3.5 year old is getting fussier as he gets older

[koalabearboombox]

My 3.5yo eats PERFECTLY at nursery where he spends four days a week. At home, breakfast and lunch are generally fine (lunch is usually a lunchbox of bits and pieces, reasonably healthy). Dinner on the other hand is usually met with hysterics about it being yucky.

We are now down to about two safe meals... Mac and cheese and garlic bread, with a side of broccoli. Or veggie sausages, rice and broccoli. Anything else he will have a meltdown over and refuses to touch.

I'm wondering if he's just not very hungry by 4.30/5 or is too tired. But I'm also finding it extremely frustrating not being able to feed him anything except two set meals.

Do I continue with the set meals? Or do I persist with new things? (When I say new, I'm talking fish fingers and chips, even basic meals are so hit and miss)

I’ve three kids, one is a nightmare- the other two are fab eaters.

We even tried packed lunches for school but it was quickly whittled down to dry bread wrap 🙈

Eating is really the only autonomy they have over themselves and it’s not worth the gagging and upset. I will give my dd the food she likes but always keep offering other stuff as she will literally starve herself. I’m on holiday at the moment and she has eaten boiled rice and fries all week.

My dd will eat veg but won’t eat it if it has any kind of seasoning or herbs on it.

Keep going big on the broccoli - that’s a win. But don’t put too much pressure on meal times.

You've said that he eats perfectly well at nursery and mostly breakfast and lunch are fine at home, so it sounds like he's eating well a great deal of the time. Based on that I wouldn't limit him to the meals he only reliably eats. Keep offering him variety - if you limit what you give him then he doesn't have the opportunity to develop a like for something. My daughter spent a good two years being a rice refuser from the age of 2 until 4 and then suddenly she was fine with it. If the food isn't on the plate they can't try it. My other child doesn't particularly like cooked vegetables but they still go on the plate and sometimes, just sometimes she eats them.