Child won’t eat anything in a sauce!

[CrispMonster12]

My son is 4. He loves his fruit and veg so can’t complain there. He likes pizza, fries, peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, prawns, chicken nuggets, sausages. Everything is bland and nothing gets mixed together. He won’t eat anything in a sauce. He just has plain pasta. He doesn’t eat anything like scrambled eggs, bolognaise, shepherds pie, soup. Has anyone got any tips to help him have a go with some new foods. I never push him or put pressure on him. He just says things are yukky just by looking and not even tasting! He has a cheese sandwich or a cheese jacket potato most days for school dinners.

My ds (14) was like that (and to some extent still is). He has graduated to eating macaroni cheese but still wouldn't eat bolognese, cottage pie, etc. He will tolerate small amounts of tomato soup only.

He does eat other foods but not with sauces or gravies

My DM used to make potatoes esp. mash totally inedible for me by putting sauce on it. It looked and felt like it had already been eaten by someone.
Next to each other always was fine.

Some children including my eldest are like this. What about a little pot of sauce that he can dip into to start? I think the issue is sometimes the mixing of foods, but if you present them separately then they will accept it more?

Also this is a great website kidseatincolor.com/

I would offer a mix of things, some things you know he'll eat and others with sauce that he has refused. Don't make special food. Mine don't like things. My 8 year old in particular prefers only plain pasta. Sometimes there is plain pasta and sometimes there isn't. Last nigh it was in a cream sauce. She doesn't like cream sauce. But it's all there was. So she ate the broccoli and the garlic bread and then decided she was still hungry so ate the pasta with the cream sauce. My approach is that it's okay to offer options sometimes but not every time. As long as there is something in each meal they'll eat, they also get things they won't, and if they are hungry, they'll eat it. I would also switch to school dinners as I found this was a great way to get them to try things they wouldn't as it's much easier to just get on with it when friends are happily tucking in.

As long as he is eating a nutritinal, varied diet with plenty of protein, frut and veg does it matter if you think it is bland.

I don't eat sauces either except gravy and then only on certain things. So what?

It's not unusual.

Just give him a bit of what you're having (in/on a separate bowl/plate) which he's free to try or not - then make him what he enjoys. Life really is too short to worry about it.

My DD is similar although she will eat scrambled eggs.

We have a divided plate so I put (for example) pasta in one segment, a tablespoon of bolognaise in the second, and veg / cheese which I know she will eat in the third. I don't make a fuss if she won't try the sauce, when she's finished I just take the plate.

She has been willing to try things where she can 'see' the component parts - she loves mushrooms and has eaten a mushroom from a mushroom stew - but won't try anything where the ingredients have been cooked down like bolognaise. If he likes sausages maybe try toad in the hole?

One of mine can’t abide ‘mixed together’ foods (he’s 6). It’s very frustrating as it’s incredibly limiting as to what we can eat as a family and prevents me being able to save time cooking ‘one pot’ meals or batch cooking as most of these things are stews, bolognese etc.

I don’t really have any answers but following to see if anyone has any useful suggestions.

This is most likely a sensory issue. Hopefully mild and one he'll grow out of. If he doesn't like "wet" food, which his what it basically sounds like, then to add variety I'd say just try a few different versions of things that are sauce free. Eg will he eat a chicken breast or a chicken leg/thigh (perhaps cut up, with skin removed). What about a pork or lamb chop? Can you offer a wider variety of steamed/grilled vegetables to encourage variety (and I highly recommend this as I made the mistake with DD of NOT offering enough variety and now we're in a pea/corn/brocolli/carrot cycle which is nutritious enough but BORING).

You might find he's willing to eat a stir fry, but made without sauce - so fry with some sesame oil and maybe flavour with a bit of soy or something and serve that way, with rice?

Mince can be fried "dry" instead of as a bolognaise/cottage pie style sauce. I do this with quite strong flavours but you could do it very simply with just some garlic and onion and serve with rice or pasta on the side and vegetables?

Will he eat fish? That might also work.

I sympathise. DD likes spaghetti bolognaise and loves pesto with pasta but otherwise is similar. She wouldn't touch a curry, risotto etc. She'll occasionally eat a bit of stew but mostly picks out the meat and the odd vegetable chunk. But I've learnt she will eat a fairly decent variety of things if they're all simply fried/grilled/steamed. I wish I'd figured it out earlier though as the variety isn't as good as I'd like. But we're working on it (she's 6)

My 13 year old is like this- has always hated 'wet' food so no sloppy Bolognese, lasagna, pies with lots of gravy filling, shepherds pie......

He's tried them all loads of times and just gags, unfortunately.

So he just eats drier foods and has a very healthy well balanced diet. Eg meals like chicken tikka, pilau rice and naans, steak and chips, roast dinner (no gravy), sausage casserole where he just had the sausages but no 'casserole', lamb or veggie and halloumi kebabs and couscous, Nando's style peri peri chicken,

He will eat plain pasta with butter or olive oil only.

I don't like food that supposed to be dry, having sauce, gravy or custard poured on it. Soggy Yorkshire puddings are revolting! Everyone laughs at me due insisting custard has to be separate.

My DS is 11and still like this. Only ham on sandwiches, no other fillings, and will have ketchup with chips but no cheese sauce, bolognese, gravy etc. No onion either, so no stews or chilli.

No, it doesn't get any less frustrating, and it's a nuidance when you have another child who will eat all the foods he won't, but not the beige stuff he'll eat. In our case, it may be linked to an SEN but we're still going through that referral process to be sure.

DS is a bit like this, although he has improved recently (now 5.5). To start with I did everything separately so plain pasta, bolognaise next to it etc and just let him get on with it. Now he’ll eat some meals mixed and some he’s still fussy about. But it’s definitely better than it was

My son is 9 next month and has been like this since he was 2. No sauces at all. Only plain dry food. The only vegetables he will eat is sweetcorn or carrots.

I am at a loss, dont know what to do! He has a big sister who at least always gives things a go. But I cant even get him to try anything!

Mine went through that phase but eat everything now. Has he started school yet as I think school dinners were the turning point. Being sat with peers eating things and having nothing to do apart from eat is a powerful motivator.

My eldest ate almost anything as dip.
It was through pasta sauce as dip, mushy peas as dip, gravy as dip etc etc that sauces as an embellishment became acceptable.
Gradually the dip made its way from a pot to the side of the plate and eventually things coated in sauce and then cooked in sauce became acceptable.

It made everything much simpler from that point!

DD was like this from about 5. (A dinner lady put gravy on her cucumber!). No problem before that. Never really a problem as she would eat: fresh fish, meat, vegetables and fruit, plain pasta with cheese, tuna filled baked potatoes and eggs were never a problem.

From about 14 she started trying things starting with white creamy sauces and then moving onto casseroles, gravy on a roast and then curries, etc.

It took a very long time to realise she really doesn't like cooked tomato so no pizza, bolognaise, lasagne or anything with a tin of toms tipped in. That's fair enough.

8yo DS was like this for years and still is to an extent. Things actually improved when I realised it was "wet" food which was the issue as, until then, I hadn't worked out the link between food he ate and food he rejected.
We had about three years where he basically ate meat and two veg with his portion being dished up with clear separation between the different things. He still has that a few times a week as I know he will eat it and eat it well.
There has also been major progress. He will eat soups provided it is completely blended so it is one liquid rather than having any identifiable food in it. On the other hand, if I am doing a casserole, that has to be done so each item in it is big enough to be identified and eaten separately. So, for example, if I am doing a beef casserole, the chunks of beef have to be suitably big and so does the carrot. The mushroom and onions have to be big enough to be identified and rejected!

I’m still going through this phase and I’m 54.

I’m much better than I used to be, but I have a real thing about gravy - the devil’s work. To me, it’s the gravy that makes things bland and all taste the same. You eat your food without gravy, you taste it imho.

My ds 8 is like this too and has been for a few years now. I get so jealous when other parents can cook a quick pasta meal as he won't even eat it dry for my ds it's all visual, he eats with his eyes and says tomato sauces/ beans/ spaghetti/ mince etc look gross

My dd6 will eat a good variety of foods but not if they are mixed in sauce or touching on a plate. Chunky saucy things are def a no go for her. She rejected bolognese sauce until I started to blend it until no identifiable bits remain. I would do bowl of pasta, bowl of nearly smooth sauce, bowl of green veg. Pita if you have no dishwasher though. The divided plate pp mentioned sounds good.

My DS was like this. He was SO fussy. Always ate plenty but was a real pain at about that age. Hardly any fruit. Only sweetcorn, peas and carrots for veg.

He's now 12, enormously tall and eats widely. Curry, Bolognese etc all fine. Veg and fruit.

Gravy is still a no but that's fine.

I did learn just not to fight. Often they just get curious and try more as they get older.

Seriously though, why on earth do you want to spoil a perfectly good Yorkshire pudding with gravy, or a pudding with custard? Just why?!