<p>I would love to hear from adults who were picky eaters as a teen; and parents of picky eaters/teen years. Please tell me they will grow out of it… or educate me that they will not… I am BEYOND frustrated with meal planning in my household. </p>
<p>Its just me and my DD, who pretty much dislikes most foods. Let’s see. She’ll eat pasta with no meat, all types of breads/biscuits/crackers, cereal, cheese only foods (grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas, mac & cheese, rolled cheese sticks) chicken soup - (but NOT the chicken) - tomato soup, potato soup, plain salads (no meat or fish), mashed potatoes, yogurt, chipotle (veggie bowl), scrambled eggs on occasion, and anything sweet (candy, chocolate, cinnamon buns, etc.). That’s it. Doesn’t make for a lot of choices.</p>
<p>DD is 16 soon to be 17. 5’1" 94 lbs. Today she had cereal for breakfast, cheese pizza for lunch and cereal for dinner. She does take a multi-vitamin. She’s been a picky eater since the day she was born. </p>
<p>I invite her to grocery shop and meal plan with me, but get no response. Should I just give up and stock my house with cereal, cheese, potatoes, ice cream and bread? Seriously!</p>
<p>Adult who was a picky eater as a teen (and still am but not nearly as bad). My parents had an extremely simple solution: you don’t like what we eat, you can cook your own meals. Solved that issue for them and I learned really quickly how to not starve lol.</p>
<p>If you’re worried about her health, you can take her to the doctor and do a blood workup to make sure she’s getting the nutrients she needs.</p>
<p>I only ate pasta, pizza, vegetables, and cheese related products until I was about 10 or 11, but I eventually grew out of it somewhat and starting eating beef. I didn’t start eating fish until about 14 and I stayed away from turkey until 17… I’m sparing the details here but as the years have gone on I have virtually grown out of my picky eating habits (except I still refuse to eat chicken… yuck). I’m 18 now and I’ll pretty much eat anything that isn’t chicken and my parents thought I’d never get over my picky eating!</p>
<p>Ahhh, this is good to hear. I am not worried about her nutrients - she gets them all in her odd way… I just hate the guilt I feel when I say “these are our dinner choices tonight”… AND she chooses cereal. Based on the responses so far, I should just let go of the guilt and let it be…</p>
<p>Favorite tactic of aunts/uncles with older cousins who were picky eaters was the guilt-trip lecture. Granted, our parents grew up in the midst of wartime China during the '40s so they actually had some credibility regarding going long periods without any food to eat…or if lucky…having a bowl of watery rice gruel and if lucky, with a dab of salt once every day or every other day.</p>
<p>Some older aunts/uncles also resorted to having more recalcitrant picky kids(sons mostly) not sufficiently guilted from those wartime accounts sent to their rooms without dinner or had them dine on surplus military rations or worse…the very same type of watery rice gruel with a dab of salt meals they themselves had to subsist on as kids during the wartime years.</p>
<p>My brother was a VERY picky eater (we’re talking spaghetti and certain brands of cheese only, and the skin off the chicken but not the chicken itself) when we were growing up. When he went to college, he grew out of it (or got over it), and started eating a lot of different things. I think it was one part peer pressure (he would try food with his friends, it’s hard to go out to eat when you won’t eat anything at the restaurant, etc) and one part necessity (you have to eat what’s in the dining hall, you have to start cooking for yourself, etc). </p>
<p>She’ll either expand her horizons as she spends more times around different food and different friends, or she’ll figure out a system to keep herself fed. Some people just have particular tastes, and she’s only really picky if she refuses to try it, not just because she doesn’t like the taste. If she’s getting all the nutrients she needs, I don’t see any reason to be concerned. Don’t feel guilty about it. It’s her choice, and if she decides to try new things, she’ll come to it in her own time.</p>
<p>EDIT: cobrat, my parents tried sending my brother to bed without dinner, and he just wouldn’t eat :)</p>
<p>That’s kind of disturbing, cobrat. We don’t live in wartime China. I’m assuming your family escaped China to get a better life- so that their kids wouldn’t have to live on wartime rations.</p>
<p>Some people just have different tastes than others. I don’t think that’s something that needs to be punished.</p>
<p>OP-my D was very picky from the first spoons of babyfood that ever passed her lips. She too often chose cereal instead of the planned meal. But we did have two rules-always try at least one bit of whatever (even if she’d rejected it before) and that most foods were not completely forbidden, even junk food, in moderation, was allowed if she’d eaten her meal. Nothing was forbidden fruit, so to speak.</p>
<p>Little by little she added foods that she’d once rejected-eggs, shrimp, veggies…and then she got a job in a deli. Which lead to her trying more foods. From there she moved onto a full restaurant, and now works in a chain family place. She actually CREATES menus now, and eats all kinds of things. So there is hope for your D!</p>
<p>I seriously think if you can get her to try a bite of each thing, one day she might, like my D did, realize her tastes have changed and have a whole serving of something. I’m sure it’s hardwiring to some extent-my son has always been willing to eat anything not nailed down and my youngest is somewhere in the middle, yet more adventurous than both of them.</p>
<p>I honestly wish my parents had punished my tastes a little. I’m trying to learn to eat vegetables but it’s really hard. I can eat the heads of cooked broccoli (but not the stems), cooked spinach (needs to be cooked really long though, or in something like soup), and sometimes green beans if they’re prepared just right. It’s primarily a texture issue. </p>
<p>It’s embarrassing going out to meals with my peers and leaving my salad untouched. For me, having to admit “I don’t eat salad” makes me feel really juvenile. I make a point of trying things again and again but I gain little ground. Iceberg lettuce is the worst offender and I gag when I try to eat it. </p>
<p>On the other hand my little brother REALLY grew out of his pickiness when he went away to college. He still won’t eat any kind of sauce, cheese, or skin/fat on protein, but he eats pretty much anything else. </p>
<p>I find the idea of a picky eater getting scurvy pretty farfetched, but I definitely heavier than I might have been because of my dietary choices. I eat a really heavy meat, dairy, and carb diet and as I get older it shows more and more. It’s hard to make good choices when the idea of having a salad for lunch is literally revolting.</p>
<p>I actually know of a kid in college who’s doctor diagnosed him with scurvy. Not a picky eater. It was just his first time living away from home…</p>
<p>If there’s no health problem, she’s fine. Not liking meat is really not the worst problem she could have as long as she’s getting protein from somewhere =D</p>
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<p>I wouldn’t worry about this too much. You don’t like lettuce. It’s fine. You’re a grown adult, and you can make the choice not to eat it. Your parents forcing you to eat lettuce as a child wouldn’t necessarily have made you want to eat lettuce now. I know someone who doesn’t like lettuce–grown adult, responsible, just doesn’t like lettuce. Her parents always had it around when she was kid, but she just never liked it. I know someone who doesn’t like tomatoes in any form other than ketchup. I don’t like beans. There’s nothing wrong with having things that you don’t like, as long as you have made a good effort to try it.</p>
<p>S2 was a really picky eater throughout childhood/adolescence. He expanded his tastes a good bit in college and has expanded them even more now that he’s in the "working " world and eating in restaurants with colleagues. Your D will probably expand her food horizons as she gets older.</p>
<p>S (now 19) is exceedingly picky. Unlike his older sister, he slept as a baby/toddler, so I wasn’t so stressed out about his picky eating. He started making his own meals when he was in elementary school.</p>
<p>He’s gotten somewhat better over the years. Peer pressure can sometimes be a positive thing! He’s also a fabulous cook (for things he likes).</p>
<p>My older brother was also incredibly picky, so H blames my side of the family. Like my brother, S enjoys very hot and spicy foods.</p>
<p>When S was younger I heard about something called “sensory integration disorder” which depending on your doctor may or may not have been real. Never had him diagnosed, but the descriptions were spot on. Sensitive to sounds (had hands on ears when walking down busy streets) and is now a talented musician. Sensitive to touch (no tags/seams in clothing, metal allergy). Sensitive to smells (potpourri simmering on a stove was not a good thing). For foods, seems to have a heightened sense of taste – can immediately tell if we get a different brand of something.</p>
<p>But over all, it’s gotten better over the years and he does have an expanded range of foods he will eat.</p>
<p>Both our kids were picky eaters. DS lived on Progresso Chicken Noodle soup throughout all 4 years of high school, unless spaghetti and “plain” meat sauce was being served. When eating the soup he would eat the chicken and noodles, leaving the carrots, celery, etc. Now he is at UC Berkeley and has “branched out” to Indian food and BBQ chicken salads and pizza. </p>
<p>Agree-- most kids grow out of it-- to some extent.</p>
<p>I was a pretty picky eater. I had and have still the hardest time getting protein and verged/verge on vegetarianism off and on because meat sometimes grosses me out (I don’t eat the meat in canned soups or chilis etc either and I am plenty old). I’ll cook it for the family but not eat it myself. Carbs are easy–too easy really. If you could steer her to greek yogurt that would at least get the protein part handled.</p>
<p>When I was a child, I was an extremely picky eater. For example, I would only eat the part of the apple around the middle – couldn’t deal with anything that was near either stem. When I ate steak, I had to stay inches away from the fat. I was skinny.</p>
<p>As an adult, I’m afraid to say, I continue to be – not picky, but very selective. I know what I like and what I don’t like. There is almost always something I can eat wherever I am. (Except fish. I don’t do anything that lives in the water.)</p>
<p>D1’s boyfriend she met freshman year of college was super picky (took his own huge box of Cheerios when his grandma took him to Europe as a teenager). However, she has coaxed him into eating many new foods. His family is astonished – and this has definitely helped D1 develop a great relationship with them because they are so amazed at what she has accomplished. So maybe a significant other can eventually influence the OP’s D.</p>
<p>D2 is very picky. She has always had sensory issues, food is just one of a bunch of them. She has graduated to a few additional items in recent years – she loves sandwiches, so as long as she promises to eat what I buy, I will get her what she wants in that area. Yes, white bread… sigh. But at least she is eating. She does eat a few odd things that are surprising to me - grapefruit, Tandoori chicken, smoked salmon, turkey bratwurst, and pad thai. And I kept pushing various fruits and vegetables til we nailed down a few she will eat - watermelon, green apples, caesar salad mix, and grilled peaches. It is very exciting when we can add something (tried an Asian salad mix from the store a few weeks ago that she deemed “worth having again”). “Normal” stuff she won’t eat - toast, peanut butter, cereal, eggs in any form, potatoes in most forms (she will eat a few fries if they come with a meal, but leave the rest), spaghetti, and tons of other stuff. </p>
<p>It was really ugly when she had her wisdom teeth out, as there were very few “soft foods” on the lists we saw that she would eat. I have no idea what she is going to eat when she leaves for college next week… I have to say that I will miss almost everything about her except trying to feed her!</p>
<p>Little kids who are picky eaters are a problem because you have to do something about it.</p>
<p>Picky teens are not. You just include some of their favorite foods in each grocery run and let them assemble their own meals. I would only worry if what they’re eating is entirely junk food.</p>
<p>The only times that my kids’ fussiness actually bothered me was in restaurants. There was absolutely nothing in a Chinese restaurant that my son was willing to eat. That was a nuisance. (Actually, there still isn’t anything in a Chinese restaurant that he will eat, and he’s 27. Some people never outgrow these issues.)</p>
<p>Of course, sometimes picky eating is hereditary. My husband will only eat plain meat, poultry, or fish. If there’s any kind of sauce or gravy on it, he washes it off. I don’t think that he and our daughter, who detests meat, poultry, and fish unless they’re cut up into little pieces and incorporated into a mixed dish, ever ate the same food at the same time, except for spaghetti.</p>
<p>My husband has been the pickiest eater I ever met, and still is! The good news is that if I make the same dinner for him night after night, he never complains! My husband would never eat meat, even as a young child, so I introduced meat whenever my husband was traveling. Of my 4 children, my D is also nearly impossible to make food for, so I always have the basic items she likes, and when she is home, she makes her own food. My middle son outgrew it at college, through determination on his own. When we were together in Bei Jing a few years ago, he ordered grilled eel for lunch, and insisted I taste it!</p>
So maybe a significant other can eventually influence the OP’s D.</p>