Flippin' fussy eating - is my three year old normal??

[mogwai]

My daughter is 3 years 7 months and seems to be becoming fussier and fussier about food. As she's my first, I'm not sure what's normal and if it's not normal, what to worry about.

Here's what she will eat and what she won't eat (and why). I'd be so grateful if others could look over this and say how it comares to their children at the same or similar ages.

Breakfast Stuff:

Will eat Weetabix, rice crispies, toast and jam, boiled egg. Won't eat bread with "bits" in, or wholemeal or toast that's too browned.

Other stuff:

Will eat pasta and mashed potato. Just starting to eat cous cous but won't touch rice or potatoes cooked any other way.

Will eat cheese or tomato pasta sauce but will reject tomato sauce if anything green in it (spent this evening straining flakes of basil from a ready made sauce my DH bought).

Will eat brocolli (at a push) and a few mouthfuls of carrot but no other veg at all.

Good with fruit - will eat apple, banana, mango, strawberries, raspberries, tomato. Eats pear and plum at nursery but not at home.

Will eat some fish if it's in a fish pie with cheese sauce. Baulks at fish in tomato sauce with pasta. Will eat beef and lamb but not really chicken or anythign based on mince.

It seems she would eat nothing but cheesy pasta and yoghurts if left to her own devices. She apparently eats everything they put in front of her in nursery. Drives me potty thinkign of things she will eat and means I usually cook two meals every night. Nightmare on self-catering hoidays when you really don;t want to be making cheese sauce from scratch.

Is this normal at this age? Anything I can do to help matters?? My DH has commented twice in recent weeks that he doesn;t think her diet is varied enough. She had 100% home made baby food as a baby so it's not as though I haven't tried!

Sounds pretty normal. Mine won't eat bread with bits in it. Or most green stuff. Definately no salad.

I used to be quite strict and make what I thought they should have and let them go to bed hungry a few times. Now I generally do them a nice tea (that they really like) one night and something more sensible and good for them the next evening.

They don't go much for roast dinners! Can't believe it and reject many puddings.

Kids basically like food that requires very little mastication eg hot dogs, pasta etc...

Wow could be my 3 year old daughter even to eating everything given at nursery to turning her nose up to everything at home.

I work on the basis that they don;t starve if they miss one meal so rather than have a battle to force the issue i let her down from the table with the "there won't be anything to eat till the next mealtime"

I think it's just a phase they go through, my son has made it to 5 with no harm from going through picky stages, so am very hopeful DD will do the same.

glad to hear it's not just mine. There was a programme on telly this evening about a mother who had food issues that she didn't want to pass on to her daughter.

Daughter looked about 3 and was shovelling food in - all sorts of stuff - green beans, curry, minestrone soup.

Started to worry about mine after that.

I've tried letting her down without eating but one night last week she woke up howling at 3am and demanding bread and butter. It was too hard to battle it out (I'm 24 weeks pregnant and I'm knackered). I went downstairs and made the sodding bread and butter and half an hour later she was banging on our bedroom door telling me she was too full to finish it (also howling).

Feel like I'm walkign a fine line - don't want to cause an eating problem but don;t want her wakign me up at 3am demandng bread and butter.

...and I went downstairs to make it shouting "this isn't a bloody hotel"

DS (just about to turn 3) is even more fussy than that.

If she eats everything at nursery then she is getting a good variety of nutrition. If you are worried, maybe write down what she eats over the course of an entire week and you'll probably find that there is a good enough range of different food types being eaten. Even better if your Dh is so concerned, then he could do it.

Can you quit on the double meals, just offer her bread if she won't eat whats on offer ?

Sorry don't have much of an answer. I did give DS some jars so clearly I have that to beat myself up with.
Please make it just a phase.

That's a positively BROAD diet. At 3, ds1 would eat;

Shreddies
Toast (no butter)
Pasta (no sauce)
Peas
Fish fingers
Rich Tea biscuits
Cheese

And that was about it. He is now 7, and he eats;

Cereal - Rice Krispies/Cheerios/Shreddies/Cornflakes
Toast/bread - no butter, but will have chocolate spread, lemon curd, cheese, marmite (not together!)
Fish fingers/Mince
Peas/Baked Beans
Fruit Smoothies
Pasta - cheese sauce/tomato sauce
Rice
Chips
Rich tea biscuits/Custard Creams/Mini Cheddars
Ready Salted Crisps (no other flavour)
Smarties
Chocolate buttons (no other chocolate)
Vanilla Ice Cream
Pancakes

Agree with what everyone else has said - that's loads of different things (every major food group certainly). And certainly suggest making a list of what's eaten in a week - that has helped me loads. My DS (almost 3) will eat everything put in front of him at nursery as well (so that's 2 days' a week he's OK), plus he will eat for grandma so that's another day. The other days with me, it's a round of fish fingers, beans, spaghetti hoops, macaroni cheese and fruit. I think it is a phase - bananas are in with my DS at the moment but have been 'out' for almost a year. And if I think about it, his range has grown over the year - and is most definitely influenced by other children!

There was me thinking my daughter at the age of 2 and 4 months was the only one!!! She will eat the following:

Dry cereal (corn flakes)
Digestive biscuits
Plain Rice
Plain pasta (spaghetti or twists)
Bread without butter
Roast potatoes PLAIN no seasoning on

I can't get her to each much else and she won't even sit in her chair and eat. I try the 3 regular meals a day but she will only eat when she wants to, if i force her to sit in her chair she'll get in such a state she won't eat at all!

She will eat some fruit and veg but only if she wants to and cucumber is her favourite.

Not much goes in so not that much comes out and when she does go to the toilet it's hard and hurts her! Lactulose solution is what the Dr. gave me for her! Not doing much yet!

it's been over a month! Dr. says it's ok though. He isn't the one who has to see her strain and scream with the constipation though!!

Its totally normal - my DS1 is a fussy eater (and lazy with it) at 2 and 10 months and has a similar diet to the OP's child. I'm trying not to sweat it too much. He also has poo issues - orange juice (when he will drink it) seems to help plus bananas (when he's in the mood for them)...