Please can people share their advice on how to support my 5 year old fussy eater who will not try anything new...
He likes plain pasta/spaghetti, plain rice, hot dogs, plain white fish, plain gammon/ham, cheese, plain bread and butter,- you see the theme here
He will eat bananas and apples, and tolerate broccoli and carrot but only a tiny bit and slot of encouragement/you can't have pudding unless you try it.
The only thing in a sauce that he will eat is macaroni cheese although he will be funny about that if it looks different to the one we make at home.
He is now starting to eat jacket potatoes/mash so we are getting somewhere. But he will not try anything in a sauce or chips related.
He doesn't like fish fingers or chicken nuggets and wants us to take off the breadcrumbs.
We've tried a no thank you bowl where if he tries something but doesn't like it he can put it in the no thank you bowl - everything went in the no thank you bowl after a lick.
His version of trying is licking stuff and deciding he doesn't like it before he has even really tried it. So when we say if you try it you can have reward he will just about lick it to get the reward.
Tried saying he can't have crisps/biscuits unless he likes new food..he licked a mild curry the other day and instantly burst into tears cos he had already decided he didn't like it so didn't get the reward so I don't think this works/is fair for trying new food?
We just want him to be able to have more variety of meals like pizza, tomato pasta/Bolognese, curry, etc. it's really limiting his choice of meals when at school or childminder as he can't just have bowls of plain pasta/rice every day!
Any other advice or guidance is welcome!