Eating dilema

[Claw3]

Ds's diet is extremely limited, chips, bread, cheerios, grapes and thats about it, he is 7 years old and that is all he has ever eaten.

He has surprised me by just requesting that i cook him some chicken nuggets. He has never eaten any meat as he "doesnt eat dead animals" he also tells everyone "im a vegetarian"

Now my dilema, he is under the impression that chicken nuggets are not meat. Do i let him eat them without telling him that they in fact made out of chicken in the hope that he will like them and want to continue eating them before someone tells him.

or

Do i tell him with the risk of him then never trying them. I want him to eat, but i dont want him never to trust me again.

what brilliant progress!

if he has gone from chicken nuggets to fish fingers it sounds as though crunchy bread-crumbed things are flavour of the month. I'd say it could well be worth trying out breadcrumbed vegeburgers, and anything in a crunchy batter (obv without startling him too much!)

but what huge, huge steps he has taken - well done miniclaw

Yes Normal, crunchy is his thing!

Chicken nuggets and chips untouched tonight, i think i pushed my luck adding the chips. Still never mind, back to just chicken nuggets and nothing else on the plate tomorrow. Perhaps i should wait a week or so before trying another new food.

Maybe if you do give him more than one food for a meal, offer them on different plates, or as separate courses?

Ourvye, he is very rigid about food, how its presented, how many etc, etc as you may have guessed already! In his lunchbox for example, he has 5 grapes, but only ever eats 4, if i give him 4 to start off with, he wont eat any of his lunch.

Seperate courses dont work, he will just say "ive just had my dinner"! ie whatever i gave him first. Different plates dont work either, he will just eat what is on one of the plates.

As i said earlier, he goes in cycles, so chicken nuggets are in, chips will be out, until chicken nuggets are out and then chips will be back again!

He is extremely resistant to change with food, which is surprising as he isnt too bothered to changes in most other areas.

We used to have to use those plates with different sections for dd1 as she would eat 3 different things on her plate but they must not be touching. Dd2 is the opposite and would eat anything (even if it was chucked on the floor).

Marne, we have tried that in the past, we ended up with chips, chips and chips in 3 sections it might be worth a try again, he cant stand anything touching.

with my ds the Sainsbury's slogan has eventually proved a hit and we still laugh about it now, ie try something new today..

Nightcat

Have you had much success? Did your ds start off not eating much at all, then add more things?

Ds and I made jelly last night, something else he hasnt tried before. I told him it would be set in time for breakfast and we could have jelly for breakfast.

Then one of my older boys made a 'pretend' fuss about him not being allowed jelly for breakfast when he was little and no one has jelly for breakfast kind of thing. Ds was quite excited at the prospect of doing something no else is allowed to do. (he doesnt have school until 11 today, because of exams going on and is still asleep)

So fingers crossed! Jelly for breakfast is no different from Cheerios, really, right?

Yes, my ds was a vegeterian for a long while (retrospectively, too long) and self-restricting foods to mostly what/carb based. For us the trigger was going gluten-free and tests that showed that he had various deficiencies, inc aminoacids. But it was still hard to add new things and his father didn't help by keeping on that ds was vegeterian right to the point of not even offering him any new foods.
My ds now varied now with small protein helping at each meal, he doesn't like fish tho had some smoked salmon on occasions. His tests are better now.

good luck with the jelly

We're in chicken nugget/turkey dinosaur-ville here too.

Hadn't thought of fish cakes though.....

Nightcat all that ds eats is carb based, is this related to deficiencies ie they eat it because of deficiencies or its the cause of the deficiencies?

Claw - see the GAPS diet support thread for more info about the damage carbs could be doing to your DS. It can def be the cause of deficiencies, and a huge craving for them is a red flag that they are actually causing him problems.

Does he have tummy problems? Sore tummy, constipation or diarrhoea? If so, you really need to research the GAPs diet.

combo of the two I would say, coz they feel hungry so craving food, but if the food they eat doesn't give them enough nutrition, so they carry on craving..

Thanks Indigo, Nightcat, no sore tummy, but big problems with toileting ie he soils himself everytime he needs to go, not diarrhoea or constipation, but never solid, always very loose. Incontinence assessment thought he was probably constipated, as he only goes every couple of days and the looseness is a sign of constipation. Sorry too much info there!

Ive always looked at his diet from a sensory point of view, he craves crunchy and sweet. Will take a look at the GAPS diet thread. Im sure Silverfrog gave me info about this or something similar before.

Thanks