Were you a fussy eater as a child and are you now?

That’s quite sad really, she obviously enjoyed food but not cooking it! I’m surprised you didn’t have rickets as a child! My mother was a pretty abysmal cook but she did try and although her attempts were not very appealing they were healthy.

Thank you for all your posts, I’ve been very interested in your stories.

It didn’t occur to me I could be fussy as a child. Money was tight, food never wasted. We ate home cooked food and I suspect my Mum simply didn’t cook anything she thought I’d not eat although I do remember struggling with breast of lamb. There was always a home made cake and often a simple cooked pudding with custard.

School dinners were a challenge at times, usually I was hungry and ate whatever was there.

As an adult I definitely have preferences. Although I eat meat, Mr C is a committed carnivore, I prefer vegetable based food and never, ever eat lamb!

Our sons were not at all fussy as children with the exception of brocolli and sprouts they’d eat anything. Two of our grandchildren on the other hand are incredibly fussy.

I loathed and I mean loathed the fat on meat that schools made us eat. I still hate it and always very finely cut off any fat from meat. At my primary school we had to sit there until we had a clean plate. I was bullied by the children too, who often put the bits of dinner they did not want on to my plate!

Indeed! The silver lining in a less then perfect childhood is the deep gratitude and joy of very simple things - a peaceful home, smell of something good cooking, theres not a lot to top it!

I ate everything Ma put in front of me, it was ration time. If you didn't eat what was put in front of you there wasnt anything else.

Was never given an opportunity to be a fussy eater, a meal was put on the table and you ate it ( even the dreaded liver!). Being fussy was just never heard of.

No chance of being a fussy eater in our house. I was always hungry due to being active so ate nearly everything put in front of me. The only things I don’t eat now are salmon and desiccated coconut. I love food !
My daughter announced once “ I shall eat cauliflower when I am 4!”
She is 45 now and still doesn’t eat it and she has always hated bananas or anything with dried fruit such as mince pies. No idea why.

As a child, I hated most meat, so Mum was happy to give it to the rest of the family. Then, strangely, when chicken giblets appeared on the menu, I loved them.
School meat 🤮 which meant sitting there till nearly the end of lunch, when I was suddenly given pudding and 5 minutes to eat it.

i came from the sort of household where you age what was put before you not have a choice. if you did not want it fine you had it cold for next meal but there were no snacks, crisps, sweets, sandwiches etc.
we had sweets once a week so if we did not eat tea then we stayed hungry!
i personally think that people these days give kids a lot of choice too much choice. the amount of waste families seem to generate with all the choices they present to kids

I was a fussy eater and a teacher (deputy head) at primary school bullied me about it for years. Slapped the back of my legs for saying I don't like it when asked why I left a bit of dinner. Pulled me out of dinner line in front of whole class and gave me a dolls plate and said you don't need a real plate, because you waste food. Various things like this, the straw that broke the camels back was refusing to let me leave a bit of watercress. So I sat all through lunch hour on my own with staff clearing hall around me, no pudding allowed. When lunch hour was over she made me sit on the cold concrete steps out side the staff room all afternoon with the plate and bit of watercress until I ate it. I didn't. I told my mum what had been happening and she was very angry and went and had words, it stopped then. As it turned out Mum had been evacuated during the war she was 9 and her little sister was 4 and was treated similarly by the woman they stayed with. Mum had felt terribly guilty that she couldn't help her sister, so she never forced me to eat. When I married I was determined to eat everything so that my children would not see me being fussy. My worst problem was dark greens I would heave involuntarily at the smell of them apparently my aunt had the same problem. I'm not very fussy now.

I wasn’t as a kid - because we couldn’t afford to be fussy. My mum lost my Dad and had 6 kids under the age of 13 to bring up single handedly. So you really are what you were given - and if you didn’t like it someone else would ask to have it.

My daughter on the other hand, was born fussy. She hated baby milk, and never ate much in the way of baby food.

If I gave her something she didn’t like the look or smell or taste of, she would vomit.
No. Not self inflicted. Uncontrollable.

She had very ‘safe’ foods she could eat growing up. Other stuff she couldn’t stand to look at because it set her off.

Couldn’t have the kitchen door open in the mornings. That caused problems. Couldn’t bear to eat breakfast. And this went on for years. And years. And still goes on to a degree now.

She’s 41 - and was diagnosed with ARFID at the age of 38.

Look it up. It’s not just about kids being fussy and only eating what they want. It’s not about giving in to them when they say they don’t like something they’ve never even tried. They KNOW they won’t like it. Full stop. And you cannot force them to eat.

ARFID sufferers struggle to eat lots of foods for lots of reasons. The sight. Smell. Texture. They know it’s not right for them.

My daughter grew up on dry toast, cheap pizza from Bejams (back in the late 80s
- 10 saucer sized pizzas for £1) chicken nuggets and sometimes a small amount of chips (6/8).

She didn’t like squash or juices and would only drink a fennel drink from Boots.

Chocolate was a no no, as was any type of cream, custard, or blancmange. Soup and stews and mashed potatoes were too ‘baggy’ to eat. Slimy and not nice. No sauces except a small blob of tomato ketchup in a little pot so she could ‘dip’ if she wanted to.

Plain pasta with grated cheese. No sauces. Would eat raw white cabbage but not cooked. It went on and on.

Now she can mostly control it. Doesn’t eat what doesn’t appeal to her, and makes wise but still fairly safe choices.

She will try a food now if she wants to. But will say if she doesn’t like it and won’t ever touch it again.

We tried arancini rice balls the other day. They were a no no. Too baggy and squidgy inside. But saying that I didn’t like them either.

Lots of people say kids are too spoilt, they’ll scream for nuggets or pizza as opposed to a meat and two veg meal.

From experience I’d say let them eat it.

Because ‘fed’ is better than not eating at all which is what ARFID sufferers will do if faced with a plate of what they consider to be ‘yuk!’

I was very fussy as a child and remember my mother forcing me to eat enough nutrients for my health insisting that I have to have at least an egg, a fruit, some meat daily. There was a lot of screaming and struggling when these were presented. She supplemented these nutrients with food I did like, mainly pasta (plain tomato sauce) and for some reason I liked blue cheese, so packed cheese sandwiches for school lunches. (not in UK). I hated milk and vegetables, but would drink strawberry milkshake. And Dad would squeeze oranges for me. Mum died when I was 7, it was just a matter of eating whatever was available or nothing. My older sisters who looked after me had only a limited amount of culinary experience, presented me with various basic dishes, mostly vegetable soup, eggs and chips, and salad, and somehow I ended up eating and enjoying everything. I now eat almost anything edible - all cuisines, love cooking and food is actually one of my main pleasures in life. Hope mum is looking down and is pleased with the outcome!

No never have been fussy

At the age of 5 years old, I did not want to eat meat. Although my mum would disguise meals and say no meat in it. I usually passed any on my plate to my sisters. Food on occasion was quite scarce in our family, often we went to bed hungry. It was when the head of the house had first pickings! All through my life have held the believe 'that I don't want an animal to die so as I can live'. I have had bacon rolls waved under my nose (true test of a veggie) so many times. I have never imposed my views on anyone. My husbands and two daughters are meat eaters! Indeed once my daughter answered her teacher as being both a vegetarian & meat eater, because she loved both. What frustrates me now, is the meat eaters high jacking the food, with veggie meals being made to look& taste like meat! Grrh! I have never eaten a steak in my life & don't like the taste of meat. I would cook a meat dish for my friends and family.

I was a fussy eater and I think my mother had been too, so she didn't insist on me eating things I didn't like. I would have a Vesta curry for Sunday lunch when the rest of the family would be having a traditional roast. I think I'm still quite fussy, not keen on meat and definitely not fat or gristle, so I tend to eat a lot of vegetarian foods now.

No, eat it or get it for the next meal. That was how I was brought up. Definitely not fussy now either

No, not as a child but I am now oddly enough.

Not fussy at all as a child born in the 50s. My mother's cooking skills were limited, and a lot of food was seasonal, so we had bottled fruit and my auntie's amazing home made piccalilli.
Sadly IBS has taken charge of my diet as I've aged and I have to be more careful what I eat.

As I child I was very fussy, even though my mum was a good cook, we weren't allowed to leave the table either until we had eaten our meal, at least not for a while. Now, however I am not really fussy at all as long as it is cooked well, I do wonder whether I harbour some guilt though as we didn't have a lot of money but we were always well fed so I now eat everything and hate wasting food, using leftovers where I can etc.

Yes but the food I was fussy about was pretty awful especially primary school dinners with a cook I was terrified of and didn’t dare leave anything. Hence like Cossy being sick on the cloakroom floor and putting beetroot in my pocket where it soon became visible. I was lucky School was close enough to my grans so mum arranged for me to go to hers for lunch.

I tried school dinners at secondary school but ended up taking packed lunch.

I’ve always been fussy but many more things I will eat now.

My mum always called me fussy because I did not want to eat meat after watching a pig get electrocuted on a school trip to a farm, age 7 yrs old. So if ever we went to visit anyone she would tell them not to bother trying to feed me because I was too fussy. I got mash and peas for the next 5 yrs and collapsed with malnutrition at 12, when Dr told me there are other people who do not eat meat called vegetarians! so went to library, got educated on veggie food and fed myself from age 12 with weekly trip into town to Holland & Barrett paid for with my paper round money. On a school residential trip age 10, teacher force fed me a cooked English breakfast bacon, eggs etc which I threw up on the plate and she made me eat my own vomit, catering staff in the kitchen were crying watching me go through it. Considering I have an egg allergy it is lucky I didn't go into anaphylaxic shock & go into coma! Bad relationship with food continued all through my adult life.

Siptree
what a terrible way to treat a child, the things teachers got away with in those days would never be tolerated now

cookiemonster66

My mum always called me fussy because I did not want to eat meat after watching a pig get electrocuted on a school trip to a farm, age 7 yrs old. So if ever we went to visit anyone she would tell them not to bother trying to feed me because I was too fussy. I got mash and peas for the next 5 yrs and collapsed with malnutrition at 12, when Dr told me there are other people who do not eat meat called vegetarians! so went to library, got educated on veggie food and fed myself from age 12 with weekly trip into town to Holland & Barrett paid for with my paper round money. On a school residential trip age 10, teacher force fed me a cooked English breakfast bacon, eggs etc which I threw up on the plate and she made me eat my own vomit, catering staff in the kitchen were crying watching me go through it. Considering I have an egg allergy it is lucky I didn't go into anaphylaxic shock & go into coma! Bad relationship with food continued all through my adult life.

oh Cookiemonster, that must have had a terrifying affect on you. did no one do anything to stop the bully,

I was fussy as a child my mother pandered to me a bit being the youngest, I don't consider myself fussy now but then again if I don't like it I usually don't buy or cook it. The only exception is prawns hubby loves them I don't like them but will cook them for him.❤

We ate what we were given and were grateful for it. I brought my DC up the same. Nobody thought of being fussy. You ate your dinner.