Getting more protein into picky 4 year old?

[lollilou2]

My DS is four and extremely picky. At dinner time all he will eat is Mash potato with gravy, and peas. He’ll eat burgers but obviously I limit them, and he snacks on pepperoni/peperami, cheese and yogurts.

He is on the list for an autism assessment.

Im worried since he leaves the protein part of his dinner that he’s missing out on nutrients, he won’t touch alternatives such as chickpeas, lentils etc.

Is there any other way of making up for what he’s missing in his meal?

what does he eat with toast? I swear hard by ground almonds if there is no nut allergy. I have done the following with toast;

-scraped butter on toast, a sprinkle of groudn almonds and scraped again so the 'grains' are relatively hidden.

• scraped the thinnest of thin layers of avocado topped with butter... so thin it is like a vague film
• mixed nutella with ground almonds
• mixed straberry jam with a thin layer of ground almonds

At the end of the day though DS just likes toast with butter. I buy the best proper butter I can (usually Presidents from M&S).

Homemade beef/turkey/chicken burgers.

Does he like smoothies? Add some protein powder (not the whey processed stuff, there’s a bran called Clean Lean Protein that’s made from pea protein with no crap added). Vanilla and chocolate are nice.

How about porridge? Oats contain protein.
Or a low sugar/homemade granola with the yoghurt?

Agree with pp that we don't need as much protein as we think, your DS is probably doing all right based on that list of snacks.

My 6 year old is autistic and so desperately fussy that tbh I don't really limit anything that he's prepared to eat, apart from sugary stuff.

Honestly @lollilou2 you don't need to buy burgers or even mess about adding things to make them. I buy good quality steak mince (or equivalent low fat ones, Aberdeen Angus is tasty) simple take a handful of the mince and make into a little ball, put inside a sandwich bag and flatten with the palm of your hand and freeze. No additives whatsoever and you'll probably find they are cheaper! You can add seasoning if he likes that or other things for yourself if you eat them such as sautéed onions, peppers, chilli flakes etc.