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Parenting

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Original poster

So sick of cooking good food and it not being eaten!

10 replies

harryhausen · 06/03/2013 17:58

Feeling really angry tonight. I'm so sick at trying so hard with meals and the dc's (8 and 5) turning their nose up at it.
We used to do the same (ish) each week...

Bangers and mash, spag Bol, pasta, chicken stir fry etc.

Until 8 yr old dd starts 'picking' at anything that's not chicken or sausages. She basically stopped eating the spag Bol (I really feel she's on the way to being a veggie). Then my ds declares he hates sausages. So I replace his sausage with fish fingers.

Tonight, I'm thinking ....they like pasta, they like cheese - I'll do macaroni cheese with veg. Ds has eaten the veg and refused to try the macaroni cheese. Declaring he doesn't like it. I mean wtf???

He's sat in the lounge now not having eaten 80% of H's dinner. He never eats all his sandwiches at school either do he must be starving.

I'm sick of it. I'm sick of the ^boredom^ of them not only not even trying anything new, not even trying anything they like in a new combination! - also going off things they've always liked.

When they go others houses and people ask me what they like I always shrug my shoulders. Their guess is as good as mine!

I know some advice is to starve into eating non-fussily, but my ds must be ^starving^ now and he's still not budging.

Ok moan over. I'll probably feel better tomorrow. Just so tonight.

Anyone have any wisdom?

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Original poster

harryhausen · 06/03/2013 17:59

Sorry that should be ^his^ dinner, not H's.

OP posts:

Unacceptable · 06/03/2013 18:03

A lot of my dinners end up going into the fridge for lunches the next day or get frozen for another evening.

Hope it says more about the fussy kids than it does about my cooking!!

bellablot · 06/03/2013 18:28

Give them only 2 choices at dinner - take it OR leave it! Simples. If they don't like sausages one day, why would you change it for something else? Your enabling their fussiness I'm afraid. Don't even discuss it with them, they don't eat one meal you can be sure they'll eat the next!

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wannabedomesticgoddess · 06/03/2013 18:36

There is one meal made in our house and you take it or leave it.

I have more trouble with DP than DD though

Purplecatti · 06/03/2013 18:49

I too had two options for dinner. You ate it or you went without.

mummy2benji · 06/03/2013 19:25

I can totally empathise. My ds is 4 and has an eating phobia which stems from severe reflux as a baby. He eats sausages, potato waffles, chicken nuggets and, uh wait no that's it. I am a keen cook and had been so looking forward to being able to make lots of tasty wholesome homecooked food. But he won't eat anything I make or even try it and it is so frustrating. So I feel your pain! But I agree with the posters above, if they aren't afraid of eating and have deeper issues, then fussiness should be treated with a "take it or leave it" approach. Maybe ask them to tell you some meals which they would like to eat or try, and make those that week. If they don't eat it, they go hungry.

abbyfromoz · 06/03/2013 19:33

Ask them in the morning what they would like for dinner (give 2 healthy options)... Worth a try?

MaryRobinson · 07/03/2013 10:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

VictorTango · 07/03/2013 10:26

This is my children atm.

5yo dd1 has gone from wolfing anything put in front of her to picking at everything - even things she used to like. It's maddening!

DD2, 2yo, has always been more fussy so I've mainly let her pick and not taken much notice. But on top of dd1's recent fussiness it's made dinner times infurating.

What I have done, in order to take the tension away from the dinner table, is ban all snacks inbetween lunch and dinner. This means no after school snack. No fruit. They wait until dinner. Then if they want to pick at their dinner and not eat, they can. I know if they were starving they would eat. So I can relax knowing they must be eating what they need. And tbh, banning snacks has made them eat more at dinner time.

Pudding is a piece of fruit. We are back to basics in this house until the fussiness is over.

And I agree, one meal - take it or leave it.

fairylightsinthesnow · 07/03/2013 13:53

Hi
its incredibly annoying isn't it? It helps a bit if it is the same meal that you are eating as a) they are more likely to eat it and b) at least its not an entire waste of time. The banning snacks things helps but I sometimes find I get in a bit of a vicsious (sp?) circle with that. They eat a LOT of breakfast but early, so want a mid morning (by which I mean about 10am) snack which is fine but then they eat little lunch so then are starving by 3pm and then don't eat dinner. I move lunch forward where I can and they don't eat a lot then anyway. Other than that, all I can suggest is the "take it or leave it" approach but don't offer aletrnatives.

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