3 year old not eating proper food in Canaries

[kitchenSink5]

We arrived yesterday to our lovely hotel in the Canaries (on our first ever family holiday) and since then my 3yo DS has eaten practically nothing and certainly nothing good. He half tries things in the restaurant - as in a cursory lick and then demands ice cream. We gave in once and now feels like all hope of getting anything proper into him is gone. He didn't even eat much ice cream!

Any advice from all you knowledgeable parents out there will we very gratefully received. Thank you x

He'll be fine. Man can survive on ice cream alone (for a brief period, on holiday).

I don’t think this is unusual at all. Everything is new and different. Mine usually survived on chips and ice lollies. Just relax and enjoy your holiday. It’s only a week and won’t do him any harm.

My DS survived on milk and plain Cheerios for a period of about 8 months of his toddler years. It wasn't great but he survived.

Your DC has had very little time to get used to totally new surroundings and also a flight. Offer food you know he'll like, use ice cream as a bribe. But give him time to settle down.

Don't make a fuss about eating or you'll create a problem that will last a lot longer than your holiday.

It’s only a week, just give up you’ll only get annoyed and it’ll ruin your holiday. She won’t starve and as long as at home she has a well balanced diet there’s nothing to worry about. My youngest only ate ‘bread swords’ ( baguette) for a week, with the occasional kiwi thrown in, he’s still alive and still eats well at home after the holiday.

DS is autistic and we didn’t venture abroad until he was about 7. We felt fairly chilled at the prospect of him eating burger and chips for a week until we realised so many restaurants served burgers without a bun. Honest to god the first day meltdown was epic I spent the rest of the week carting around burger buns from the local supermarket in my handbag just in case.

I have a constant supply of wotsits in my handbag as I know he’ll usually eat them if all else fails!

We did:

Chips
plain grilled chicken
plain pasta
pizza
grazing plate with couple of things
fresh fruit
yoghurt
bread and butter

We had not a single holiday DD would drink milk. She had yoghurts and didn't suffer.

Don't stress, a week or so won't be a disaster and as long as he eats somthing it's fine.

We always allowed ice cream or cake as dessert, regardless how much or little DD ate. We encouraged fruit and bread for breakfast so we knew she had something to start the day.