15 year old fussy eater

Snakey

Don't worry about it. He's fifteen, not four - he's old enough and educated enough to know that it's not good for him to live on crap indefinitely - if he chooses not to eat any vegetables that's an informed decision which he's entitled to make, even if it's a bad one. Buy him some multi-vitamin and mineral tablets and leave him to it.

There are some foodstuffs that aren't on either list (I appreciate you weren't saying it was comprehensive) - are there things that you normally don't buy that he would eat if they were there? Thinking back to myself at that age, I'd eat cheese and yoghurt like they were going out of fashion, I also had phases for all sorts of random things like cheap sausage rolls heated up in the microwave - OK not healthy, but at least it's (almost) "proper food".

It seems that he's biased towards things that don't involve any effort on his part, that don't involve having to use a knife and fork, and don't involve him having to sit down for meals with you lot. How about tinned fruit? Bananas? Pies? Big pots of stew that sit around for a couple of days so you can help yourself with the aid of a microwave (and bread on the side)? Plenty of chopped-up leftovers in the fridge so he can turn his eggs into omelettes?

Do you have a toasted sandwich maker?

If it helps at all, my mother didn't care whether I ate well or not (she just didn't include me in meals she knew I didn't like) and I grew out of most of my dislikes spontaneously in my late teens to mid twenties. Like, one day about three years after leaving home I bought myself some frozen cauliflower on a whim and scoffed the lot with an ocean of cheese sauce. Admittedly, there are huge swathes of things that I still won't touch (e.g. eggs, beans, mayonnaise) but I'd say I eat fairly normally.

p.s. I'm 43 and my favourite breakfast cereal is still Shreddies!

amistupid

shopaholicz wrote: »

The only things he'll eat at the minute are pizza, fried chicken, pot noodles, eggs, takeaways.

MSE tip: instead of expensive Pot Noodles use old hamster bedding.

theoretica

On the food waste issue could you leave 'his' in a serving pot and tell him only to dish up any he will eat so it ends up as usable leftovers not in the bin?

Money_maker

kerri_gt wrote: »

Just wondering why he won't eat sandwiches, if he'll happily eat half a loaf of bread with pot noddle?

This is a very valid question. Obviously the boy likes bread so why wont he eat sandwiches? Perhaps he doesn't like marg/spread, this is quite common.

Have to add that if one of my lot were to tip away the dinner I made for them then they would most definately not be helping themselves to anything else. We'd all eat food laden with sugar and fat given half a chance. Its the parents job to guide.

restless6

peachyprice wrote: »

I know this goes against the opinion of 99% of the people here, but I have a fussy eater, I feed her what she likes. IMO childhood is just too short to be making a battlefield out of mealtimes and I wouldn't want to be forced to eat foods I don't like so I don't see why my children should be.

She too mostly 'only' eats pizza, chicken and bread. She also eats roast potatoes, peas, cucumber, peppers and fruits and a good selection of dairy. She has chips occasionally, probably only once a fortnight.

So I make homemade pizza, which she loves, I make a batch of pizza dough and sauce that lasts 5-6 days and just throw her pizza in the oven while I'm cooking our dinner, no biggie there. I make homemade chicken which I crumb and oven cook, usually when we're having something similar. She takes packed lunch to school of either crackers or a roll with cheese.

Her fussiness started with repeated bouts of tonsillitis, some foods tasted awful others plain hurt. No doubt things will change the older she gets, at the moment she's slim, healthy and most important happy.

Thing is if you enable Her now , what sort if adult will you make of her ? How will she cope if she doesn't get her way ?
You can do this while she lives at home but in the longer term you will probably be making things harder for her as she might not know how to function unless she gets what she wants !!

Mojisola

I've never made a big issue of food - meal times were family times, not battle grounds.

One of ours doesn't like some foods so we adapt what we're eating to include something for him. We don't cook completely different meals for one and we certainly wouldn't cook something that we knew was going to be thrown out!

Incidentally, the kids all took part in making meals from young teens and so they knew how much work was involved in producing a cooked meal every night and they had some control over what was served up. I think that helped them appreciate the meals.

If one of them had wanted to change their diet significantly - going vegetarian or limiting the range of food they would eat - they would have had to get involved with menu planning and cooking more often.

theoretica

Unfortunately some of the effects of poor nutrition show up in the long term rather than immediately. Of course seeming healthy now is far better than seeming unhealthy, but does he realise that isn't the whole story?

Some of the many studies on teens and food:
http://www.nhs.uk/news/2009/06June/Pages/Dietandmentalhealthinadolescents.aspx

http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/06/24/teens-sleep-deprivation-tied-to-poor-diet-obesity/56422.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070411090309.htm

Gloomendoom

DKLS wrote: »

Within a month of joining the Air cadets he had a wide and varied diet. All down to peer pressure.

Strange coincidence. My nephew was exactly the same. A few weekends of merciless mickey taking worked wonders.

barbiedoll

Ahhh...fussy eaters. I'm a fussy eater, as is my son. Although I thought he was bad until I met a couple of his friends who will only eat the usual pizza, chicken nuggets, chips etc etc.

I doubt that it's a food intolerance/allergy issue if he's eating "half a loaf" but won't eat sandwiches. My son refused to eat bread (he would eat toast) until we threatened him with school dinners unless he started eating sandwiches. He will eat cheese on a pizza or in a toastie but not "raw", he will eat pasta but not rice. He likes ham in scrambled eggs, on pizza or in a toastie but not in a sandwich. The list of likes and dislikes is endless. He always used to eat peas quite happily until I read him a story called "I don't like peas" and he has never eaten peas from that day to this (11 years ago now!)

I must admit, I have lost my patience several times with him. We now insist that instead of him just declaring that he doesn't "like" something, he has to try it first. If he then doesn't like it, then fair enough. We have won a few battles this way and now that he's a teenager, he does eat a much more varied diet, although he still won't go near salad or most fruit. I've also avoided buying fizzy drinks and fatty and sugary snacks, so that he won't fill up on those. The mantra in this house is only one sweet/packet of crisps each day and ONLY after lunch or dinner. If he's hungry, he has to eat his dinner or go without. Most teenagers won't starve themselves for too long.

I do agree with posters that have mentioned peer pressure. We recently visited friends for dinner and my son was presented with a dish of chicken in a creamy sauce, served with rice. To give him his due, he did eat most of it, although he confided in me later that he "almost threw up".....If I'd have served it up, he probably wouldn't have eaten half as much and he would have had a huge sulk lol!

Stop buying Pot Noodles, if he wants noodles, get Supernoodles, cook with only a little of the sachet flavouring and add some tomato puree and grated cheese instead. Cheaper and a little bit healthier. If he won't eat bread, try muffins, pitta or even Scotch pancakes (my son's friend who won't eat bread, loves these!) Chips are made from potatoes so he would probably eat roast potatoes but he may not like gravy...and the veg that goes with them. So serve them up dry if that's what he prefers. You can take meat off of the bone, give him the meat, roasties, baked beans if he eats them and he's almost got the same as everyone else at Sunday lunch.

Don't worry too much, when he gets a girlfriend or when he starts hanging around pubs/clubs, he'll soon stop being so fussy and start joining his mates for a post-drink curry or kebab!

GwylimT

I would be disgusted if one of my children threw a meal in the bin, they would be paying for it and they certainly wouln't be eating again that day unless they used their own money to pay for food. If any of my children want to eat a different meal they are more than welcome if they go and buy the food, cook it and clean the kitchen afterwards.

If a child knows they can do what they want they'll do it, so your two choices are to allow him to get his own way, or to parent him. By the way some of the things he doesn't 'like' are in his pot noodle.