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

I still can't drink plain milk (with nothing added) since being 'forced' to drink school milk when younger. It had that ghastly cream on top or was frozen solid!

I was fine, mostly, with the main part of dinner, it was puddings l was and am fussy with and I think it has a lot to do with intolerances as they made me feel sick and I would actually be sick if I had to eat them. Anything with nuts or berries has this effect; the texture. I remember manfully eating a blackberry and apple pie - I like apple pie but it is the seeds in the blackberries that I find so nauseating. I was already feeling queasy as the seeds stuck between my teeth when my grandmother took out her bottom set of false teeth and went over to the kitchen sink to wash out the seeds that had gone under it. I had to rush out of the room before I was physically sick in front of everyone. However, the worst offenders for me are milk puddings, including custard. I can remember, aged eight, miserably trying very hard not to eat the rice pudding that was assaulting my senses. My Dad came out with the classic line: “there are starving children in Africa who would be only too grateful for your rice pudding. They wouldn’t worry about whether they liked it or not.” Quite apart from the rebellious but not daring to be uttered thoughts of “well send it to them, then,” I vowed to myself that I would never use that particular phrase on my own children and I am proud to say I never did.

I was the ultimate in fussy eaters. Absolutely "chips with everything."

My first encounter with school dinners was at age 9, and lasted barely three weeks, after which the school gave me a letter complaining that my bad example was leading other children to also leave their meals. and would they please give me sandwiches in future. Problem solved.

My second encounter was at age 12-13. This time the school authorities took no notice, and my meals just went half-eaten. My parents (by now resigned to it) realised this and gave me a bigger meal when I got home in the evening. My next (and last) school was just close enough for me to get home at lunch time, so the question never arose again.

When I was 12 I recall my Dad predicting that I'd come down with Asian Flu (the current health scare) if I went on like this. He needn't have worried. Now 78, I can count my illnesses on the fingers of one hand, and have attended the funerals of several people younger than myself.

Today I am a bit more flexible, but still fussy. A bit late in the day to change now.

I was a very fussy eater and can remember picking things out and leaving them on the side of the plate - mushrooms and carrots etc. I was never told off or made to eat anything I didn't want or like.

Now as an adult I'm alot less fussy and love mushrooms! Still not keen on carrots and there are still many things I just don't like which other people seem to find delicious! Olives, kale, rocket, mussels, avocado, for instance!

I never made my children eat anything they didn't like and wouldn't do that to my grandchildren either. Why would anyone do that? It seems very cruel to me!

I was born in the early 1950s into a poor family . My parents used to tell us to ‘eat it or do without, you’re not getting anything else’ .
I didn’t like meat so would eat veg and potatoes , my DB didn’t like veg so he ate meat and potatoes. We were sometimes hungry but managed to survive to adulthood without blaming our parents as I’m sure most kids would today .

Yes, I was fussy as a child and I'm still fussy but in a different way.
As a child, I hated the cheap foods my mother was obliged to buy:
Fatty gristly meat e.g. sausages with bits of bone and connective tissue, stewing steak we had to chew and chew till we nearly threw up, mince with white bits, bacon (although I dissected bacon and refused the fatty bits)
Nowadays, I won't eat anything with more than four legs or less than two legs, so I reject all shellfish. I do eat actual fish even though they have no legs 😂
Many people are amazed that I won't eat crab, lobster, shrimps, prawns, mussels, oysters etc. I can either plead allergy or just exert my right to make my own decisions but I do find a lot of sea food to be off-puttingly ugly on a plate e.g. octopus
I have tried some sea foods out of politeness e.g. scallops at dinner in a friends house. They were OK but nothing to write home about. I also tried a snail and a mussel when out for dinner with friends. Both were an unpleasant texture.

This has been an adult choice since shellfish were never on the menu when I was a child. My grandfather would eat cockles out of a jar, using a pin. Urrrr!

Apparently, children have hundreds of thousands of tastebuds, which means they taste flavours much more intensely. As we age, we only have 5-10K tastebuds left so bitter foods etc don't taste as strong so we're more prepared to try different food. I hated cabbage and cauliflower as a kid, but can eat them now. Still heartily dislike fish and also anything spicy, though!

My mother was at primary school in the 1920s and recalled a boy being forced to sit with his uneaten school lunch under threat of caning if he didn’t eat it. As the bell for home time rang he forced it down, immediately vomited and was caned anyway. She said she vowed never to make a fuss about food when she had her own children.

I was a fussy child, I took a packed lunch and never had school dinners, and not until I first ate in the staff canteen as a newly-employed teenager did I try vegetables that I wouldn’t have considered. Now there’s nothing I’d refuse, though plenty I’d never choose. I’m not an adventurous cook and living alone I can eat as I please.

I couldn't eat my dinner as I felt ill aged 5. My granny in her wisdom made me egg and milk beaten up in a cup and forced me to drink it. I had projectile vomiting immediately everywhere all over everything in the kitchen. I was put to bed and stayed there for over a week as it was measles. She never forced me again but I think she was trying to give me something nourishing really ie protein and calcium.

It was forced out of me - put there and clear my plate or go hungry and eat it cold or at next meal. I now say I am very fussy, it does have to be food. My problem is not eating everything put out.

My brother would sit at the table for hours with a plate of cold food rather than eat, so mum gave in, and now he has a very poor unhealthy diet.

My other half was very fussy by all accounts. He’s still quite fussy now. Our daughter is a bit but eats healthily enough.