HELP!! DS will only eat bland food

[beckyboow88]

DS is 2y9m and will only eat bland food, pasta no sauce, chicken on its own or unhealthy oven food. I've tried rewarding with special treat if he eats up, only serving up healthy things but he's refusing to back down but he's quite happy to go hungry. He eats fruit but veg makes him gag. I'm completely stuck. Help please would be very appreciated.

Sounds like you need to introduce very slowly and with a minimum of fuss, just dont tell him what he is eating!

If he eats fruit, then maybe its the cooking that he dislkes. mix up a small bowl of chopped fruit with a couple of small(pretty)veg,so he gets the taste. cucumber,tomato,avocardo that sort of thing .
If he doesnt go for it and you are eating it as well, than take it away,with nofuss. Kids have to try something new quite a few times before they get the taste for it,and can really throw the brakes on if they get chastised for not eating.

If hes eaating the unhealthy oven food ,im guessing its pretty highly seasoned and the opposite of bland.
Maybe coax him by not having any of the unhealthy food for anyone,but put a plate of the stuff you want him to eat on your plate only,saing"this is lovely mummies food, imnot sure if your ready for it just yet",proceed to eat it with relish and see the reactionhe gives.
He might just be modelling on what other people are eating at the table.

I'm sure I read some stat about how many times you may have to present the same food - 20 or 40 times?!

Anyway just keep offering, they do eat eventually but it is quite soul destroying binning the stuff

what is 'unhealthy oven food' please?

Its so soul destroying you're right, fresh food is expensive and I'm not going to lie but I'm broke, binning it seriously depresses me. He was a great eater as a baby, was weaned on pureed fruit and veg, all his meals were cooked and blended - never ate a jar unless we were out and about. I don't know where it went wrong!!

Ive tried to make veg appealing, putting it on homemade pizza, making smily faces etc. but he still protests, I once managed to get peas in his mouth by pretenting they were green footballs (hes a little football crazy) but then he gagged again!!

By 'unhealthy oven food', I mean chicken nuggets, fish fingers, pizzas, waffles, chips etc. Pretty much anything beige!! lol.

I had similar with DD2, was a great eater as a baby and then went through a funny phase at 2. I made her chicken nuggets with chicken breast and crushed up weetabix. She couldn't eat eggs due to an allergy so i used melted margarine to bond the weetabix to the chicken. i would add fresh herbs too.

I've been trying the keep trying it one on myself with cucumber ever since I had children. Even after 13 years. I still don't like it.
Nothing constructive to add, DD2 is very very slowly getting better, but she is 10. Agree it's very wearing, I end up fishing her diner out first and then adding sauce and interesting veg to every one else's.

Just to clarify OP, would you call homemade fish fingers, pizza, chicken nuggets 'unhealthy oven food'? These are all healthy and easily made.

We make homemade Pizza regually, base and all - he loves helping with it, I let him decorate it and he will eat it although wont put anything other than cheese and ham on it but I'm happy with that. The problem is Im on a fairly limited budget, fresh meat and fish is quite pricey. I want him to be able to eat something like casseroles, bolognese, things in a sauce as I want to eat with him and I cannot bearto eat dry things. Also he will be going to nursery 4 days a week as of Sepotember as I'm going to go back to college to retrain. Im worried the poor little man is going to starve!!

Don't worry. DS1 as a 3 year old would only eat cheese and bread, no fruit or vegetables. Now as a 5.5 year old he ate a full Sunday dinner tonight of his own volition. Chicken, peas, carrots, green beans, potatoes, yorkshire puddings and some beetroot (roasted with thyme).

They do get there, but you have not to worry about it.

OTOH, DS2(17 months) ate everything and seems to have no food dislikes at all...!

No advice, but DD is 2yr 1 mth and pretty much the same as your son. Sometimes her pooh is completely beige, just like the food she eats. TBH I also hate throwing stuff away, so am guilty of doing her things like garlic bread for her, as I know she will eat it.

I had hoped that sending her to nursery would help her diet as DS went there and he eats anything. But she does 2 days with a gap in the middle so can bulk up on food at home so doesn't need to eat at nursery. But, she has a fantastic key worker who is really helping her with food. Last week she ate the sauce from the lamb hotpot. A real breakthrough. Talk to nursery when he starts and they will probably help. Also, hard to starve if there for 4 days as hopefully he will crack when he sees the others eating.

My mum was telling me on Friday that my sister used to only eat peas and chocolate mousse when she was DDs age. She is now 40+ and won't touch peas ever! But has a very healthy diet otherwise. She is doing an ironman triathlon in a couple of weeks.

Good luck!