What do I feed a very fussy eater for a week?

[Lottie4]

My DD's friend is coming away with us next month. I've no doubt she will fit in with the family, so not worried about that.

However, I'm a little concerned about what I'm going to feed her. We like our fair share of treats, but do like to eat lots of fruit & veg and some homemade things. I can cope with what she'll eat for breakfast. We might have coffee & cake in a cafe, it's questionable if she'll like the cake. Lunchtime we tend to take sandwiches, fruit, veggie sticks and alternate between cereal bars and crisps - she will only a sandwich and crisps but I don't want us to eat crisps everyday. We tend to have fruit in the afternoon, but she won't eat this. I can do her chicken nuggets, fishfingers or pizza for tea (she won't eat anything homemade) but haven't got a clue what to put with them if she won't eat any veggie or salad. She's not fussed about pasta and rice, but will eat a very small amount. Puddings are limited - icecream but I think I can cope with that. We probably will have chocolate some evenings so that will go down well.

I think her diet is essentially toast, sandwiches, biscuits, lots of chocolate (she's allowed to eat three whole bars at once), certain cakes (half gets eaten at a time) and lots of chips. I can't starve this girl, but at the same time I don't want to feed my DD like this all week. Do I just give her what we'll be eating knowing she won't eat it, tell her what I'm cooking and ask her what she wants or give in and feed her rubbish?

Feed her what your kids eat- if she's hungry enough she'll eat it. She wont starve and may develop some better eating habits too!

If she'll fit in with the family, she'll fit in with what you are eating. I would just continue as normal and let her eat from what is offered. She won't starve.

You could be just what she needs to break out of her very limited and unhealthily diet, or at least explore some new options.

Just give her what your kids eat. And dont buy crisps for the week. You might just crack her.

compromise.
it won't kill your dd to eat more treats/less healthily for a week
it won't kill her to see what a normal family eats.

You don't say how old they are which would make a difference to me too.

I would do things like cut up and apple and put on plate with enough biscuits for one each. Encourage her to eat apple but don't force, tell yours they need to eat apple first and then biscuit. If they say 'but xx isn't' you can say that you can't expect xx to change to our way of eating for a week, but our house, so our rules.

same with dinner, do your pizza and salad. Put salad on all plates, allow her to leave hers.

But I would ask her, she may for example be fine with sweetcorn, but hate carrots, then at least some of the time she is happy!

I'd have thought "toast" was the key to this. Plenty toast if she appears to be wasting away on your diet.

Thanks for your replies. My own DD is used to getting treats, but if she has a couple of days of not eating much in the way of healthy stuff then she actually gets an upset stomach (don't ask me why, I guess due to a change in diet), so it is a case of getting the right balance.

LoblollyBoy, you mentioned toast - actually my DD's friend seems okay with bread, so I might put some of that out for the evening meal to give her the chance of at least filling up then. There isn't one fruit or veg she will eat (not even mixed in something), so I'm just a bit concerned she'll be hungry.