Fussy eaters - the only thing that's worked for me...

Fussy kids, eh? Honestly, nothing drives me more nuts, especially considering that I adore cooking and cook everything from scratch. We are definitely not a chicken nuggets family, but both kids have always been pretty fussy eaters.

I have always encouraged healthy eating, and am proud to say that both my kids enjoy vegetables, they ate carrots, peppers, peas and cucumber from babyhood and still love to eat those now. It's just whole meals I struggled with! They would always say they didn't like their dinner, and would have happily just eaten a plate of carrot and cucumber sticks instead, which is all very well and good, but it's not exactly a balanced diet, and they won't get the energy they need from raw vegetables alone!

We got to a point where there was virtually nothing that they would both eat - Charlie had decided that he didn't like rice and wouldn't eat anything with rice in it, and Daisy didn't like pasta and wouldn't eat anything with pasta in it. The only thing they both agreed to eat was mince and tatties (pictured above), but you can't eat that every night of the week!

I tried everything - being nice, being tough, begging, crying, the lot! Every meal time became a battleground, and planning meals was a nightmare as there was literally only one meal I knew they'd both eat.
One thing that worked for a short time was not making a big deal of their food refusal, just calmly taking it away and saying they'd get nothing else until bedtime. Then, at bedtime, they'd be given a small amount of plain cereal, like weetabix, just purely so they wouldn't go to bed hungry. It worked for a while, but eventually they started refusing their dinner before it was even put down, and choose to just have their bedtime cereal instead.

The next thing I tried was deliberately giving them a very small portion of dinner and allowing them to have cereal afterwards if they ate it all. This drove me nuts very quickly because Charlie especially, at the age of ten, would easily eat his tiny, toddler sized portion of nice, healthy dinner, and before even swallowing the last mouthful, would immediately start asking for cereal, crisps etc. ARGH!!! I tried gradually increasing their portion sizes, but then we started getting the excuses after a few mouthfuls, followed by begging for something else as soon as his plate was taken away.

The only thing that's worked for me was realising what was important to them both - money, and having their own money to spend. I decided to give them both £5 each per week as pocket money, which they get on a friday evening.  I then make a meal plan for the week, from monday to friday...

This works because instead of stressing about what to make each night, I ask the kids, Steve and my mum to all choose one meal each. That plus my own choice makes our five meals for the week, which massively takes the pressure off me to think of five meals, and means that everyone gets their own choice of dinner once a week, and gives the kids a bit more power over what they eat.

Each night, they are given a normal sized portion of dinner, not a small portion like before. They are expected to eat at least 3/4 of what's on their plate, and if they don't, I take £1 off their pocket money for the week. 

I have to emphasise, this is not bribery, I really disagree with bribing kids. I am not paying them to eat their dinner, the £5 per week is theirs anyway.

I'm also not punishing them by taking the £1 away for each night they don't eat, what I'm doing is letting them know that food costs money, and when they don't eat, they will be expected to pay for the food they've wasted.

And you know what? It works!!!

The kids don't want to waste their pocket money on food, they want to spend it on fun stuff, so they eat their dinner. As a result, they try foods they wouldn't have tried before, and this has increased our menu options so much! 

Obviously, I'm not completely evil, I won't make them eat something if I know they really don't like it or aren't feeling well, but I'll just give them an extra portion of vegetables to ensure they eat enough, and as long as they try a little bit, it's all good.

What's worked for your fussy eaters? I'd love to hear from you!