Faddy kids thread.....support group here!!!

[chinwag]

Advice, recipes, tried and tested, all gratefully received. Especially packed lunches for faddy dd (7).

Lunch for one faddy DS: Peanut butter and chocolate spread sandwiches on granary bread (the chocolate makes DS eat the rest) with carrot sticks and banana. If he eats all his lunches all week he gets a treat on Fridays if he doesn't eat them he gets threats of going on to school dinners - that usually sorts him out. Dinner at night is very plain, no sauces or mixing of ingredients, plain pasta, broccoli and carrots or sweetcorn slightly cooked, chicken or fish. No pudding unless he has a bite of each thing. This is the only way I can get him to eat a balanced diet unlike DS1 who will eat absolutely anything and demand more.

nice one. Never thought of that.

sorry, misread the title there and had to pop my eyes back in their sockets, thought it said "fatty kids" !!!!!!!

oh I'll join this bloody club. Wish I didn't have to though ...

Katiekin - do we have the same ds?

T'other ds will not touch potato in any shape or form, pasta or rice....He is Atkins Diet Boy....
Really only likes packed lunch type foods.

lol Flier

I would like to know how to persuade my children to eat salad or vegetables. They think that fruit is okay providing it is an apple or a melon. So clearly I have problems with fruit too.

I'd like to know how to get my DS (13 months) to eat any fruit at all!!

He does this strange thing though where he just looks at certain foods and he shivers and wont eat it - does that with most fruit! Odd child!

Really dont want to back to pureeing (sp) as it's took me this long to get him to eat lumpy stuff!

Any advice helpful

xx

Ds1 loves fruit smoothies.

Have you tried fruit dipped in chocolate sauce just to get them started.

Ambrosia chocolate custard is good for this (although I'm not sure its allowed on mumsnet )

hurlyburly and others - the key is to keep offering (though the wastage may break your heart..) If it's not there, they can't try it!
We tried a sticker chart with some limited success - a star for every new food tasted! Out of a list of around 20 we ended up with around 2 new foods each they agreed weren't disgusting but it's a start.

I have found several ways of disguising fruit and veg, but I am of the opinion that's just more trouble. ie I would like them to know what they like and dislike.
There are some foods which my children are allowed to hate IFSWIM. Everything else has to be tasted at least 10 times before they are allowed to say ''I don't like...sprouts''

I should add that this has been a long process for me. Other people will have tougher measures and may achieve more success. But I just don't want food to be a battle.
I do have a ''if you don't eat dinner, the only other options are fruit or bread and butter'' rule though. No begging for biscuits an hour after dinner.

kay1981 - I know it´s regressing a bit but have you tried making ice lollies from pureed fruit? At one stage I had to mash all veg together for DS and then draw a smiley face in ketchup on top then he´d eat the lot

Hurlyburly - how old are your dc and what kind of veg or salad have you tried?

Kay - I must admit I've not come across such a young child who doesn't like fruit. Aitch might be able to help you - have a look at the weaning section.

they are 9 and 7.

I have tried everything but not everything several times over.

My current techniques include:-

(1) Yes you can have pudding but only if you have a piece of fruit first.

(2) Yes you can have burgers (homemade) but only if you eat three leaves and a slice of tomato with it. How pathetic is that? Three leaves and a slice of tomato.

(3) You must eat at least one slice of mushroom in this lovely chicken casserole or you can't have seconds.

(3) Licking a cube of pineapple does not constitute trying it. You have to chew it and swallow for it to count.

I could go on. I will keep persisting. But it's an uphill battle that they are winning.

You see it is driving me mad - it has made me lose the ability to count.

Kay - my dd has never liked fruit. She can spot it hidden a mile off. She's 13 years now and I think now entitled to make her own mind up, so I've given up. She has nothing remotely fruity not yoghurts, juice or even sweets.

She is a very fussy child but I don't make an issue of it - what she likes she'll eat plenty of.

Hurly - mine are the same age I feel your pain...

I have one good eater (dd) and one fussy (ds).

Have you tried raw veg/salad - that's what dd seems to prefer.

For example, she will eat

carrots
red pepper sticks
cucumber
corn on the cob (cooked obv!)
mangetout
Cos or Little Gem lettuce
semi-frozen peas

OOOh can i join too? I feel like running out screaming alot of mealtimes. ds (7) HATES fruit and veg (KAY- he always has, even as a baby he showed a clear preference for meat type meals, and hated all my organic homemade purees btw, i was a vegetarian at the time lol!) I hide veg in tomato sauce which he will eat.
Both my kids hate mash...dd (5) will eat raw veg and fruit, but not cooked. Neither like casserole type things. It is too hard!!!
Packed lunch is tricky- ds loves cold pasta mixed with mayo, cheese and ham.
Hurleyburley, i totally know what you mean!!! My kids will have the teeniest pile of veg on the planet, and i will be like " have two carrot slices, then you can have some more pasta..." they do have to have some veg.
Lunchtime ideas would be gratefully received here as well - dd is ok, but ds is allergic to peanuts, and doesn't really like sweet things!!! (both dh and i love everything and eat a variety)
I used to love cooking, but its turning into a real chore. Once i did make my kids do a menu for the week, and the rule was that it had to be vaguely nutritious and each day had to be different. It did work, but I know they would have the same thing every week if we always did that
Sorry for the whine, but i totally get where you are all coming from!!

PS, I could sometimes throttle those smug parents who are all like "well, all we've ever had is organic, home made food, and they eat everything!!" grr

Can I join??

DD (4) is a nightmare. Only eats for main meals hotdog sauages, pizza (but not dark brown bits as in charred), noodles and spaghetti bolognese.

Will have cheese and ham sandwiches and banana fruit smoothies packs (refuses homemade) and fromage frais. Will not eat any fruit and veg, gags on fresh banana and potato in any form - oh wait thanks to 'Stephanie and Sportacus in Lazy Town will eat red (and only red) apples!

DS (9mn) is happy to eat anything he's presented with!

Sorry forgot to say ds will only eat raw carrot, semi-frozen peas and olives. But he will eat some fruit, tf. And he is starting to come out of his non-eating 'phase' which has lasted for 2 years now. iirc, MB's dd has also branched out lately after a very long time of being fussy - there is hope!

Mine must be a slow starter then Mercy lol!

ok. So the 7-yr-old is currently howling in his bedroom purely because a slice of muchroom has been added to his plate of plain chicken, broccolli, carrot and cauliflower. Sigh. He's tantrumming and I haven't gotton into any kind of arguing or voice raising or anything. I merely remarked that the mushroom was only present so he could have the option of trying a bite.

This is a thread for me, I have two who are a nightmare. DD is 8 and slightly complicated by having dyspraxia, which meant she took a long time being able to deal with lumps and seems to be really sensitive to texture. To make things even worse it looks like a food bomb has errupted after she has eaten and it gets all over her face.

DS started off fine but seeing his sister kick off and being a toddler means that for the last year he has been a nightmare. Apparently fussy eating is a trait of DH's family, all the children have been horrendous with it.

Yesterday was a success as I got them both to eat a bit of tomato. My current mantra is "you don't have to like it, just eat it"

Filthy

I bow to a mother who is capable of persuading a child to eat broccolli, carrot and cauliflower.

They'll eat carrots or peas. But sophisticated vegetables like broccolli and cauliflower? Wow.

Well done.

How did you do it?

I dunno.....

My dd's eating of vegetables reaches to the exotic heights of tinned sweetcorn. Nothing else AT ALL veg wise (unadulaterated veg that is). And pretty fussy in most other food.

She is 2.7 and I have just this week introduced the 'if you don't eat your dinner, or try x y z that's on your plate, then nothing else till the morning' technique. Not sure how it's going to go down so far. The two nights that's she ended up not eating any dinner and going to bed with only water on offer don't seem to have bothered her.

Grrrrrrrr!