 is into sugar snap peas atm, may not be next week (grrrrr)

dd1 lobbed them across the room at first, then tolerated then on her plate, now picks out the peas and flicks them at dd2

she may move on to eating them in 2009

I AM GOING NOW TO DO SOME WORK!

I'll join! The eldest is 9.5. That's 7.5 years of fussy eating but what he does eat is pretty healthy IMO. He is just pathalogically afeared of trying new stuff.
Like you Olive, both boys prefer dry stuff ie not in sauce/gravy/mixed together. Both love fish, both eat all meat (inc game) both eat broccoli, carrot, grean beans, sugar snaps, baby sweetcorn, raw red pepper. One loves rice/pasta/noodles. The other hates them. neither particularly enjoys potatoes. One hates eggs and cheese, t'other loves egss and cheese.
their meals consist of combinnations of meat/fish and veg.
One will eat most fruits, the other only apples, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. They are fit as lops, thin, tall and waggly of tail/damp of nose etc as boys should be.
I cannot do anymore.
The only time it bothers me is if they have an invite to tea as I don't want my kids to be pandered to but I don't want people to be offended if they won't eat either...

my ds2 ate cucumber for first time last week! (he's nearly 7)

My dd3 (2.3) will not eat meat, fish, pasta, noodles, soup or any potatoes other than the odd few chips.

In fact she will barely eat anything cooked at all apart from occasionally pizza (which is a bit hit & miss) & garlic bread.

She has dry cornflakes & buttered wholemeal or raisin toast for brekkie with a cup of milk.

She will now only eat meals that make pictures so yesterday for lunch she had rice cake with cream cheese, sliced banana, breadsticks & cheese cubes & for tea she had an apple, strawberries, a satsuma & yet more breadsticks. She always follows lunch & dinner with yogurt & gets cereal bars, fruit, teacakes & muffins as snacks.

I've now totally given up cooking for her & resign myself to doing the Van Gogh bit with what I know she will eat - yesterday's lunch bore more than a passing resemblance to his sunflowers

I'm going to join this gang. My dd used to eat absolutely anything you put in front of her. Now at 6.5 almost anything unless its pasta and sauce, sausages or chicken is met with 'don't like it' usually after having eaten the same thing a few days previously with no complaints. Honestly I'm convinced she does it just to try and make my head explode.

So now, am not caring. She can live on chicken and pasta...don't care any more

oh don't talk to me about eggs

I have made around 2458 boiled ones

have they tried any

NO

I blame Barnaby bloody Bear, everytime that episode is on when they go to the farm they ask for one

even as I am boiling them I am simmering along with the pan

but I can't say no can I

as they may try it eventually!!

pah

God yes, v sensible attitude.

Actually I can remember being a fussy child. My particular ishoos were mixed up foods (needed to be able to eat things seperately so casseroles were problematic) and chewy meat. It genuinely used to make me gag trying to eat something I didn't like. I really, honestly wasn't doing it for a laugh.

I grew out of it. Am now human dustbin. My brother on the other hand was not fussy as a small child but is now fairly picky with veg. His inlaws tried to take him in hand (at the age of 26 ). Was very amusing watching his mil trying to persuade him to "just try it, just one bite".

I will only make something I know she will eat, pasta/noodles every other day. Then i know she doesn't go hungry every day. But will put something she likes with the stuff she doesn't.
If she misses dinner she eats loads of brekkie.

No probs..............

My dd looks with grave suspician at anything new on her plate, in particular if it is red or has red bits in it.

"What's this red stuff? Is that tomatoes?"

She'll sit there picking any red bits out of the food and putting them at the side of her plate BUT she will eat tomato soup. I gave up trying to find any logic in it all. She picks lettuce out of sandwiches but she will eat green salad as a dish. She won't eat cheese but she will eat a cheese toasted sandwich.

I think if you have a handful of things they'll eat, it's ok to stick with those

yes I dont care either (except when dd1 was skeletal when I did care briefly)

they grow out of it

or they don't

actually i wouldnt say mine are that fussy

they dont like mash or cheese sauce or thigns with laods of bits in them

oh or lasagne

no wrries here

god yes dd1 = dry stuff

pref dry crunchy stuff (ie raw veg)

dd2 (due to school lunches) will eat stew though

Dd1 will only eat finger food, nothing wet, wont eat red meat unless in the form of a sausage, hates most veg (will only eat butternut squash, sweet potatoe and aubergine. She eats fish and chicken (dry) and will eat most fruit. So very fussy and a PITA

Dd2 eats almost anything, would rather eat veg than fruit and realy enjoys her food.

I'm joining in too!! DD is a fussy eater. She eats 2 kinds of fruit, 3 kinds of veg. My epiphany came when I realised that though she eats no sauces on anything (including pasta). That she will eat the meat, if I removed it from the sauce before putting it on her plate.

Thankfully DS not as fussy. So as long as the meal can be broken back down into its parts and removed from sauces, she eats it Sigh, but leaves out lasagne and I love lasagne.

But my brother and DH were very fussy eaters (DH reportably ate only bananas and marmite sandwiches for a year.. ) but not both eat almost anything. So I'm not stressing anymore.

Great attitude! I spent hours and hours lovingly preparing and cooking a wide range of interesting, varied and 'new' foods for sons and they both never ate any.

We were given a book called I Dont Like Peas when eldest son was 3ish (he is now 8) and we havent looked back! I have a sign on my fridge that says MUMMY HATES OLIVES AND ANCHOVIES AND HAGGIS BUT I HAVE NEVER TRIED THEM. It helps to read it when i get a wandering notion of presenting them with something that i would have hated as a child as a main meal, rather than as something on the side of the foods that they already like and will eat, or a 'trying thing' while i am cooking for myself.

Life's too short and it all works out in the end.

One of my cousins as a child was the fussiest eater you have ever met but has a fairly balanced and adventurous diet in her 20s now. (Oh, and an amazing figure!)

i think the whole 'broad range of foods' thing has to be over-rated. it's only in the last twenty or so that we've had peppers and fancy things air-lifted into this country, previously we had root veg and leafy greens in winter and toms and fresh salads and beans etc in summer.

it's a fuel at the end of the day, surely, so if the vitamins and the energy is there, what's the diff over that they're eating?

personally i think if you display a fixation with food, any food battle will be all the more profitable for the child so i consciously ignore it all, to the point of not really commenting on 'good' or 'bad' eating. we eat fairly good food in our house, so she's not goiing to come to any harm, i think.

i even find it weird that old people ask me if dd is a 'good eater', tbh. she's sturdy and energetic and healthy, so she must be getting enough calories etc, surely?
...'course she's only 18 months old, so no doubt i have things to learn.

dd2 and dd3 have had the same packed lunch for school every day (ham sandwich, crisps, apple and penguin biscuit) for about 4 years until 2 weeks ago when dd2 (the most conservative child alive) asked for something different as "it was getting a bit boring". I'd given up suggesting that a change might be nice around about month 6 of the regime so this was a bit of an hallelujah moment for us - she is nearly 11 so it took some time to get there.

however, it is also a complete PITA as we now have a lot more deliberation and decision making and shopping is more of a challenge as I have to try and predict what they might want.

I realised last night that I am mighty sick of making at the very least two different meals every night because this one doesn't eat this, and that one doesn't like that. From now on, one meal every evening. If you don't like it, I don't care. No child ever starved itself to death (apparently).