Food fussiness - Will it go away?

[YoYo]

DS used to eat EVERYTHING! Vegetables, fruit, yoghurt....he would try it all....

He suddenly decided though that he doesn't like anything green! Says he doesn't want to eat vegetables, yoghurt, fruit, all the good things....he doesn't want a bar of it. I offer them all the time, his dinners are laden with vegetables, but he picks/spits them out when he notices them. He doesn't want chicken, mince (spag)

BUT

He will eat raw salmon in sushi like it's going out of fashion. And sausages....and chips (home made...or otherwise!)

I know it's probably a phase, and I'm going to just keep offering him things till he eats them again, but does this happen to everyone around the 2.5 mark? If it has happened, how long does it take for them to get over it!? It's pretty annoying - I'm not one to prepare a different meal for him just because he's being a fussbag!

[Daydream Believer]

DD has gone though it recently & she is 2 next week. I just keep putting it on her plate, sometimes she eats it sometimes she doesnt. I find that if it is served the same way all the time she gets bored with it, so sometimes she will have sauce on her veg or if I make spag bol I puree a couple of cups of steamed veg &stir it through. I also have to give her dinner between 5 & 6 or she'll just play with it & not eat it.

[deletedit]

DD#2 will eat her dinner if she gets to sit on dad's lap to eat it lol

Otherwise it just sits there, we leave it on the table and sometimes she'll come back later and finish it, sometimes not. Can't rush this dinner thing.

DD#1 is a shocking fusspot and often leaves half (or all of) her food and whenever she does that DD#2 will ignore her own dinner and come polish DD#1's off. Kids!

[kelebek]

My DS is in that phase, one week he will eat everything then he won't. I try and limit the amount of 'crap' especially when he isn't eating much and just try and go with the flow. I refuse to fight at meal times. I still give him a plateful of veges everynight and sometimes it get's eaten and sometimes it doesn't. I figure eventually he will eat more as I was reading that around 2-3 they go through a stage where they don't eat much and don't like trying new things (or if they haven't had it in awhile) and then start to broaden then tastes again.

[Nai]

DD1 went through this at 20 months - all she would eat was plain cooked pasta (no sauce!). I got around it by getting ravioli with vegies inside so she would eat something a bit more nutritious! She would however eat at childcare and other people's houses so it seems to be more of a control thing. I would do a tasting plate with bits of everything eg cheese, vegies, fruit, pasta etc and she would pick and choose what she wanted from the plate. She eats most things again now though so the phase did pass.

[~*Niadalla*~]

This "phase" has been going on since DS was 14 months old and he's 3 next week with no signs of changing.
I'm not fighting it. Instead, I'm being more proactive. I'm making his chicken nuggets myself and adding goodies. I'm sprinkling wheat germ and honey on his natrual yoghurt. I'm making chocolate cupcakes with broccoli and zucchini in them.... all the time continuing to offer him fruit and vegies in their normal form.
We've had miniature sucesses.... a few months ago he ate a few pieces of apple, but that has since stopped. He also licks strawberries, and has chewed on them once or twice, but that's the extent of it.
His fussiness is the worst I have heard of. It did my head in to begin with, but I'm not turing food into a fight, and hoping that he one day changes his mind and decides to try things.
Here's hoping by his 4th birthday he at least tries pasta.

[YoYo]

I'm not going to fight it either....some things he says are downright funny....like "cheese, it's too tasty" Ha!

I do the ravioli thing, and yeah, lately he has said he wants the pasta but with no sauce....but will eat Tomato sauce like it's going out of fashion too!

He will eat an apple (the other day he ate the ENTIRE thing....core included) but I had to take the skin off first.

The chocolate cupcakes with veggies in them is a great idea....I have a recipie for that...must find it!

[deletedit]

We have to cut apples into 'apple chips'. That's quarters cut into thirds or quarters again for a big apple. Apparently things taste different if they are cut up different.

[Erin_25]

I agree with not turning it into a fight. I wouldn't say my DS is fussy, he just knows how to push the boundaries and knows what he want's (that's junk food) so he refuses other stuff in a hope to get what he wants. I offer a plate of dinner up every night, but most nights he doesn't eat, other nights he will eat it all & shock us completely, but the main thing for me is that he sits up with us and gets the idea of what dinner time is about. During the day I try to make it fun, like a picnic outside with pear and apple...that has worked. He's the same at Daycare, I can pack anything and it gets eaten, I also make most things, biscuits, cakes etc so I know what's going into what he's eating.

[luna moth]

YES. It will go away.

I was really anti-veg right until I was 12, then slowly got into vegies bit by bit. Nowadays, I'm a vegan.

Keep offering it.

Good luck!

[Kazbah]

Oh wow then I was really lucky - I had one night where Pip decided he wasn't going to eat his fave spag bol. Dad was there and kept saying to me "don't let him win" and I refused to give in, I even had to put on his harness (high chair split seat, converts to table/chair) so he wouldn't leave the table. After that one night I won, he will eat and try anything for me. DH however can't get him to eat a whole range of foods, so I know it's just his strong will.

If we're trying something new, then as long as he tastes it I'm happy, I always have containers of cooked rice with veg in the freezer that I can give him, or plain pasta to munch. If all goes pear-shaped, then it's milk at night in his cot instead of water.

Good luck, Pip hit this phase at around 2yrs and as I said, it was just one battle, one night with his fave food that I won and I now don't have the battles.

[Ozziehoffy]

Ooooh Oskar has decided that most nights he looks at his dinner and says... but I don't like that .lol.... without trying it! I make him try it and remind him that he does like it (well at least he did the last time lol). Tonight I made a mince thing with vegies and pasta but he said but I didn't want meat on my pasta *sighs* lol. I didn't have any spare pasta though haha. He tried a few bits and then I gave him the option of a honey sandwich or banana - he chose banana. The only reason I have offered something else is that the times I have said too bad and he's only half heartedly eaten is that he's not eaten enough and then has been so hungry going to bed that he can't get to sleep. I have also found that some of this depends on if he's tired.

Another thing which sometimes helps is if I ask him in the morning what he might like to have for dinner and if he chooses then he seems to eat it more.

I remember my parents forcing me to eat stuff I really didn't like... that was awful, I don't have fond memories of that at all. I won't fight but I will encourage and as long as he genuinely tries it then that's ok.

[deletedit]

Oh wow then I was really lucky - I had one night where Pip decided he wasn't going to eat his fave spag bol. Dad was there and kept saying to me "don't let him win" and I refused to give in

I tried that *once*. She refused to eat a bite of a particuarly nice dinner one day (despite having no food for 6 hours before and claiming being starving hungry) and silly me said no food at all until you've eaten your dinner, which we fridged. We gave in around lunch the next day by which time she'd actually got sick from not eating for so long. Never again. Her will is stronger than mine, and stronger than common sense too.

These days if she refuses to eat something we just send her to her room (can't hear her complain in there) and she gets no TV. She's so hard to get to drink anything though (she doesn't seem to get thirsty) we make her drink even if she's refusing to eat dinner.

[Lewis's Mummy]

o man this is all sounding so familiar! Let's hope the phase moves lol