NOW CLOSED Tell Cathedral City's Chedds your top tips for fussy eaters and win a £100 Space NK voucher!

[KatieBMumsnet]

We've been asked by the folks at Chedds, the kids' cheese snacking brand from Cathedral City, to find out your top tips for fussy eaters.

So, if you've ever had to or thought about how you'd deal with a "fussy eater" - what advice do you give other Mumsnetters with a fussy eater at home? What tips can you share to help make this easier to deal with?
For example, do you sneak carrots into mashed potatoes or disguise peppers in a bolognaise sauce? Do you try to alter the texture, colour or taste of certain foods? Do you make food into smiley faces? How would you get nutritious snacks into lunch boxes or for picnics? Or do you simply ignore the fuss?

Everyone who adds their comments to the thread below will be entered into a prize draw, where one MNer will win a £100 Space NK voucher.

Please note that some of the tips posted here may be published on the Chedds pages on Mumsnet.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

Don't make a big deal out of it. Dont cook separate meals . Dont keep junk food in the house

My tips to avoid fussy eating are

When weaning, allow your baby time to explore the texture, feel, taste, smell etc as much as possible. It might be messy, but it introduces food to your baby in a fun and adventurous way.
If possible, eat together as a family. All eat the same meal - inclusion is an important thing for a young child and they will know if you are eating something different.
Try not to get stressed, upset or cry. I know, really know, it is difficult - but it really won't help you, your child or the situation.
Don't make an issue if they leave something or refuse it - it can become a battle of wills and will only end in tears.
Allow children to try, explore and discover new foods. My DD (4yo) loves things like brie, olives, parma ham, greek yoghurt, smoked fish etc - lots of strong flavours! But that is because we allowed her to try them.
Remember that it is only a phase and a short space of time in your lives. What you are worried about today, will be a distant memory tomorrow...

DS is very fussy about veggies although he is generally getting better as he gets older.....

DW puts red lentils in things like bolognese sauce to add extra protein! Also been known to add egg to cheese sauces!

Also she's a dab hand at making an Italian tomato sauce which includes hidden onion, carrots, garlic and red pepper and he is never any the wiser! It is the only way he will eat those veggies though!

My main tip is to ignore any fussy eating as this just makes the fussiness worse as it's attracting attention!

Also we all eat together which makes a huge difference as there is less attention on dd when she is being fussy. We mix up having meals that we know she loves, e.g spag bol, lasagne, with meals that she is less keen on. The meals she is less keen on usually have something in that she definitely likes, so we know she will eat something. She has to try new things and things she is less keen on. If she doesn't try something or eats very little she just gets a yogurt for pudding. If she eats lots or tries a bit of something new she will get a more interesting pudding (usually rice pudding or custard!) We only started this approach last after several years of fussy eating and it has resulted in dd eating several new meals that six months ago she would't have touched with a barge pole!

I ignore fussiness and tend to go with what they will eat.
I would rather my children had something in their tummies than nothing at all.
I tend to offer protein in meals twice a day , as it means there is double the opportunity for them to eat some of it !
I offer fruit juice with one meal as the vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron .
I always make sure fruit and or vegetables are offered at every meal .
But I don't think food issues should ever make a war zone in the family .
Role modelling healthy eating habits yourself is a sensible idea .
Make food fun , exciting colourful and appetising to look at , and use mealtimes as a time to all get together to share things about your day .

I grate extra veg into everything, from courgettes in curry and pasta sauce to swede in mashed potato.

One of DS's favourite foods is cheese so I also use it a lot to encourage him when he's reluctant to eat something.

I also don't give up when he refuses something and try it again in a couple of days.

I don't open any discussions about food before it arrives on the table - if you tell them it's XX for tea they get plenty of opportunity to start whinging they'd rather have YY.

Same with fruit - if I say "would you like an apple?" the answer will be no, but if I just cut it up and put it in front of them it gets eaten.

my tips to avoid fussy eating are to get DCs to help prepare and cook (obv. depending on age) the food, never give up on a food that is disliked but try again in a few weeks or cook it a different way next time.

personally my DCs are getting less fussy as they get older ..... DS will try absolutely anything ATM. so dont worry if you have a fussy eater, it will not always be like this

last year at my DCs school there was a programme called 'food dudes' and all children were asked to eat a portion of fruit and veg every day at school. school provided pupils with little boxes and they had rewards such as pencils/rulers etc for keeping on track with the scheme. anyway, the pupils at school all still continue to eat fruit daily a year after the scheme is over. i truly believe it has encouraged pupils to experience a variety of different foods.

Try to take your emotion out of the equation. It is very frustrating preparing a meal to have it refused, but I found saying politely but firmly that I didn't mind if it wasn't eaten, but there was nothing else, and then appearing to ignore what the child did with it and refusing to engage in discussion about it worked well. You have to follow it through though, and get them down dispassionately.

A tip I had from here was to let them serve themselves, so at weekends I try to put the food into dishes and they can help themselves as much as children under 5 can IFSWIM. But if they ask for it they have to eat it, unless it's a first taste of something and is disliked.

And pick your battles, if your tired and fed up, serve something you know they will eat and defer the challenge for the day. You have the rest of their childhood to feed them!

Do and say absolutely nothing. It's the only thing that has had any impact for us.

That, and school dinners.

I mean, let them have school dinners (which my fussy one adores) so they can see their peers eating. It makes them realise that, say, cucumber isn't some outlandish idea of mum's but something that other children might like.

It's also one less meal that is your 'responsibility' in terms of choosing and preparing and as having a fussy eater is quite stressful at times, it's nice to have the ressure off.

Start early, don't make a fuss. If they don't like something one day they will another. Don't allow your own food prejudices to be inflicted upon them, so if you don't like a certain food, make sure they sit down with another family member who does like it. Set a good example and eat healthily yourself.

I'm not sure why Chedds want this information though? Non fussy eaters don't need specially packaged 'kids food' so they're going to be losing potential customers if we all teach our kids to just eat what they're given.

1. Chop stuff up small - so each piece is no more than a mouthful. It looks less daunting on the plate, it's easier to persuade the child to pop in a mouthful and there is less chewing before the mouthful can be swallowed.

1. Think carefully about the words you use to describe certain foods. I think children sometimes decide they don't like X, but if you call it something different they will give it a try.

For example my DS won't eat tomato (even quartered cherry tomatoes), although he was eating tomato-based sauces. If I chop the tomato into a salsa and mix it with some similarly tiny bits of cucumber and spring onion, he will wolf it down so long as we call it salsa.

1. Disguise foods with flavours that the child enjoys e.g. serve a tuna steak with a garlic and herb butter.

Like you pip my DS2 will eat tomato in cooked sauces on pasta etc but wont eat tomatoes, he would be able to detect them no matter how small I chopped them!

Its trial and error - I dont necessarliy think its fussiness a lot of the time if a child genuinely doesnt like something. DS2 loves cucmber but there is no point in putting any anywhere near DS3, you just waste money.

Get them involved with the food preparation process.....for example, if you're making pizza get them to spread the sauce on the base (with spoons!), sprinkle on the cheese, add the veg and lay them out nicely etc etc.

Even picky eaters like eating food that they have 'made'....and it helps get them interested in food, and makes it more fun - sometimes they will taste things during the construction process that they would never try at the dinner table.

Soups and casseroles with lots of veg blended or chopped up tiny definitely helps fussy eaters. Get them to try everything and eventually one day they will like it.
School dinners help too I think as they get a wide variety.

Don't get emotional, stay calm and don't make an issue.
Esier said than done but the only way to manage fussy eaters is to keep a sense of perspective and not let it take over and ruin family meal times.
Serve the family meal without pleads to just try/give it a go/spoon feeding it in to resistant mouths .
Pass no comment when you take the plates way.
My HV confirmed that children will rarely starve themselves and will get nutrition from even limited food choices so don't make an issue out of food choices (or lack of)
Both my girls are now teens who will eat anything and everything, they both went through fussy stages and I like to think it's because of my relaxed attitude that they have grown up without any food hangups, they don't see food as good or bad, they don't eat to comfort or punish themselves, and meal times are seen as family occasions to be enjoyed

I tend to ignore the fussiness - when dd1 was weaning and rejecting everything I made I used to get really upset about it, so I've learnt to just make life easier by serving things I know she will eat, and introducing new things once a week in a very non-pressured way.

Strangely enough the times when she has been most adventurous with food has been on holiday - always willing to try new foods in a new setting

I was a very fussy eater when I was younger and now eat everything in sight so I'm not worried that she will always be like this. If she doesn't like something because of the texture or because there's a teeny, tiny, almost invisible speck of green on a pizza or something, I remember how I felt as a child and usually let it go. I can recall being pressured or forced to eat things (never by my mum but by friends' parents/relatives etc) and getting really anxious and upset about it, so I get where old fussy-pants dd is coming from.

My top tip would be to just relax about it all rather than making mealtimes into a battleground. Like someone else said, do and say nothing.

DS is 3 and probably a typical 3yr old as far as being fussy is concerned. I have always made a point not to make a big deal out of meal times, so if he doesn't want to eat something that's fine. I don't replace it with an alternative though, it just gets taken away. I do sneak veg into sauces, stews and soups when I can. I also praise him lots for trying something, even if he then says he doesn't like it. He also cooks with me and enjoys trying what he has made, or pinching the ingredients to nibble along the way.

Sometimes reverse psychology works as he is a contrary mary - me saying 'urgh you won't like this, it's awful' usually has him reaching across the table for it.

My Grandma-in-law has an obsession with trying to get me to eat alternative foods - as I am quite a fussy eater.

She once cooked me a plate of rustic chips - yummy! but i kept finding some really odd ones, turns out she had made potatoe chips, but also butternut squash chips and pumpkin chips - As a clued up adult i could tell the difference - but might work wonders for little ones!