Parents with fussy eater....

When or how did it get better??

Im at a loss with DD - she is 3.5 and has a VERY limited diet!
If it were not for yogurt, cheese, fruit, pasta, rice and nuggets and chips - then she would not eat!

I can not get her to eat red meat AT ALL. I have tried it all...

Im at my wits end. Any pearls of wisdom would be much appreciated, before I end up in the loony bin!!

Kate xx

Subbing because I'm desperate to hear that this stage will pass too. DD2 is a nightmare to feed.

Subbing as well. You just described DD's diet exactly.

I have been offering her usual food with something different each time hoping she will experiment... A lot of food is just getting wasted

Oh I hear you! I dish up what ever we are eating. on a good day she will try it - on a bad day she will have a major melt down

My DS2 was extremely fussy, he only ate some meats and pasta for main meals. He did have yoghurt and lots of fruit and what I call plastic cheese.
I gave up on dinner, eventually once he turned 4.5 I started the "once you start school, you have to start eating....", it worked. I would start with tiny bits of broccoli and cauliflour and carrot and he would taste. We are now at the point (6-7mths on) he actually likes them and eats more.
It's baby steps. They eat what they eat.
It's a case of choose your battles and this one I decided not to battle on

could she have a sensory issue? apart from the fruit its pretty much a white diet.

Apparently I ate very little but drank alot of milk (cows) until I was about 4 years old - after that I was what I would describe as a normal eater - now I will eat everything and an a bit like a human dustbin. So in my case the phase did pass.

Subbing too. My DS1 is a terrible eater too. Very similar to what your daughter will eat. Though take out the nuggets and add in sausages. Vegetables are a no go except for the occasional carrot stick or fresh corn cob...very occasional! I just have to tell him it's dinner time and he says he doesn't want without even knowing what's on the plate! He eats so little meat I have started to give him kiddy iron, and he gets the maximum dose of multi vitamins I can give him (2 a day) DD has them too, though I try not to give them to her as she eats well and probably doesn't need them.

Also I was chatting to my mum about it, and asking her if she worried much about my eating then, and she said a little but not that much, we are not a family of worriers but she said mainly it was because there wasn't all this information about having to eat this and that and external pressures about varied diets etc, and her diet had not been that varied as a child and she had turned out ok, so she didn't worry much she said it did bother her a little but in the end she just went with it.

I think there is actually so much focus on what to eat and what not to eat these days and children have lived on quite limited diets in the recent past with far more limited diets than many fussy eaters do now. (Recently I think in UK was a girl who only ate chocolate for about 5 years, they did some tests on her and she wasn't actually deficient in any of the main vitamins/minerals - which I find amazing but the body is a clever thing and I reckon as long as you are getting some not highly processed foods into it, will be ok unless showing other signs of problems which might be caused by diet).

I suppose I try to look at these things in terms of what is the root problem trying to solve? So if the problem was say iron deficiency then look at ways to increase it within the foods that will be eaten, but I am not convinced that a non-varied diet is a problem in itself - IYKWIM.

You know I had been thinking about posting a thread about this too.

DS is a bad eater too... he eats plenty of cereal, bread/toast, pasta, rice, biscuits (he would live on biscuits if I let him)... he'll eat most fruits (is a bit picky with apples, oranges, pears, but loves melon, banana, berries, etc). Even yogurt with him is hit and miss. He'll eat and loves sausages, but there's very few other meats he'll eat. He likes some vegies - mainly raw cucumber, cherry tomatoes and sometimes carrots.

TBH, I hadn't realised until just recently how bad his eating had become. I think I had figured he was going through a fussy stage... but that fussy stage has been going on a year + now. Time to do something about it... but what!?
I overheard some mums talking today about their fussy eaters, and one said her little boy was put on iron supplements because he was such a picky eater and his iron levels were terribly low. I hadn't thought about that before... but perhaps that's why DS seems so tired all the time?! I thought it was from dropping his day sleep, but maybe there's more to it.

What do you do with a fussy eater?

(sorry to hijack Kate - just you've asked exactly what I've been thinking about!)

I just wanted to say Im glad in not the only one, no advice but in the same boat!. my DS3 it terrible same diet too I think you just keep offering and hopefully it gets better in time. Often he goes to be with no dinner
If your children dont eat their dinner do you then give them something else that you know they will eat just so they are not hungry? there is a part of me that thinks if I keep doing it he will know that you dont have to eat your dinner cause you will get something you want?

Maybe its just an age thing too? I dont think its a sensory thing? Some times she will eat red meat or different foods and then the next time you make it will not have a bar of it!

I have the kiddy iron as well that goes in her milk - she looks pale some days and Im sure it from not eating enough meat.

And as for veggies... she will eat raw carrot and thats about it! Some times mash but not always! Ahhh I dont know. she was such a great eater form 1-2 would eat all veggies and all meats and now is the complete opposit!

If your children dont eat their dinner do you then give them something else that you know they will eat just so they are not hungry? there is a part of me that thinks if I keep doing it he will know that you dont have to eat your dinner cause you will get something you want?

I do do this, but I make sure that we have one night of dinner that I KNOW she will eat, and then the next night something that she should eat but I know in all likelihood that she won't, and if she doesn't eat it then she gets nothing else. I do soften a bit if she at least tries something, but most of the time if she does actually try something she doesn't want to eat she will vomit it up so its not really productive.

I struggle to do too much of the "eat that or nothing" because she is so tiny that I don't want to deprive her of at least something in her tummy

I know my gf did the 10 day thing where you put the same food you want them to try/eat on the plate for 10 consecutive days, aparently then they will eat it - not sure if it is worth or try or not. I know it worked for her DS, however he has food allergies so I'm not sure if she did it for all foods or just to increase his diet

She ate 3 party pies for tea! Most parents would be horrified at PP's for tea, but for DD that's a pretty awesome effort!!

My DS, 2, is a pretty fussy eater. I'm pretty sure he's low on iron as he does not eat much red meat or green vegetables. I came across a fabulous recepie for meatballs here on belly, and OMG, DS loves them. Basically it's minced beef with uncooked rice, grated carrot & zuccini, egg, made into little balls then cooked for 40 minutes in some tomato soup. The meat balls are so seriously tender and yummy (I added a bit of BBQ sauce to make them sweeter) DS loooooooves them! A little bit of iron in the red meat

Our Moo is pretty fussy, will love something then go off it for ages, is picky with fruit but will always eat bananas, strawberries or grapes, avoids meat in any form.

I don't know if we're doing the right thing, but I just serve up what we're eating and let him decide if he's going to eat it or not. The only thing I ask is that he tastes it now that he's getting a little older (3 in a few months). He doesn't have to even swallow it but just taste it. Sometimes he surprises me by having a little taste then polishing it all off! If he tastes it and still doesn't want to eat it then he gets yogurt or some cut up fruit.

Another thing I did was get him a plate that has three segments. Can usually divvy up a meal into three eg. Pasta, meat, veggies from bolognese. He seems to be more open to trying things now that he can see them all. Don't know if it's a step backwards or not but is working for now!