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I've only had a little bit of trouble with my boys as far as eating goes (mostly with my youngest, who is only 3 atm), but I can tell you what I've done, and you can take what you want from it. I make it a point to not go out of the way to fix them something different from what the rest of the family is eating. My philosophy is that kids have enough of a survival instinct that they won't let themselves starve and if they miss one meal, they'll live. If they get hungry enough, they'll eat what you offer them, whether or not it's their favorite food. It took my boys a bit to adjust to at first, but once they got used to the idea that even if they whine about the green beans they're not going to get macaroni and cheese instead... they eat their beans if they're hungry. If not, they'll pick at what they want from their plate. The only punishment they get for not eating is a slightly hungry tummy and if it's a night where we have desert they won't get any, since that's more of a reward for those who have cleaned their plates.

My youngest, now 13, is that very same way. He eats meat and bread with very few vegies or fruits. When he was little these items would be put on his plate and I would give him a choice so he would feel as if he was in control of the situation. He could take 3 big bites or 5 little bits. He would always choose 3 big bites. He is still very picky and would like to count ketchup as a vegie, but as each year gets older he eats more of a variety.

Have you tried telling him in advance or giving him choices? So if your going to have spagetti lets say, he gets to choose if he wants spagetti noodles, spiral noodles or tri-coloured noodles shaped noodles, He picks and eats of those what he wants.

Or making a game out of things, put 15 foods in different bowls, 1 is pasta, another raw carrots, so on and so forth, or just written on paper, every couple days he needs to try one of the things on there, and as a reward for trying them he gets to pick a special dessert (pudding, popcorn sort of deal)

Sometimes even just having friends over, a couple friends come over and they all eat pasta, maybe he'd be willing to try since they like it.

Sometimes you may be able to get him to eat by making a game out of it. Like pizza, give him a pita bread, some sause and a few veggies that he has to pick 3 of to put on the pizza and eat.

Good luck with this. if all else fails there are lots of recipes that you can hide foods in. Like we hide zuchinni in chocolate cake.

I know all to well about diabetics. I have had diabetes since I was 18 months old. All this happened just before we found out. He is not on any medicine so I am not to worried about it yet. I have tried having him pick what we will have for supper such as we have this for a choice and it is you to chose what we eat. Mom can make spaghetti or we can have chicken and mashed potatoes. It doesn't work when he does get to pick. I am loving all the suggestions and I will keep trying!!

I hide things.

I have just found out the wonder that is spinach (frozen since fresh is eh now).

It completely disappears into a smoothie. Fruit smoothies, chocolate banana smoothies.

My three year old proclaimed it best ever. I also put it into a dark pink straw cup (for the fruit ones since the smoothie turns out green) so she couldn't see the color!

Get some frozen mango and some berries and some spinach and tada!

Works with carrots, AND you can use carrot juice to help with the blending.

I agree with Gentle too about getting him involved and giving him choices. PLUS if he does LOVE pizza or french fries or tacos or something a lot of the time you can get them to eat ANYTHING as long as you call it by his fav. food's name.

My daughter will eat just about anything in a "taco" so I'll put raisins, dried apple, banans, sunflower seeds, and peanut butter in a tortilla and tada! she eats it. But she won't touch raisins or dried apples on their own.
AND I get her to eat veggies, etc. by slicing them up into fries. We make "Carrot fries" and "Sweet Potato Fries"

You can also do a BAKED regular fries if he won't eat mashed.

Also try adding cheese or just a little bit of ketchup (crazy colored ketchup even) to get him to eat the mashed potatos.

half a tbs of ketchup in a huge helping of mashed potatos is worth it as far as I'm concerned. whee

Finally, have you tried telling him BEFORE dinner what you all are going to be eating and saying "I want you to try a bite AT LEAST of everything for dinner if you don't like it then you can have X (X being a preapproved substitute that is easy to make and is the only other choice he gets, like say PB and J on whole wheat bread with pretzels or something)." Even if three nights in a row he chooses PB and J, AT LEAST he's eating.

I have to say yhe other day I got my son to try something new. I lied to him and told him it was a fried mozzerella stick and it was fried broccoli and cheese bite.

Found it, took me a couple minutes

The show is called "Just One Bite" Heres a link to a list of the episodes, if you cant catch the show and how they get the kids to try things, and what they can tell from each thing the child tries. At the very least, each episode comes with at least 2 recipes, that you can try your munchkin out on.


http://www.foodtv.ca/ontv/episodearchive.aspx?titleid=96848

Goodluck