Fussy eater - long, sorry

My son aged almost 2.5 is VERY fussy about what he eats. He won't eat any kind of green vegies at all, actually the only form of veg he will consistently eat would be chips or baked beans. He will occasionally eat a little vegie soup or potato. He eats banana, kiwifruit and berries. Sometimes he'll have a little bit of melon or a taste of pineapple or mango. If it has the tiniest bit of peel, pith, stalks or pips he won't eat it. He won't eat any cheap fruits like apples, oranges etc. He will eat processed meat, but not meat that needs to be chewed. He will sometimes eat fish, sometimes not. He'll eat egg, but only scrambled.

I have read that young children, if offered a range of healthy foods, will automasically select a healthy balanced diet. Can I say that this is absolute rubbish! George would only eat bread items, dairy foods, peanut butter and sweet things that don't need chewing (eg stewed fruit puree). Once I was silly enough to ask what he wanted and he said "a glass of wine and brown [chocolate] icecream". (And no, that is not what he's used to getting!)

I'm not too worried about the meat as he probably gets enough egg, beans and dairy to make up for it, but I'm really concerned about the lack of vegetables. We have tried a range of techniques - we let him help grow things in our vegie garden, and help choose things at the supermarket. We encourage him to help with the cooking and food preparation. We serve things raw, steamed, boiled, baked etc or with sauce, chutney or mixed with something he likes. We have tried just putting a bit of everything on his plate, but he will pick out what he likes and leave the rest. We have tried asking him to "just have a taste and leave it if you don't like it" but he will taste and spit it back out. We don't have any junk food in the house and don't feed him things he asks for if he has rejected what's on offer. We have tried limiting his intake of things he likes (eg he loves weetbix and will eat 5 or 6 for breakfast, but now we only allow him 3 and then tell him to eat a piece of fruit if he's still hungry) but this just decreases his overall level of food consumption, which we don't really want to do as he is very active and fairly skinny already.

Somebody suggested we should just give him peas and carrots (or whatever), give him nothing else and keep bringing it out every meal time until he is starved into submission. But wouldn't that be preparing special food for him (which you're not meant to do) and making a major issue out of eating (which you're also meant to avoid)? I have had a few successes with hiding vegies (eg, grated zucchin cooked into a bolognaise or finely grated carrot mixed into peanut butter) but it's lots of trouble, and anyway it doesn't teach him to be more flexible in what he eats. I don't care if he dislikes a few things, but I know this isn't to do with genuine dislikes, as he'll often eat something one day and refuse it the next (after I have especially bought and prepared it because I though he like it!).

What I would like to know:
Is this sort of fussiness normal?
Can he possibly be healthy on banana, kiwifruit and maybe two other fruits or vegies a week?
What do you suggest we do about it?

I'm desparate to improve his eating habits as his sister is about to start on solids and I don't want her to copy his fussiness.

Hi,

Kimberley is also fussy in what she will and won't eat.
She loves pasta with cheese that is one meal i know she will eat most of.

I can't get her to eat veggies no matter what i try so i just put them on her plate everytime we have them and hope she will eat some.

Not sure what you can do to get him to eat more.

Hi Angelfish
Your son is normal. Don't worry.
One idea is to make a vegie pizza.
You could also try vegie and fruit smoothie.

Have you checked out the recipe for Veggie Pikelets in the Recipes Section? I'm just wondering if you could manage to get those into him?

My g/f has the same situation with her now 4 year old daughter. I can understand the frustration and hope that he eats when he is hungry. My g/f DD now eats a wide variety of food, I can offer no solutions just not to give up hope!

My four year old neice wont touch a vegetable.
She eats rice or pasta with nothing, cause sauces generally have a vegetable in them.
Oh she will eat lollies and chips
Bec

I think it's quite normal..
My sister used to get into a huge tizz & end up both her & nephew in tears EVERY night at dinner time...
He is now 8, not much better, but he will eat a spoonful of most veggies!!!
I cannot offer any suggestions as my DD loves veggies more than anything else!!! :-$

I'm glad to hear you all know kids who are just as fussy. I was kind of wondering what we've done wrong to get such a peculiar kid, but maybe it's just the way he is...
I don't think it's worth having arguments and tears every night, I'd probably rather keep up what we're doing and just hope he improves.

I tried the drink idea and managed to feed him carrot and celery juice, disguised with orange juice. I'm also going to try the veg pikelet idea, because he likes plain pikelets, and that's something where you can't easily pick the vegies out.

Yasin is getting fussier by the day and I'm starting to worry that he's not going to get enough to eat or enough of the right foods.
At the moment all he seems to like is fruit, cheese and yoghurt. He will only eat a few mouthfuls of anything else before starting to spit it out. He's gone off the foods that he used to love. I think its partly my fault for always giving him fruit for desert so he thinks that if he doesn't eat its ok because he can just top up on fruit.
He used to eat a big breakfast so if he had the odd fussy day I didn't worry too much but now he's started eating less at breakfast too.
I've tried letting him feed himself but he just throws his food on the floor ](*,)
I have no idea how to make him eat more or eat something other than fruit etc

dachlostar

yasin sounds completly normal ;) lani has been a terrible eater since day dot lol (yup even on the bb she was a shocker) but i just persevere, some nights she looks at her plate and crys, i tend not to make a fuss and we continue eating and eventually she might put a pea or something in her mouth - i believe as long as children are offered good food on regular occassions throughout the day they won't starve.

i have learnt alot in fussiness of foods with jessie she was as bad if not worse than lani - i was at my wits end, took her to paedatricians, dieticians, queen elizabeth centre (like tressilan) etc etc and we never got anywhere that was what she was going to be like. my ds was a great eater up until the age of 2 1/2 yrs when he would hardly eat anything - he is now 5 1/2 yrs old and eats as much as me.

try not to stress yourself out - yasin will eventually come around in the meantime maybe try disguising things i make some pretty good muffins (full of vegies) the kids love em also i make a "zucchine cake" with lot of vegies they think its great cause its cake lol - i also try and be a little creative ie food made into faces etc etc.

lani would be lucky if she is 10kgs and she is 16mths old but she walks and talks, is very knowing and inquisitive just damn stubborn and independant (i could not physically feed her from a spoon from around 8mths of age - she constantly pushed my arm away no matter what i tried. she uses a fork and spoon now and doesn't throw her food down anymore (just sometimes hides it under her bottom lol) i think it takes a bit of turning a blind eye and not make any comments about throwing food on the floor etc.

one thing i have learnt over the years is not to stress about them eating it is totally not worth it - as long as they seem to be growing well, are alert and active they should be fine.

anyway i am so sorry this post is long i really just wanted to add to try not to worry about these little humans and their eating or lack of eating habits ;)