We were lucky. My DD was a picky eater from the start, but would always eat rice, plain pasta, and raw veggies and fruit, so we could almost always find something for her to eat. Most of her issues were textural, although she's never liked meat. I learned quickly that forcing food into a kid with textural issues simply led to catching the food in the lap on the way back up. Although I never cooked specifically for her, I made sure that every meal included things she'd like and could make a meal of... and there was always cereal or yogurt if she was still hungry, but there was no way I was cooking two separate meals!
Interestingly, she's also always been interested in ethnic foods, so we have never had a problem with Indian, Thai, Japanese, Italian, etc. restaurants, even when she was very little and at her most picky. When she was a high school freshman, her ballet company did an international exchange with a dance school in Vendome, France, where the US dancers spent 5 nights in host homes, put on a collaborative production with the French dancers, and then spent 4 nights in Paris. DD didn't want food to be an issue, so she taught herself to eat chicken and pork. She will also eat steak now, if it's almost well-done. She has turned into a venturesome eater, and even though she still doesn't really like meat, even though she eats it, and won't eat fish at all, she likes sushi... go figure! BTW, her favorite Disney restaurant has ALWAYS been Boma!
