5 year old becoming fussy with foods

[Lauren8642]

Hi all my 5 year old used to eat everything I think it helps that I’m a veggie and her dad’s a meat eater so she gets a big variety of different foods and she would always try things.
But recently she’s been going off food she’s like in the past and when I make her something new 90% of the time she turns her nose up at it kind of like eating with her eyes.
When she says she doesn’t like it I always make sure I see her try it but then I have to make to something else (ends up being quick like beans on toast or something in the air fryer)
I can’t ask her what she wants for tea every night or the answer would be pizza 🫣.
I’m also trying to cook stuff that me my eldest and my 8 month old can all eat together (my partner works away a lot over tea time)
instead of cooking loads of different meals.
Whats the best thing to do is this situation?

I wouldn’t make separate meals. I would make sure there’s at least one filling thing on the table she likes and then she can choose. Like if you and baby are having a pasta dish she could choose whether to have sauce or cheese but pasta is what she’s having. Relax about it and make meal times about chatting, company and no pressure. She will come out the other side of it. Fussy kids are so common but properly fussy adults are actually pretty rare!

You don’t have to make something else.

Have there been any changes since she started at school? My son ate cauliflower until he started Reception and his friend said it was yucky. Children often changes their likes and dislikes to the same as their friends. Is this a possibility? Sometimes this can be a way to get a child eating new food by having play dates with children who like, say, tomatoes. Don’t go down the route of making separate meals as this will make more work for you in the long run. Keep serving the meals you would normally serve.

What Legomum789 is saying about influence at school. DS is finally coming out of his chicken nugget phase. At one stage he was refusing most fruit & veg, just asking for cereal etc… But he’s come home from school with a few new ideas in the last week or two, and we’re turning a corner at last! So, I definitely think they can be persuaded either way, but in my DS case, it was only when it’s his / a mate’s idea. Nothing I did made a difference, it’s frustrating!

@Legomum789 there hasn’t been any changes of what I know I school we pick her dinners together and it’s on a three week rotation she pretty much has the same thing but I have noticed when I ask her if she’s ate it all she says no and the school portions sound tiny aswell!

Some of the foods she used to love were broccoli and omelettes she’s even said once I cooked her this lentil pasta sauce she woofed it down I froze the rest had it the following week she said she doesn’t like it and it doesn’t look nice that time I did make her eat it because she liked it the week before.

Its tough I don’t want her to go hungry but then I also don’t want her to be fussy like her dad doesn’t eat any fruit or veg and apparently he was the same ate everything till around 5 then stoped.

@Gowlett what was you doing when he was just asking for cereal did you give in or make him eat what you was cooking?

@Wtfareyoutalkingabout I can’t let her go to bed hungry though I don’t want her to have a bad relationship with food

I’d make sure there’s 1 part of meal she will eat. Don’t make something separate. Kids can skip a meal! It’s a slippery slope to ask her what she wants. You’re the parent, you decide on family
meals. It won’t give a bad relationship with food if she is hungry.

You really can. Mine started the “I don’t like it” thing. Well, ok… but we have a food budget and I’m cooking one meal for everyone. He gets a banana and a cup of milk before bed if he says he’s hungry. Funnily enough he eats all his dinners. I provide the food, it’s his choice whether or not to eat it.

You could agonise over this or you could say “this is what we’re having, eat as much as you want to” and leave her to it.

Gave him cereal. He was saying no to pasta, toast… Then he’s get constipated of course. Exactly the same as you, he used to eat a good variety, and would eat something one day but the next day “I don’t like that anymore”. I just had to get whatever worked into him, he was bringing his lunch home from school too! I’m glad it’s getting better, but that’s random & may change again…

Also, I’m not being too enthusiastic now he’s back eating more fruit & veg, as the minute I approve of anything it will be “uncool”. I’m remaining neutral & just providing more variety without any praise etc… It’s working so far!