Advice for Family with a Fussy Eater

[GenerationX]

Hello - I'm a new poster.

I have a very happy and healthy DS age six. Trouble is he is a very fussy eater - his staples are - any veggie or fruit, peanut butter, jam, pasta, rice, cheese, yogurt, nuts, bread, and of course sweets and ice cream.

I realize what he eats is healthy and I am happy about that, but its so limiting & boreing. I took the road of picking my battles, but am afraid that I did the wrong thing, as if anything he is getting more resistant to trying new things. MIL says its cause I care (not helpful, but that is another story). He's a little thing - but on the curve, and no one but me seems to care.

I want to start introducing more food, but not sure what - we eat a lot of spicy food - which I know is not good, and to be honest we are not good at cooking for us - we both work full time and - well you know...

I just feel if I don't start now he will be 20 years old and eating plain pasta with broccoli.

Any thoughts or pointers, last night I had a bit of a breakdown over Chicken

As you say, it is not a bad diet, and it is certainly healthy. I would introduce new things gradually, together with something he will^ eat- just a small dollop of sauce with a big plate of pasta. Praise him for trying even if he won't finish it.

Ask him to list three things he really hates and try to stay off these. That will establish a hierarchy in his mind: maybe there are things I don't mind quite so much, maybe I could try one of those.

Ds (8)has just grown out of his fussy phase and will eat most things, but one of the few things he really hates is pasta sauce, funnily enough. SO I would give him extra leeway with that but insist that he try the steak and kidney pie or whatever.

oh cory thank you - in my lucid moments I do beleive there is a light at the end of the boredom.

DS also is restricted in what he will eat, his packed lunch is identical whenever he takes it (can be 5 days a week, depending on what is on the menu that term). One thing that does work is, as food is being dished up, putting a small piece of something on the table and saying "that's mine, don't you eat that..." looking away and hearing a chuckle as he eats it. It doesn't work with everything, if he really doesn't like something (stuffing for instance) he won't eat it, but a lot of meat he will eat like this even though he doesn't touch it when it is on his plate.

Another thing that has led to surprises in the past is letting him put his own food out. After refusing roast potatoes for years, we had a meal where we helped ourselves to food that was in dishes on the table, he decided to try one and loved it.

One last suggestion (and I appreciate you both work full time, am a single parent who works full time and... you know...), on a weekend, could you get your ds helping you prepare a meal, as sometimes this can help. You know, the I made this, its mine, and now I am going to eat it idea. Even if you start off doing fruit pies, and then move on to doing a veg pie, then try adding a little bit of meat or fish into a veg pie, so he enjoys the fruit pie, the veg pie and maybe he will try the meat/fish and veg pie because its a continuation on a theme (IYSWIM), then maybe do a meat and veg stew (like a pie but no pastry) and so on. It may help.