Encouraging variety in diet?

Is this a sensory thing? Certain tastes or textures just don't do it for her? Likes to keep everything separate on the plate? How is she with sauces (other than plain)? How is she with "bits"?

Is this a sensory thing? Certain tastes or textures just don't do it for her? Likes to keep everything separate on the plate? How is she with sauces (other than plain)? How is she with "bits"?

It could well be, if she gets meat in her mouth (normally by accident) then she will heave and spit it out, she is fine with a plain tomato and basil sauce and cheesy sauce on pasta and she likes gravy too...

she wont eat beans (baked, kidney, mixed or anything)

Yes she likes things seperate, the meals she will eat are all 'seperate meals' fish fingers, broccoli and mash or roast dinner with roast veggies etc. She will eat tuna hash but thats the only 'together' meal that she eats apart from pasta and sauce.

Actually writting it all down it doesnt seem so bad?

There are textures that India doesnt like. She wouldnt bite through a beef burger or chicken nugget for example. She likes the taste but not the 'way it feels'. It doesnt bother me if she never eats a burger tbh (it all been home made). It sounds like she will eat something from all the food groups?

Yes i do worry about protien as she wont eat eggs etc but she does eat cheese, yoghurt and drinks milk happily too...

maybe i just need to stop worrying...

Hun. I totally feel your pain.

Dawn literally lives on:
Yogurts
Cheese
Bread
Pasta
Oven chips (only a few at a time)
Pizza (home made)
Roast chicken
New Potatoes
Bananas
And things like chicken nuggets/fish fingers etc, very occasionally

She used to be a fabby little eater, and just slowly became worse and worse. Started where she'd eat carrots, broccoli and mash till it came out her ears, then slowly she'd only eat them at Nanas. Now she won't eat them at all.
She wont eat any fruit other than Bananas. And won't eat any veg apart from new potatoes.
I'm sick of making meals for us and then her refusing them. I've tried the "that or nothing" approach, giving meals silly names (Dinosaur bolagnaise was the final straw and I actually ended up in tears wondering why I bother ), making them into funny faces etc. I've even bribed her with "eat some of that and you can have icecream/a bun/a biscuit" and then when she's refused, made a big deal about everyone else finishing their food and getting a treat and leaving her out, but she's just not bothered. I no longer buy crisps, biscuits or cakes because then she simply can't have them. But she just lives on yogurts and bananas and pasta and bread. That's the majority of her diet

Once over I could have put a plate of spag bol in front of her and watch it vanish, now it just sits while she picks it all off the pasta

Sorry, that became a bit of a woe is me post

Sounds like a sensory thing to me (the baked beans are a classic). If it is then there's not much you can do about it. Trying to make her eat other things definitely won't help. It is likely to improve as she gets older, although it may never go away completely. Children who have very severe sensory issues with food and have a very restricted diet sometimes find food therapy helps. (I have a friend whose son will only eat white things - it's a visual thing with him.) It sounds like she has developed her own way of dealing with it though - she's not being picky, just finding effective strategies.

She's definitely not going short of anything, she has all the essential food groups well represented so just relax and leave her to it. She not alone.

:hug: Hun. I totally feel your pain.

Dawn literally lives on:
Yogurts
Cheese
Bread
Pasta
Oven chips (only a few at a time)
Pizza (home made)
Roast chicken
New Potatoes
Bananas
And things like chicken nuggets/fish fingers etc, very occasionally

She used to be a fabby little eater, and just slowly became worse and worse. Started where she'd eat carrots, broccoli and mash till it came out her ears, then slowly she'd only eat them at Nanas. Now she won't eat them at all.
She wont eat any fruit other than Bananas. And won't eat any veg apart from new potatoes.
I'm sick of making meals for us and then her refusing them. I've tried the "that or nothing" approach, giving meals silly names (Dinosaur bolagnaise was the final straw and I actually ended up in tears wondering why I bother ), making them into funny faces etc. I've even bribed her with "eat some of that and you can have icecream/a bun/a biscuit" and then when she's refused, made a big deal about everyone else finishing their food and getting a treat and leaving her out, but she's just not bothered. I no longer buy crisps, biscuits or cakes because then she simply can't have them. But she just lives on yogurts and bananas and pasta and bread. That's the majority of her diet

Once over I could have put a plate of spag bol in front of her and watch it vanish, now it just sits while she picks it all off the pasta

Sorry, that became a bit of a woe is me post

Ah, this sounds a lot sensory - all her foods are non threatening colours visually.

To expand India's diet (though very good already) I try variations on a theme. For example she adores spag bol so now I make her a chicken and noodle dish. She loves the spaghetti so it follows that she should like the noodles too. She had this for dinner this evening and practiaclly inhaled it (as did Max). So rather than something radically different perhaps something that looks familiar but is in fact different could be worth a go.

Yes she likes things seperate, the meals she will eat are all 'seperate meals' fish fingers, broccoli and mash or roast dinner with roast veggies etc. She will eat tuna hash but thats the only 'together' meal that she eats apart from pasta and sauce.

i think megan is exactly like i was... on top of the picky/not eating i did as a kid i always had to have things seperate. i'd eat a pasta sauce or whatever, but if it was something with 3 veg, the 3 veg had to be separate and not mixed together - eg hated peas and carrots mixed, but seperate was fine.