Advice about picky eaters...

pixie76

I just wanted some advice from other parents of picky eaters really as i am quite concerned about our four year old son. We are thinking of taking him to the doctors but I really wanted to know if anyone on here has been through a similar situation.

He has always been a bit picky , but lately it seems to be getting worse, even bordering on obsessive. Will try and give as many examples as i can . He likes fruit and will eat quite a few types of fruit, he also loves bread. He will not eat anything with bits on it. For example he will have a plain cheese and tomato pizza, but if theres any onion or herbs on it he will cry and refuse to eat it. When he has a satsuma, he will literally stand and pick all the silly little white bits off each segment. If half the stalk is still attached to the apple, he will again cry loudly and refuse to eat it. He loves yorkshire puddings, but if there was gravy on them he would not eat it. If a biscuit has bits of chocolate in it, he refuses to eat it. He likes certain vegetables, but the have to be raw ( such as peppers) He is just so picky and obsessive with having food in a particular way. The other day my husband bought him a Kinder egg and it had a small dent in it, he screamed the house down for a good ten minutes , we had to open it , break it in half and he refused to eat the dented half. There is two real issues, that he won't eat a wide variety of food and how picky and obsessed he can be over certain aspects of food, like food with 'bits' in it or on it.

Am I right to be concerned , he just won't try new things and we don't want to push him to eat as I feel it would not help. Any advice appreciated , thanks.

Mely

Dont pander to him.He will soon eat if he`s hungry.

Felicity

sorry OP I hadn't read your message fully before replying .... seems a bit more than fussy eating. Hugs x

Benson

You're not the only one, my nearly 4 yr old refuses most food except fruit and toast and fish fingers, (and junk if I let him)
I'm watching this with great interest but you are not alone

Mk14:37

Benson wrote: »

(and junk if I let him)

And therein, surely, lies your problem?

OP, my DD is still safely inside mummy's tummy for a few weeks yet, so am no real authority on the matter (though I have watched Supernanny!).

Actually I'm fully in support of your DS - I'm the world's least fussy eater, but turn 30 very soon and still pick the white off satsumas. Yuck. Apple stalks I can live with, but hate the green core in the top of tomatoes!

My suggestion would be to get him involved with cooking and let him make things himself - so instead of buying pizza, get a base, have him spread tomato sauce and grated cheese on it, then have some chopped toppings (pepperoni, peppers, mushrooms whatever) and let him sprinkle them on. Make a big fuss, praising his chef skills, and when it's cooked keep the praise coming - how great it tastes, ask whether he liked making it, then ask him to describe how it tastes.

Parva

I can totally sympathise with your problem, my son was (and still is) a nightmare to cater for. He was fussy with food from the minute that he went from the bottle to solid foods and to this day still is, he's now 24!

He lives on microwave burgers in a bun, cheese slice sandwiches and if he wants a take-away margherita pizza. I kid you not, he will not eat anything other than the most basic pizza. Indeed he went on a night out to an Indian restaurant last week paid for by his boss and he was trying to think of any excuse possible to get out of going as he didn't want to eat the food. He wouldn't even entertain trying!!! Ultimately he went and the restaurant made him a portion of chicken and chips and he had a fab night!

It drives me mad that he won't even TRY to experiment with food, his mind is totally closed to it. When I said that he should try a chicken korma on his night out I got "I tried that in Greece and didn't like it (12 years ago!!!)". We're up at my mums on Xmas Day and I just know that he's going to leave almost everything on his plate.

On the other side of the coin, my daughter (his sister) who is 4 years younger will eat absolutely anything, there are no limits with her and she had no issues whatsoever with salad and vegetables from the moment that she could eat solids. To this day she will try absolutely anything once, unfortunately her brother still won't!

All that said, Martin (my son) is approaching 25 years of age and is still strong and fit. Both myself and his mum have forever been trying to get him to widen his horizons but it's just not happening. He's still fit and healthy despite his terrible food choice all these years later and if I were you I wouldn't go down the road of involving outside help unless his health was suffering.

We're all constantly drilled with the 5-a-day routine these days and it's easy to become worried when your kids aren't meeting this 'requirement' but the 5-a-day routine is a relatively new thing and something that I too would stress about if I were a new'ish parent.

If your son is healthy and thriving then I would suggest you carry on as you have so far. Keep trying to introduce new foods / tastes to him (god knows I did!) but don't worry if he doesn't take to them and don't think about shouting for a counsellor. As long as he's fit and well I really wouldn't worry at all.

Bloomin_Freezing2

Have you spoken with other mums at nursery (if he goes) you will find you are not the only one dealing with this. My DD (5) won't eat things with bits on either, she won't eat (e.g) sausages or waffles if there is bean 'juice' on them, beans have to be in a bowl not touching anything. But there is so much she will eat, she used to be quite picky but has just out grown it as I think most kids do. Try not to worry too much, don't think a doctor is in need just yet with your son. Maybe get some tips and advice from friends/family/online/books for now before you have him at the dr's. Good luck to you, I know how frustrating it can be.

System

op i dont want to panic you but this to a certain extent sounds like my dd , she among other things is dyspraxic and after reading on a dyspraxic teen site i now understand that a lot of her food issues are due to their textureshe wont eat mash or anything sloppy basically.she also has asd so its difficult to see exactly where one ends and the other begins but food has been a nightmare ,we now within reason allow her to chose what she wants and when she wants it ,her dad + i will have a meal and later she will have what she wants its not ideal but its taken the stress away and she is eating.

bigblackdog

my four y.o likes , hot dog sausages , mashed potato , pancakes (sugar and lemon , not maple syrup or anything else) he likes strawberries ,bannanas , apples , little oranges ,doesnt like crusty bread ,french sticks and the like , only 'square' bread .
there are so many things he wont eat or even try it makes me think he will waste away , sometimes.
he likes biscuits but only jammy dodger ,jammy type ones , for a few months he would not eat chips until we convinced him they were full of mashed potato! It is a constant battle to get any decent food inside him , he looks at the food and just goes ughhhh! and will not even touch it , at least he will eat fruit so i always get it and have it handy for him , but realise if the same fruit is there all the time he will go off it , so wont buy bannanas one week but get different sized or coloured apples , although he does say i dont like green apples , or red apples depending on what he thinks sometimes .
he will eat yougurt, but really only likes the red ones with no bits , only likes strawberry ice cream ,i am hoping he will grow out of it and that i can just get some substanance into him until then , it does help if you 'let' him do his own shopping in the supermarket , i find if he has helped daddy find the stuff on the shelves or he has got something and put it in the trolley that we have gone on to pay for and take home , he is more inclined to eat it ( not always though , breakfast cereals for instance he will only eat weetos or moons and stars , )
he does have his own apron which he wears when cooking and a stool to stand on to stir something .
you end up on tenterhooks whenever you put food in front of them , will they or wont they ?
i dont think your son is particularly unusual , just fussy , does yours Have to have knife forkand spoon laid out on a placemat? wont eat unless they are all there , then doesnt even use them , that is the way mine has been since old enough to use them , a bit obsessive about things like that , but its all part of there little characters isn't it?

lilac_rainbow

Mine used to be the same, we just adopted the attitude that if he was eating the foods he liked well then we were happy, the rest will follow... And it did. It's not quick but it's not stressful. Christmas 2004 ds had chicken dippers & waffles for his Christmas dinner, by 2005 we had moved to dippers and mash and sweetcorn, 2006 it was turkey, roasties and carrots, since 2008 I've not had to make any concessions

Not a quick fix but if they're healthy then I'd just go with it

lilac_rainbow

bigblackdog wrote: »

... for a few months he would not eat chips until we convinced him they were full of mashed potato!

We did the reverse to get the wee man to eat mash lol