Hello
I didnt read all of the replies. I only wanted to answer the original posters questions and concerns.
First of all You are a bad parent!!! NONONO of course not. I am a father and was in your shoes many years ago. We were so happy once my son started eating pizza for crying out loud. Chicken nuggets were once his one and only food practically.
BUT let me tell you this. It does get better with patience. My son is now 18 and soon going off to college. He is still very picky. But his diet is still very simple. He moved up from chicken nuggets to actual chicken patties and chicken sandwiches. At first they were the breaded kind like the $1 Mc Chickens because they are so much like actual chicken nuggets. But as the years went by he will now eat chicken breat sandwiches. Yesterday for the 4th I took boneless skinless breast with salt, pepper, and some garlic powder and italian seasoning and grilled them and he still insists on sandwiches although while I was cooking I stole a small piece of chicken off of the grill and we both nibbled from it.
It was when he was about 10 years old that he discovered pizza. Well not that he discovered it,(we have been trying for years), but he was at a birthday party that was serving pizza. We dropped him off at a Chuckee Cheese or something similar and just let him fend on his own. He wanted to go so bad because he loved the arcades and games at these places. But we told him that we would feed him when he got home if they didnt have nuggets.
Well low and behold when we picked him up he actually had a sac of leftover pizza that he was so raving about when he ate it that the mother running the party was sure to give him some to take home. We had told her that our son might not eat and we were wrong.
Sometimes I think that kids are scared more of the humiliation than of the food so they bite the bullet (so to speak) and try something.
Well once the Pizza thing started , then the whole marinara sauce thing went in fashion. He will heat spagetti with plain marinara sauce. He absolutely loves chicken parmesean from mama melrose. He still has never had a hamburger or cheeseburger, but a couple times I snuck in breaded pork parmesean and he started liking pork chops a bit. When we drive by steak joints and you smell the bbq steak smell, he actually says "that smells good."
He has had bites of steak, but will not quite eat that yet. This is a quick and current list of his foods at 18 yrs of age
Chicken #1 3-4 times a week Nuggets, breast, etc..
Pizza Close #2 if not #1 3-4 times a week
cheese only but will eat pepperoni
Kraft Mac & Cheese (Kraft Only)
Spagetti w/ marinara No mosticolli or other noodles spagetti only
Garlic bread, mozz cheese sticks,
Hot dogs He has been a long time hot dog eater I should say. Hot dogs and chicken nuggets were ALL he would eat in the early days
He will not eat chicken wings or legs but if we had a rotisserie chicken he would pick the meat off of the breast and be fine with that. Some how he would get some roll or bread and make a sandwich out of it.
Not dinner related, but he recently discovered cinnamon rolls.
He only drinks
Water #1
Arnold Palmer tea
Chocolate milk Not alot but a little
and recently white milk with oreos or cake he discovered white milk compliments the chocolate experience
Milk Shakes
No POP Sprite he will drink but never does
Could not get him to try beer even though he is not old enough I know that he will never drink. That is great especially since he is going away to college soon.
That is it at Age 18
My wife has been so mad at me several times when I would force him to try things even little bites. It never did any good. It started crying fits and ruined meals even years later after he would finally eat something I forced him to eat as a child, it made it worse.
Let his tastes come naturally. There will be times when he gets older that he will feel humiliated because of his odd eating habits and he will make choices to finally try things and once he does you will see slight changes.
My son is no longer afraid to try small bites of things he liked nuggets so he did try fried shrimp and has eaten it a few times. But if your son is like mine I think alot of it has to do with texture rather than taste. The shrimp has little or no actual taste other than the breading, but the textur of it is what shy's him away from it. Same with the spagetti. Mostocolli just isnt the same texture.
Good luck and be patient Do not force and try vitamins if you feel he is not getting enough nutrients. We told our son when he was about 12 that he would have to start taking vitamins and I believe at that time he tried 2 new foods because of his fear of having to take a pill.
