Help I'm in a rut! ...

[mamamidwife]

Its hot meals ideas that i need,im so lacking inspiration! I have a very fussy 3 1/2 yr old. He is probably like a lot of kids I have to hide veg. But he really struggles with textures, which he has since weaning. (Paediatrician says its due to his acid reflux which is only now well controlled after a painful few years)
Anyhow I find myself repeating the same few meals which is getting monotonous. My younger daughter is much more open minded and varied in her tastes and I don't want her limited either by his dislikes! Any ideas fellow mums?

I mostly rotate fish fingers or fish with potatoe/ peas
Sushi (oddly enough)
Homemade pizzas with red pepper and tomato topping
Stuffed pancakes
A blitzed bolognaise with pasta shapes

It all seems very dull!

Shameless bump!

Anyone?

Rats, just typed long list and lost it!

Lasagne
Shepherds/cottage pie
Fish or fish pie
Sausage casserole
Toad in the hole
Sausage mash and gravy
Scrambled eggs on toast
Meatballs without sauce (prefers the lamb ones)
Non-spicy fahita type wraps
Home made chicken nuggets

Also some of our food but we tend to eat non-appropriate spicy stuff.

And I try new things too, mostly from this book which is all v easy to do.

If I remember more I'll post again. DS really struggles with textures too, anything too slimy (yoghurt) or too hard to chew (unminced meat). He'll usually give them a try though with a bit of encouragement.

I'm afraid I'm not sure I can offer great suggestions as my ds1 (4.5yo) remains terribly fussy after severe reflux and feeding phobia (with hospital admissions) as a baby. Although we are slowly but surely expanding what he will eat.

Homemade chicken nuggets are tasty - I do them in 2 ways. 1 is to dip the chicken strips in a beaten egg with a spoon of milk in it, then roll in crushed cornflakes. Ds1 gets to bash up the cornflakes in a freezer bag with a rolling pin first! Or else I dip them in red pepper pesto and then in fresh breadcrumbs, and bake in the oven for about 15 min.

Will he eat sausages? Sausage and yorkshire puddings are something ds1 will eat, as he likes dry textures. You can get him to help you make mini toad in the hole in a muffin tray with a couple of little sausages in each.

Frittata is also easy to make with pretty much anything you like in it (fat chance of my ds1 eating that but maybe yours will?!)

Thanks HP, lots if suggestions there, a couple I have done, like scrambled egg,with mixed success, he prefers my hubands version of this! But I should give some ago, like toad in hole!
Mummyx2 I love the sound of the chicken nuggets, I think he would go for these. They sounds really easy to make.
It really has been an uphill struggle with the reflux though. So fussy and such a reluctance to try new foods, even though I k ow he likes lots of flavours, it's more textures that's the issue. He also has a problem with temperature of food and drink. Can't cope with hot or too cold. Ice cream he usually gives up on! Surely that's not normal!

I've found a book called 'Just take a Bite' very helpful, it helps distinguish between fussiness and genuine food phobias or resistant eaters, and how to manage accordingly. Also, ds1 has been under the dietician and they have given us a stepwise approach to eating and trying new foods. A child with a fear of eating new things is perhaps never going to put it in his mouth straight away, but might learn to tolerate it on their plate, and that is to be seen as a positive step. The steps go something like:

Will allow it on their plate, without having to touch it
Will touch it with a fork or spoon
Will touch it with a finger
Will pick it up
Will give it a kiss or a lick
Will give it a nibble

Ds1 has slowly progressed up those steps for a few foods, and now eats carrot sticks which a year ago he wouldn't have even touched. It can be a slow process requiring a lot of patience, but I've found following those steps really helpful.

Interestingly, ds1 thinks ice cream is "too cold", too!

Dc1 is almost 2 and mainly eats:

Cottage pie
Lasagne
Fish fillet with veg and potatoes
Spaghetti Bol
Jacket pot
Pasta with prawn or chicken
Fish fingers

Veg wise it's usually just peas, carrots or broccoli.

Thanks mummyx2i might take a look at that book, although I know the underlying cause for his fussiness, it's so frustrating to get him to try new foods. I keep thinking, other kids his age are eating other things and winding myself up!

It's only in the last 6 months we have managed to get him to eat peas, and he has very recently started trying raw carrot in wrapped in salami

That's good! I also found it very frustrating and demoralising to compare ds1's eating with that of his peers. The only veg he will eat is raw carrot sticks, and Asda potato and carrot waffles (do they count?!), and the only fruit he has are two flavours of baby food from a jar - they have to be eaten from the jar, and be the same flavours by the same make. I have felt a lot better about his eating since I have stopped comparing his eating with other children - it is hard not to, but instead of then feeling good about his little accomplishments, you'll think "why won't you just eat something $%!" Come join the resistant eater support thread over on behaviour and development!

I never knew such a thread existed, I'm quite new round these parts I will take a look

The problem with DS is that I am comparing him to DD who is 23 months younger and already much broader in her eating tastes and textures, and at the same time I don't want to limit her to what he eats

Ah yes I get that! Dd2 here is 10mo and doing well with solids - I went a bit overboard on the Annabel Karmel cooking as I couldn't cope with having another resistant eater like ds1, so she has been rather spoiled with home-cooking. At some point she is going to become old enough to look at ds1's chicken nuggets and waffles and say "why does he get to eat that??!"

There's a really great Annabel Karmel recipe called Hidden Vegetable Pasta - you cook up lots of different vegetables (mushroom, courgette, carrot - whatever you have) with a tin of tomatoes and then blend it so it looks just like plan tomato sauce. It's great (except if your DC hates tomatoes...).

I saw some flipper dippers in Morrisons the other day with sweet corn and peas hidden inside BUT I have the horrible feeling they're going to have the texture of veggie fingers which make me boak, so your DS would probably suss them out right away!

I hid DP's cauliflower cheese under cheesy mash once.

Please don't tell him

OP have you read My Child Won't Eat by Carlos Gonzalez? It was recommended to me when my dd was about that age. Also, has DC 1 ever been checked for tongue tie. It can appear just like reflux and can affect them eating solids.

Salted, I might try that recipe, he likes ketchup which led me to develop this to make 'mummy's own ketchup' as tomato/peper sauce for pizza- I could extend this for pasta maybe.

Chubby- I like your hidden cauli, I won't tell!

Jilted, I've not seen that book but I will check it out on amazon. He's definitely not got tongue tie, and has also had a barium X-ray recently to rule out hernia, which did show up the reflux well.