on my travels - fussy eating kids

i saw this and thought, what.. i was never a fussy eater, (apart from liver disgusting stuff). glad this wont be us



Top tips for fussy eaters

Do...

Ignore people who say 'no child ever starved themselves to death.' It doesn't help and just makes you feel bad. tortoiseSHELL
Offer the meal. Leave for 30 minutes. Remove meal. No fuss. No hype. No treats. No pudding. Fruit available on request. JARM
Invite a good eater over for a meal. My children eat much better when their cousin, who enjoys a wide range of foods, comes over. Saadia
Arrange things in smiley faces. Much as I hate doing it, it works for us, as does grated cheese on the top of just about anything, including chicken curry - yuck! Tassis
Get them to help plan, shop for and cook a meal. Obviously you can't do this everyday but if you do it every so often it introduces new meals to them. Carmenere
Cook something you know they'll eat every other day, so you know they won't starve completely. On the other nights serve "normal" food and hope one day they'll eat it. BandofMothers
Add sweet potato to everything. It tastes nice, is smooth-textured, has loads vitamin C, is undetectable in tomato-based sauces and turns mash potato a lovely shade of orangey pink. filthymindedvixen
Let them make their own wraps: Give them healthy choices for fillings and let them get on with it. Works for adults too. PeachyChocolateEClair
Buy a special plate. We have three with farm animals on and they try to clear the plate so they can see the pictures. ludaloo
Throw out the microwave and get a juicer. It's amazing the vegetables and fruits that children will drink that would be spurned if presented on a plate. MadamePlatypus
Try to make the foods your fussy eater eats are FANTASTICALLY healthy, so that from a health point of view they are ok, even if that means peas, grapes and fruit smoothies every day. . Variety can come later. tortoiseSHELL
Give them a healthy snacks drawer, box, or section of the fridge and let them choose when and what to eat from it. Stuff like fruit, oatcakes, mini cheeses or nuts can go a long way towards meeting a child's nutritional requirements for the day. FrannyandZooey
Lie if it will help. If they like tuna then introduce tinned salmon as pink tuna, or if they like ham, then chicken is white ham etc. MadamePlatypus
If you blend vegetables to hide them, leave a few bigger pieces visible. They can then pick out what they can see, thinking they are having no vegetables, and happily eat all the ones they don't see. cat64
Starve them a bit! No snacks after 4pm is the rule in our house. Pruni
Fix a smile on your face and don't let them see it get to you. You can get them back when they're older. TheArmadillo

Don't...

Make a fuss if they don't eat as it makes things worse when they realise you are fretting. Just accept that it's normal for children to go through a fussy stage and it's not necessarily a reflection on your parenting, despite what some gurus suggest! Nemo
Say to a child "you won't like that" before you give it to them or "I don't like that." SofiaAmes (Unless of course you have a child who thrives on reverse psychology, then sometimes saying don't eat it, means they will! filthymindedvixen)
Eat with your partner if he is going to sit there saying "I'm not having any green beans!" etc. It really doesn't help. shouldbedoingsomethingelse
Waste your life fashioning bears' bottoms out of celery tops and cream cheese for a tyrannical three year old (who won't come to any harm missing a meal or two anyway.) The more effort you put into their meals, the more you reinforce their fussy behaviour. moondog
Under any circumstances offer pudding before their greens have been eaten. That way madness lies. BarefootDancer

And if all else fails...

Wait until they're 13, then they seem to eat anything. Southeastastra

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Ohmigosh--

They aren't serious, are they?


When exactly do brains fall out of your head when you breed? I mean, some of the tips are ok ideas, but it is like the tail wagging the dog.

When I lived at home, we ate what was made or we went hungry. Pure and simple. And there was no snacking afterward - whether we ate or not and mom never kept junk around. Unlike today's kids who are almost ALL overweight. Needless to say, we ate what was given to us because we didn't want to go hungry. And neither my brother nor I were ever over weight! What a concept! Feeding your kids a REAL meal, sticking to the rules, and not having junk in the house. Sounds like rocket science.

And yes trolling breeders, junk includes chicken fingers, mac n cheese, and any other kind of pre-cooked-throw-in-the-microwave-dinner or boxed bullshit. Take the time to make a REAL dinner for your FAMBLEE. The internet is FULL of recipes!

they are serious,

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

When I was a kid, I wasn't a fussy eater...I was just a light eater. I got SO tired of people giving me way more food than I could eat and then telling me to "clean your plate" or wondering why I didn't eat it all...especially if I was with another kid who WAS eating it all. ANNOYING!!

OMG! I wasn't a fussy eater either, but I had a babysitter who pulled that "clean your plate" crap on me. Once, I didn't finish the hotdog she'd given me for lunch, and she saved it for my dinner - on top of spaghetti and cookies.

When my Mom came to pick me up, I puked all over my babysitter's stairs.

I don't think the bitch EVER pulled that shit with me again!