Still doesn't like anything

I think I have posted in here before about Jackson's fussy eating, and said that it was not a stage that he was going through like most toddlers seem to, but that he has super been fussy with food from day dot and I am afraid always will be!!

He is now almost 2 and I am at my whits end with what to feed him and how to get him to eat it. At the moment this is the list of the only things that he will eat

- cornflakes
- toast - occasionally he will actually eat it for breakfast, have tried a million different
things on it
- zucchini slice - pot luck if he will eat this, depends on his mood, I make it and freeze
it probably every two weeks
- spag bol - he used to love it, but now turns his nose up when I serve it to him, can
maybe get him to eat it once a week
- bread and butter - will eat this most times I give it to him
- cruskits - nothing on them
- chicken nuggets and hot chips if we are out, but if I cook them at home, he will not eat them.
- peas and corn - He has this most nights for dinner because he won't try anything else

That is about the extent of his diet, and it is through no fault of mine - I still serve him up different foods in the hope that he will try something, but the food doesn't even touch his lips. He has started smelling food if I serve it to him, he will take a big whiff and then push it away, I try to force something into his mouth to get him to taste it and perhaps then he will like the taste, but he starts gagging and scrapes the food out with his fingers.

He was eating chicken schnitzel which I would make myself so I knew it was good chicken, but now he won't even eat that, in fact he won't eat any kind of meat, fish or poultry, hot or cold no matter how I cook it - I have tried soups, risottos, stews, plain sliced, raw, cooked, everything. It is just getting worse everyday. He doesn's seem to be underweight, but I know that he is still not getting all the vitamins and minerals he needs.

Most nights he has no dinner at all or it ends up being peas and corn because he just refuses to eat it. It is really starting to become a worry, I go out to the shopping centre or to friends houses and I see kids eating sushee and sandwhiches and picking off their parents plate, and I just feel like bursting into tears because it is so frustrating stressing every day about what he is going to eat. He won't even eat things that most kids love like sausage rolls or frankfurts or mini pizzas etc. etc. trust me when I say I have tried everything.

I just don't know what to do about it anymore, it is really getting me down

Ok might sound like a silly idea, but if he'll eat chips & nuggets out but not at home, maybe it's about the packaging? Can you do them at home & get maybe noodle boxes to put them in? Also try Chicken Goujons, you can get them at the supermarket & they are Baiada brand. It's basically a chicken nugget, but in like a chip shape. They are a fun food & good to hold in their hand.

Another silly option is toothpicks! Zander will eat just about anything with a toothpick! It's fun LOL! He'll try meatballs, carrot, zucchini, he might not like them but he will at least try some things. He also has a thing for tongs, we got him the Maccas pasta meal (which he hated) but we kept the tongs & he loves trying to eat *anything* with them.

One other thing we do when we've had a particularly fussy week is "little dinner"! I get a heap of different veges (peas, corn, broccoli, carrot, sweet potato, pumpkin are the regulars LOL) and I chop them up really tiny, add in mince & a packet mix of sauce or gravy. We then add in little pasta, like the soup stars or tiny shell pasta. I tell him we're going to have little dinner, t's a special dinner just for him & is it ok if mummy & daddy share some.

Good luck & I hope some of that helps :crossfingers:

Sarah, they are some great ideas, I will give the tongs and toothpicks a try, but I really don't hold much hope, it really seems to be about the food with him, He just seems to hate the taste of everything!

And I mean the sniffing thing is driving me crazy, everything he sniffs and if he doesn't like the smell of it (which is just about with everything) he won't even try it. I have tried things with dipping sauses (how wiered, pregnant brain, I have had a mental blank how to spell sause, that doesn't look right!!!) to hide the taste a bit, but he doesn't like them either.

OOOOh, It is sauce isn't it - I am such an idiot at the moment!!

LOL at sauce!! Gotta love pregnant brain ;)

Zander is big into sniffing things that he hasn't tried either & a lot of them time he will refuse to try things after smelling it.

Matilda has gone through this for the past year... occasionally she will surprise us & eat something out of the ordinary... today she took some left over stir fry in noodles out of the fridge & ate most of it! :o But most things she turns her nose up at. Matilda is borderline underweight.

The two things I do to ease my mind is 1) give her a multivitamen at night. I know its not the best, but it does make me feel better about her not eating heaps of vegetables. 2) make something I know she will eat at night along with whatever we are eating. So if we are eating a pasta dish I know she won't eat I will leave out some pasta because I know she will eat plain pasta....

I used to be a vego so I started trialling other ways to get protein... beans & rice, eggs, legumes... cheese & milk.

Sometimes she has a scrambled egg with cheese on top for dinner. If she hasn't had anything with protein in it all day...

Toothpicks are a great idea!! We use chopsticks a lot and thats how I got her eating noodles. We also eat heaps of sushi, so thats how I got her eating inari (which is fried bean curd around rice) sweet and has protein.... I go to Asian markets and pick up a pack of inari for whenever I am making Japanese food and make some for her. The other day it backfired because I tried to be tricky & hide grated zucchini in the rice... so she refused to eat any of it. And then refused to eat dinner all together....

IKWYM about it not being a phase, everyone has said that to me. A little while ago I just decided it was Matilda and not to fret about it... I do worry if she hasn't eaten anything by 11am and then I start thinking that maybe I'll make something I know she will eat for lunch & dinner.... easier than fighting it all day long. HTH!

My 1st DD went for about 8 months where she only ate chicken nuggets for tea and it really stressed me but she is now a healthy 15 yr old who eats fruit and vegies so trust me it usually sorts itself out eventually LOL.

I go through this all the time with Kimberley and Alexander.
Last night they would only eat roast beef if i put apple sauce on it.

I now only do pasta for Kimberley when doing bolognase (sp?) as she won't eat the meat.
I have found she will eat chicken shapes they sell them in a dinasour shape and stars and lovehearts.

Pommes is the only way they will eat potato at the moment. I can't do hot chips at home as they won't eat them but when out they love them.

I give them both veg everytime we have it and the only thing they will eat is carrot.

My 3.5 year old is like this too. Very bland diet - pasta, rice, toast with just butter.....i get so frustrated, but then realise, like MrsMac said, she will (hopefully) grow out of it.
I read something once in one of those toddler books, that said something like 'life is just too interesting for these little people to sit at a table and eat food - there is exploring and learning to do' ....my heart aches too when i see kids eating sandwiches or sausage rolls...my DD wont touch it.

To get my DD#1 to eat bread, i bought those cookie cutters...and cut her bread (will only eat white !!!) into different shapes. I even get her to help me sometimes. She WILL eat that....but then again, it depends on her mood.

I know how it feels. My only advice is not to let it get you down. You cant force your child to eat. He wont starve himself to death, we can simply put it down to a toddler thing....your not alone....:D

Read my thread in the product forum down the bottom of the index page Min... Zander is in love with apples at the moment :D

Just had a read Sarah, sounds pretty cool, don't know if I wanna for out $39 for one though when he will probably sniff it and chuck it over the edge of the chair. The only time Jackson has ever eaten apple was when he was introduced to solids and it was pureed. Have tried it pureed since and he gags like a maniac!!

Last night he ate all his peas and corn, and ate one home cooked chicken nugget. Tonight I tried the peas and corn with a few pasta spirals tossed in and some cheese grated on the top. He at the cheese and nothing else and was straight at the cupboard afterwards asking for a cruskit. Even though I know he was probably hungry I stuck to my guns and didn't give him one.

He still had his cup of milk and cookie before he went to bed, but he just doensn't understand the reasoning that far apart yet, as in you didn't eat your dinner a couple of hours ago, you are not having your bedtime treat, one thing at a time!

Wow, Zander's hair is getting redder - wonder if he will ever be as red as Jackson, or if Jackson will go backwards like everyone keeps telling me he will - sooooo annoying!!! I keep meaning to get the redheads rule T-shirt from your website!

It is definitely red red, just not that much of it just yet ;) IKWYM about spending the money if he doesn't like it, Zander was ok with apples this just made him better LOL!