When did your DC stop being fussy eaters and start eating like normal human beings?

[TheRozzers]

Oldest DD is 11 and would happily live on chicken nuggets and pizza if we let her.

Younger DC seems to be following suit.

We rarely eat as a family as they flat out refuse normal food (by normal I mean anything containing onions, garlic, cooked vegetables or a sauce of any kind).

They will happily eat toddler food - plain pasta, grated cheese, raw carrot, cucumber sticks.

Please tell me they will grow out of it?

Both of mine (21 and nearly 18) have been on sports teams for years and that's really helped them follow balanced diets, because their coaches emphasized good nutrition. If their friends and teammates are avoiding junk food and choosing protein/veg/good carbs instead, it's very helpful!

Mind you, they won't turn down a nice dessert, but they mainly eat well :-).

For my oldest it was going abroad at 8 and experiencing buffet restaurants where she could try without any pressure. That seemed to make a huge difference

For my oldest it was going abroad at 8 and experiencing buffet restaurants where she could try without any pressure. That seemed to make a huge difference

Really annoying the posters who chirp up that their kids will eat anything due to their perfect parenting.

So much is nature as well as nurture. I read all the advice and did baby led weaning, dc1 loved mackerel pate, home made humous, home made meatballs, spinach etc. Gradually started to refuse more and more, and now at aged 11 has 4 meals I cook on rotation, plus a reasonable amount of lunch/ breakfast items. Not too restricted nutrition wise but very restricted meal wise eg pasta with cheese is fine, macaroni cheese an absolute no due to texture.

It's beyond frustrating but no amount of persuading, bribing, no other choice, cooking together etc has made any difference in the last 8 years. Suspected ND, and gets upset at pressure to try so I have given up, rely on safe foods, but model healthy eating and opportunity to try new foods (dill has just been sampled and approved, though doesn't expand our repertoire much).

Desperately hoping they'll grow out of it in teenage years but not holding out a lot of hope. You absolutely have my sympathy OP.

@ChalkOutlines That's scary. Have you discovered why?

My boys are fine and always have been. Dd is the youngest and at 13 is still a nightmare unfortunately.

One child who is very fussy. No drama but gags and wont go in. He wishes he liked more things. The other child will eat anything.
Treated exactly the same.
Beware the smug parents who think it’s all down to their incredible parenting. There’s a big dollop of chance involved too.

About four for our oldest, our youngest is four and seems to be living on roti, although she did eat some okra today. As a toddler she ate everything, so she’ll get there again it just takes time.

About 5 when he developed a taste for Wagamama’s katsu curry-and it was upwards after then

I don’t understand how children don’t eat onions and garlic. It’s in most foods from weaning stage onwards eg baby curry, baby bolognaise, toddler ratatouille.

its just part of life in my house and if my kids said they suddenly wouldn’t eat it they wouldn’t be eating any of our meals.

Onions are one of the foods that are likely to trigger ibs symptoms if a person has an irritable bowel.

it’s suggested you avoid them if you have bowel issues.

yes, they are generally used as a base in many cooked foods (along with tomatoes which also can be problematic) but they’re a common irritant.

your classic British meat and two veg and potatoes doesn’t have onions (or tomatoes or dairy)

My son was fine until some severe health issues which caused him to be unable to eat for 2 months and since then, along with some restrictions due to said health issues, he just doesn't enjoy food anymore and finds eating to be a chore.

So he can eat what he wants, when he wants pretty much. Eating is the priority.

Yeah but do most kids have Ibs?

Not really, she is on the waiting list for an ASD diagnosis, but who knows. Even more frustratingly, She weaned perfectly fine as a baby, which is why I wasn’t too bothered when she dropped her milk. Then she started dropping foods until there was nothing left. Didn’t help that she didn’t feel hungry for years.Literally had to start all over again, including toast. She was 3 and a half when she accepted pancakes. It’s not even like she likes all “crap”/fast food. At least life would be easy then. No processed meats, no pizzas, nothing like sausage rolls, most convenience foods etc. We can’t just pop into Greggs and feed her.

@ChalkOutlines That's so hard, especially if she doesn't feel hungry. Perhaps she has AFRID, a friend's son (14) has it. His safe foods are slowly increasing, but it's been a slow process.

I don’t have children yet. I was a fussy eater until about 15 then I just decided I wanted to try Japanese food then it went from there. I’ll eat almost anything now. I got my subject access request from my doctors and apparently my mum took me to the doctors at 3 because all I’d eat was bread and pasta! I absolutely grew out of it though.

My daughter is like this. The eats a very beige diet. What i do is i add stuff to the plate that I know she won't eat. Its exposure. She won't eat any veg but she will it a baby pouch with carrot parsnip and apple. She will eat apples, pears and stewberrries. She does my like anything mushy like porridge, potato or banana. She only will eat certain brands even though shes never seen the packets and heaven forbid something is changed. She started refusing nuggets because the reduced fhe salt content. I basically do a plate with lots of bitty bits some shell eat and some she won't. I put no pressure at all. She's a good weight and height ([98 percentile for both) and gets her multivitamins.

When I got old enough to choose and buy my own food.If I didn't want what was on offer from mum
So when I was a late teenager, maybe sixteen, when I had a saturday job.

Weirdly I realised I wasn't the one with food issues.My mother was. My mother clearly had a lifelong eating disorder and would only eat a very limited range of foods. Most of which I did not like. Everything had to be plain.I wouldn't eat salad or vegetables that she served up.Because there was never any sauce or dressing with it.And I genuinely dont like the taste of them plain.

Everything had to be plain chicken, salad or a dry, crusty roll with a scraping of butter.

You name it she wouldn't eat it. I hadn't ever eaten pasta until I was about sixteen. Mum wouldn't even eat pasta and I realised now she was avoiding carbs and potatoes because it's fattening.

Realised I absolutely loved pastas and sauces.Pizzas salads with dressing on them. Vegetables cooked as ratatouille or as vegetable bakes.

I guess that's not the answer you were looking for but I think once they're old enough to make their own choices.And buy and cook their own food.Maybe then.

I think of a lot of fussy food issues is deliberately annoying the parent.

sounds like they have never ate a varied diet, so by age 11 they tend to vote with their feet.

Oooo I want some of that now

I find it scary that some people on here are still essentially advocating starving children into submission because 'hungry children will eventually eat what they're given' and such like. They might, but why would anyone treat the children they love and care about in such an abusive and combative way?

I don't give a damn if people think I'm 'pandering to fussy eaters', I work with my kids and what they'll eat to ensure they have a healthy diet and I can live with it being a bit limited. My job is to get them to 18 happy and healthy, what they choose to eat after that is up to them.

Lots of people with 'fussy eaters' have mentioned ND/sensory issues. It's worth remembering that ND children already face a mountain of extra stress in everyday life compared to other children. They don't need the trauma of being left unnecessarily hungry to prove a point on top of this.

I was a fussy eater in the 90’s until about 15/16 when I started going out with friends and started eating out. Hated the idea of pizza up till then but changed overnight and loved it. Will eat pretty much anything now.

This is one that always divides the perfect parenting of people who never had a fussy eater and those who just tried to keep their DC fed.

DS1 ate everything you gave him from the monument he had his first spoonful of baby rice, and embarrassingly I would tell other parents 'if they're hungry, they'll eat'. Then I got DS2, who now at, I'm afraid 25yo, is still tricky to feed but no longer my problem.

I think a lot of like and dislikes are the body knowing best, especially in very young children before they've had it trained out of them. Onions are something that upsets a lot of people. It wouldn't be surprising if those people didn't enjoy them.

DS2 would never eat dairy in any form, not even custard or ice cream. And guess what?

Well no, my DS would literally starve himself if there was nothing he could “safely” eat. No amount of nothing else in the house would compel him to put something in his mouth if he didn’t like the smell, colour of texture.

I developed a menu of meals I knew he would eat, and added new things to go alongside. He did eat a variety of home cooked meals, not beige food, but if something put him off that was that. Eating out was much more of an issue because if he was having lasagne and it didn’t look or taste like my homemade one, he couldn’t eat it.

He’s 13 now and is much more adventurous and we pick foods/restaurants where there will be a few familiar options for him. He’ll still say though that his favourite food is food made by mum at home.

It’s really not the case that kids will always eat what you serve them if there’s nothing else. I’m sure you have things that you just won’t eat, why would kids be different.