really fussy eater

Hi there!
I am having food problems with my DS2 (almost 3yrs). He is very fussy. I am wondering if these foods are enough for him.

yoghurt (only plain, any fruit he gags)
weetbix (but only the little ones he can eat with his fingers)
honey sandwiches or toast (sometimes he'll have smooth peanut butter)
some dried fruit (I limit because of the sugar content)
arrowroot biscuits
noodles
cheese (sometimes he will eat it)
custard
chicken or fish nuggets

I give him toddler milk because I am worried he isn't getting enough nutrients. He is a good weight I think @ 16kg and about 100cms in height. I don't understand why he is so fussy eating - he used to be great with food, eating a wide variety of vegetables, fruits and meats. :wall: Now he refuses all of these foods. I tried mashing up his weetbix and mixing some banana through and he could smell the banana and he gagged. :doh: He gags when veges or fruit are placed in front of him at meal times. I have DS1 (4yrs) and DS3 (almost 2yrs) who are fabulous eaters but DS2 never follows their examples. Lately he seems to be looking at their food with interest even though he has refused the same food from his own plate. Has any one got any good tips on disguising foods or recipes that have worked with other fussy eaters? The tips I have gotten from health nurses have been useless.

Thanks Caro - good to know there are other children out there like it - I knew there had to be but sometimes you can feel like everyone elses children eat so well.
Yes he does sometimes refuse the yoghurt - maybe he gets sick of having the same foods - I don't know.
I hear you with the weetbix tho - if I try to feed him normal weetbix instead of the bite-size ones he will not eat them unless they have margerine on them. And he prefers the little ones with a splash of milk and then I have to tip the milk off.
I will give the Pentavite a go - hopefully it might work although other vitamin tablets I have tried on advice from the chemist he has refused to eat and one brand he vomited back up. It would be good to not have to buy the formula, it is pretty expensive.
Thanks for sharing your experience.

SIL gave me a great recipe for corn muffins. I don't know if your DS would be interested in savoury muffins? Anyway, its really easy, and you can add whatever you want him to eat in the hope that its disguised in a yummy, cheesy muffin :lol: ... I can post it if you're interested.
Also, have you tried dips? You can make avocado dip for him to have with crackers or something (even raw veg if he's feeling adventurous). Also, you could try making chicken and vege patties yourself - if he likes nuggets he might like those?
I have been thinking about this a lot as my DD is already pretty fussy and I'd really like for her to have a good relationship with food as neither of her parents do, LOL. (I eat it too much, even when I'm not hungry, and DH hates eating.) One thing I've heard is just to keep presenting the food and you don't have to get cross if they don't eat it, just keep giving it, and if they don't want it they still need to keep it on their plate. Sometimes if kids don't ditch the food off their plate they will occasionally eat it...? Hope some of this is helpful :)

Snacks ~ It would be great if you could post the recipe - He likes cake/muffins so it is worth a try. I did make him some yummy creamed corn dip and he has tried other dips (guacomole plus a few others I have made at home) but he doesn't like them. It is funny everytime he tries them, once he wiped the dip off the biscuit, it was funny the way he did it but not funny trying to get it off the carpet! You are so right; there is no point in getting cross about it, you can't force them to eat. Once I offered him some french toast and he pushed it away, I put it back in front of him. Then he decided to get down from the table so I just put him back on his chair. It went on for about 10 minutes. Then he sat there for another 10 minutes just looking at the plate but finally he decided to try the toast and he loved it. Being patient helps a lot. I also beleive in offering the food regardless of whether he likes it or not because he might surprise me one day and actually eat it.
I have tried making some chicken and vegetable patties but it is hard to get them to stay together. They seem to break up very easily. If you have any hints about those that would be great!?

Caro ~ I have tried mixing an egg through to make the chicken mince and veges sticky but it just doesn't stay together and the patties were rubbery. I have rolled them in bread crumbs too and that batch was a little better. Do you have a handy hint for me?

I'm very encouraged by your positivity! I'll have to remember to be patient if we encounter problems, lol.
The muffins:
Put 1tin creamed corn in a bowl
Fill tin with SR flour & add
Fill tin with grated cheese & add
Add maybe some ham or grated carot or grated zuccini? (just some ideas - I haven't actually tried those)
Spoon into muffin tray and bake for around 15 mins or until golden.
They taste very bland, but nice :)

I use egg when I make tuna patties, but I think the tuna is easier to bind than chicken (and I haven't tried chicken patties yet). I also roll in breadcrumbs or flour...
I have a recipe from a book sponsored by Heinz (so all the recipes have heinz products in them :rolleyes:) but I'll post that too in case its helpful for either of you.

500g minced chicken
1 onion, grated
1 x 220g can Heinz Country Chicken & Vegetables
1-2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional)
flour as needed

Mix all ingredients except flour. Shape into patties. Roll in flour. Refrigerate 1 hour. Fry patties in a small amount of oil.

Hi girls

While I don't have a fussy eater I have seen/heard a few tips that might make you feel better.

Toddlers are naturally wary of foods and sometimes need to be 'offered' them up to 20 times before they'll take them.

Have you tried making mini-pizzas using English muffins and cheese slices on the top (so it melts all over the vegies, etc and hides them!)? My DD loves them and I can put just about anything under the cheese.

Sometimes controlling food is the only thing toddlers can control and this is their way of exerting their influence. So don't get in a battle of wills with them, or spend an entire meal cajoling, checking how much they've eaten, etc, etc. Attention = toddler winning.

And if any of you have Foxtel there's a great program on Lifestyle channel at 10:30am on Thurs morning. It's called House of Tiny Tearaways and I'm a huge fan. They often deal with children with eating problems (and believe me, what you have described in your DS's diet Steph would look extensive compared to some of them!), as well as behavioural problems, and show parents how to work to solve them.

Good luck to you all! And the savoury muffins are great, Lucy loves them!

My DD2 is really fussy, so bad to the point of wondering if she has any allergies. She used to gag with nearly every food, it is so frustrating isn't it. Glad i'm not the only one, i get people saying that if she doesn't eat what you make then don't feed them anything. Well that doesn't work either as she just loses weight and then gets sick.

I have used a nutritional formula called pediasure it is like a formula that is used in hospitals etc and gave it to her every morning and it made a huge difference to her energy etc and she really picked up after that.

It is such a bad cycle. DD1 is getting better but she is pretty fussy at times too, since having sleep overs she gets to try other food and when a friend comes over and loves what i cook then she loves it too.

Really annoying when they eat something one time then the next they hate it. I am sick of cooking the same food as when i try something different they all complain.

Snacks ~ There was a time I was would get frustrated and cross with him; mainly because he'd throw the food on the floor and then I'd have to clean it up. He has been fussy from when he was about 14 months so I have reached the point where I am happy when he even tries something, even if he spits it out. He had severe constipation after I stopped BF at 8 months to about 13 months old. Drs visits after drs visits, they were useless - just kept giving me laxatives that did nothing for him. He lost heaps of weight and had a hard distended tummy so I did my own research and started him on soy milk, within three days he was fine with his bowels. The thing is when he was constipated he didn't want to eat anything and I think that is where our problems started. Thankyou so much for those recipes, I will try both and hopefully he likes one of them.

Jen13 ~ I will try disguising some veges under cheese, it might work, depends on whether he is in a cheese eating mood, sometimes he likes it, sometimes he doesn't. I know DS1 and 3 will love them though, will be a good chance to introduce a few new veges to DS3. (capsicum is the one I have in mind)

All girls ~ I have been told to leave DS2 and send him off with no food too. The one time I did he cried and cried, it hurt me so much, I wil never do it again. It is too horrible. I think maybe it might work for a child of 10 but not little ones. Something I found my older son likes is when I get a hot chook, lettuce, cheese, croutons, cucumber, whatever salads you like and some really nice type of salad dressing and mix it all together in a big plastic container. He loves the different textures and crunch and freshness. He will eat salad by itself but to encourage it I started out with the salad dressing to give it a bit more flavour and then started adding plain salad to the plate whenever we had the chicken salad. It worked - he loves tomatoes the best!

No worries, Steph. Poor boy, it sounds like he's had a rough time of it! I'm glad you worked out his intolerance with the cows milk. Here's hoping some of the ideas everyone has shared work out for you. GL!

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I might try that muffin recipe

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LOL Caro, it is cheap and easy and if she doesn't like it, they freeze well and you can eat them every now and again yourself if you felt like it ;) (My DD rejected them three times and so I ate the rest :o Might try them again when she's a bit older.)