DS (4 years) food obsessions

[Sickofbroccoli]

Not sure if this is really the right section to post in, hopefully it is. English is my second language so I apologise for any clumsy wording.

DS (4) seems to have developed a new strand of picky eating over the past few months. He will fixate on one particular food (it was pasta with a certain sauce, then toast and now is broccoli) for weeks at a time and refuse to eat almost anything else.

Today we’ve had the battle with breakfast (grudgingly ate a piece of toast), lunch - ate only the broccoli I put with the pasta and I know as soon as I serve anything for tea he will refuse to eat it.

I’ve taken him to the GP three times, but they say as long as he’s eating something it’s fine. But this doesn’t seem normal, the extent of it. If I didn’t serve up whatever the current obsession food is; I think he would actually starve. Toast seems to be a bit of a safe constant along side another food but on days where I’ve tried to hold out and not serve either he will not eat, not even something which should be appealing like sweets or ice cream.

He’s my second DC, DC1 has had picky stages too but not to this extent and I never felt like he would starve completely if I didn’t serve what he asked.

Has anyone experienced this with their children? Is there anything I can do or is it just time?

Allow him to help with the grocery shopping and mealtime prep as it will expose him to other foods without pressuring him to eat them. Helping with food prep doesn’t guarantee he will eat the food once it gets on the table, but it does help inch him towards being more comfortable around the food which WILL eventually encourage him to eat it.
Begin SLIGHTLY changing features of the preferred food. Changes must be noticeable so that he is aware of the change, but so subtle that he still accepts the food. Changing the shape is usually the easiest change to a food for a child to process. You can change shape by making pasta with a different shape, using cookie cutters to alter pancakes or sandwiches, or buying dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets instead of buying the regular nuggets.
Texture is usually the most difficult change to process, and this is why it is the last change to occur to his preferred food.
Keep offering rejected foods. It can take multiple exposures before the new food is accepted.

Quite normal for children to go through phases

Dd cooks with me at least once a day, she often asks to watch or help and I take her to the supermarket to help find things on the list or choose things which helps broaden her diet

Have you tried experimenting with a plate of food? Get different types of pasta shapes and get child to feel them, taste them when cooked, try different colours, roll them in paint.. Its about getting them used to it and you wouldn't really put anything in your mouth without touching/tasting/examining first it's the same for children.
Try a fruit salad but ask child to choose the fruit, help cut it up and talk about colours and tastes and textures. Share what you like best or which is too sour or too sweet etc. Make it fun and playful

With lockdown it has also become that this is what there is to eat, if you don't eat it you will feel hungry because we don't have anything else with the shops shut / I know you want 'x' right now, we have this instead and we will try to get that for you next week/tomorrow etc

Try new recipes, weaning books even can help

Also check there isn't an underlying reason, whenever my dd is ill with anything a few days before she will only eat yogurt.. Just worth checking and seeing if there is a pattern

A good food book can help too.. I think usborne have like a 1000 foods or something similar with all the pictures.

Oh and if all else fails, grit your teeth and bear with it.. Your child won't be serving only toast or broccoli on his wedding day
Kids go through phases..

And have him take a multivitamin. We use wellbaby syrup.. Smells awful but tastes like oranges so dd is happy!

I would investigate if I were you to rule out selective eating disorder. Does he have any signs of Autism? Xxx

He’s helped with food prep before and been enthusiastic, but it seems to abruptly stop as soon as he realises it’s something that might be put on a plate for him.

I have thought about autism, it was very briefly mentioned just before the lockdown by his preschool. It seems like more than just basic pickiness to me, nothing I tried to pull DC1 through his “normal” picky phase seems to have any effect and he’s so much more focused on his one food and it seems so much more extreme than DC1 ever was.

What's his current obsession? Could you serve that along with something else? Make sure he knows that he's not expected to eat the other food but he can't love it away either.

So if his current obsession is toast and you're having spaghetti Bol. Give him half a round of toast and a very small portion of spaghetti Bol.

We did this with our DD who was extremely fussy, just have to be really clear that they don't have to touch the new food and ignore any complaints.

I think giving him a good multivitamin as suggested above is a good idea too.

If the nursery have mentioned ASD an he has food issues, it might be a good idea to plot his height and weight and see if he's following his normal curves, I'd also keep a food diary for a few days and then speak to the GP.

If it is ASD it's much better to get him in the system before school starts

At the moment it’s broccoli, so almost every meal comes with a side of broccoli and he just eats that - and other vegetables now for the rest of us as my username is accurate

I’ll try plotting his height and weight thank you, That’s a really good idea along with a diary.