My son is very fussy about what he will and won’t eat. I don’t understand why he is like this. As a baby and toddler, he ate really well.
Faddy eating is like so many parenting issues. One minute everything is marvellous and then you find yourself in the middle of a challenge with no real idea of when it actually started.
He does not like meat much and once told school he was a sausage-eating vegetarian. He hates most fish. He likes most fruit and vegetables which I guess is the one positive in it all. He likes cheese but not eggs. Things would be fine if he did not change what he does and does not like on a regular basis. He treats food that he does not like as if it is the work of Satan and tries to persuade his siblings not to eat it. Fortunately, as they have got older, they have learned to ignore him.
Recently, we devised a menu plan of sorts incorporating all his fave foods that are also healthy. However, I have decided to try to introduce him to something new every week to try and widen his diet a bit.
This week’s experiment was turkey dinosaurs following feedback that so long as food is in a shape, kids will eat it.
Son – “What are we having for tea, Mum?”
Me – “Turkey”
Son – “I hate turkey”
How anyone can hate anything as bland as turkey I have no idea. However, I decided I would play a trick on him. I am not a Mum who does these things. I have always had a policy of telling children the truth even if it is an unpalatable (excuse the pun!)
So I cooked and presented the turkey dinosaurs with smiley potatoes and vegetables.
Son – “What are these dinosaurs made out of?”
Me – “Potato”
Son – “They taste meaty”
Me – “Well sometimes potatoes do taste meaty. Mushrooms are like that too.”
Son – “I suppose so”
One clear plate later, the result was one happy Mummy and one conned but fed child.
Here’s to feeding children dinosaurs (awaiting the parenting police to come and hit me with a big carrot stick!)
Do you have a fussy eater in your family? How do you cope?
Kate on Thin Ice 
Hope no one comes and hits you with that carrot – it’s a war out there, and sometimes you’ve just got to do it!
As mine have got older they have got better, and I am now much more honest with them. I used to get all their vegetable requirements into them whizzed up in a tomato based pasta sauce if necessary.
My boy (8) is probably the fussier than my girl (5) but he’s so hungry these days that he will usually give things a go. I worried more about him too because he’s my oldest and also was ill for a long time. With number 2, I was more relaxed, and as a result, I know my daughter is capable of surviving on no more than a handful of cheerios and 2 slices of cucumber, so I don’t stress about her so much. We have a now rule that they try anything that I put in front of them. If they don’t like that’s fine, but I won’t have “I don’t like that” if they haven’t eaten it before. Also, a rule that there are no ‘gagging’ (or other sounds designed to show displeasure) within my earshot because “mummy has spent a lot of time cooking good food for you and I’m getting really upset now” (bangs a few pans around)…
Good luck!
I always got conned with parsnips being White carrots and when I wouldn’t eat carrots they became chips.
I buy supermarket own brand sauces and cereals and decant into the branded boxes.
I paid my parents back by buying cheap coffee and putting it into a branded jar…my dad said ‘you can always tell the real thing, this coffee is perfect’
Well done. Nothing wrong with a bit of creative thinking!
That sounds like a great idea. I have a very fussy 5yr old, he much perfers processed food to anything I make, and becomes very difficult as the girls like pasta & rice and he dosen’t! Might have to pick your brains on more ideas of how to feed a fussy eater.