My boyfriend is a very picky eater. He would be perfectly content eating bologna sandwiches, fried egg sammies and snack cakes.
He likes his meat and potatoes, as long as they're simply cooked and basically not cooked together in the form of a casserole because he hates casseroles. He hates every veggie except turnip greens, corn and white potatoes and sweet potatoes. Rarely eats salad unless it's potato salad or colelsaw (but he won't eat cooked cabbage...lol). He does like beans as long as they're pintos and black-eyed peas so I guess that's a good thing.

Any suggestions, tips, help regarding this subject?

We've got a rule at our house :

You don't have to like the food but you must taste it ( a mouthfull) and swallow.

My daughter (7 yrs) is fussier than my son (10 yrs) , and with this rule, about 50% of the time, she agrees that the new food tastes OK and continues eating it. if she rejects it, we don't make a fuss and always offer it next time. After a few times, she often will begin to eat it because it becomes familiar.

We have our kids eat 1 bite per year of age for the things they don't like. This works pretty well and usually over time the kids will develop a taste for most things. I can think of 2 examples that haven't worked with this. My youngest and potatoes, she hates them no matter what form I serve them in. The other is an entire meal I used to make, porcupine scramble. I kept trying, but it was eventually apparant that none of the kids liked it at all. So you do need to keep things like that in mind and make some adjustments to accomodate them when you can.

I let my kids pick 1 food each that they never have to eat. This helps cut down on the complaining, they know they have to eat everything else. This saved me as a kid too. Also, I agree with Tammy - no snacks or desserts unless the meal is eaten. Good luck!

My two boys were/are fussy eaters (I have 5 children). The oldest was the worst; when he was 3 I had such a difficult time getting anything substantial into him that I took him in for a check up. Turns out, his growth was perfect for his age and he was totally healthy.

What have I learned about fussy eaters? First, kids will eat when they are hungry! Secondly, picky parents will more likely have picky kids--we had friends whose kids would only drink chocolate milk; turns out dad hated white milk and would only drink chocolate milk! They had no problems drinking white milk at my house. Also, while we, like Tammy, have a everyone is eating the same meal rule in our house, I have found that anywhere you can offer choice will make the meal go easier. One of the things my oldest son hated was sauces (gravies, etc.), so I started letting him have a little taste before I gave him any and today at 9 years old, he is the most adventurous eater I have! My younger son at 7 years old was never as picky as the older one, but continues to be more fussy. He might always be this way, but we continue to encourage him to try new things and taste before he decides to hate! One last thing. I once read somewhere that it takes something like 17 - 21 times of trying a new food for people to learn to like it, so don't give up!!!
Robin-Taine

I posted about this topic recently on my blog. Feel free to read it here http://whatscooking4us.blogspot.com/2009/03/tips-and-links-about-getting-kids-to.html

Because I was the pickiest eater ever. And I remember having to eat things on my plate and being very upset about it. Namely, I hate the idea of eating meat. It upset me greatly that I was eating something that was alive. And I did not want to eat meat as a child. Yet, I was told I had to. I hated dinners - unless we were having spaghetti or something similar. I became a vegetarian at age 13 (much to my parents' dismay). After talking to the pediatrician that my diet was okay as long as I got protein - eggs, peanut butter, etc., they relented but they didn't like it. I am now 41 and have never eaten meat since I was a kid.

Having said that, I try to understand my children's food aversions and don't force them to eat anything. I do have them try it. But if after a few times it's really something they don't like, I don't force them to eat it - whether it's meat or a particular veggie. I'm lucky because two of my three children love vegetables and often eat those before the main meal. The third child is a bit of a challenge with veggies. Therefore, I always put fruit on the plate also and try to mostly serve veggies she will eat, even if begrudgingly.

That's my take from a fussy eater.

Michele in No. VA

I recently published an article on this very subject. My most successful trick is camouflage. Puree veggies, fruits or meats to incorporate into sauces, meatloaf, pizza, and other dishes or sauces without changing the flavor too much! Kids get the nutrition without knowing it.

My second favorite tip is focused to develop the taste for new foods. I have a two bite rule. Always take at least two bites. I don't care how big or small, take two bites. My kids get overly emotional sometimes when it came to trying a new food. I noticed they were too busy focused on the emotion of eating the food rather than the actual taste. The first bite gets them through the emotion, the second gives them a chance to actually taste the flavor and feel the texture of the food in their mouth. I didn't like broccoli till I was grown, my daughter didn't like watermelon until she was eight so flavors and textures develop over time. Then again, there's those foods they'll never eat-like me and asparagus-even though I keep trying the two bite method, it's just not working out between us.

You can see my other tips here. http://frugalfrontporch.blogspot.com/2009/03/kid-friendly-healthy-eating-tricks.html

This is exactly what we do with our kids. Make them try a little bit of everything on their plate and no snacks or desserts (the only exception is a very healthy snack like an apple or carrots etc.) unless they eat their real food first. If they are hungry later they must eat some of what was on their plate before they may have anything else. This has worked well for us and my kids will almost always eat whatever they're given and have grown to like most things. My daughter still isn't a big meat eater so she only has to try some if it each time we have it as long as she eats the other items on her plate. For the record my kids are 8, 6, 3, and 4 weeks (I guess he doesn't really count in the food area yet lol).

For us we started them early with having to try everything on their plates. There was a period of time when this didn't work so well, as we have two sons with autism and they had texture issues with food. We allowed them for a time to just eat what they would eat, as really they just needed whatever calories we could put into them (when I say that I'm not talking sweets, but with real food they could eat whatever). Once their therapy was rolling along and we were seeing improvements (about 1.5 years) we went back to trying everything on our plates. Our autism kids still hate things that are white and with squishy texture, but they are at least trying them!

We also have one other rule: you are allowed to pick one thing that you never have to eat. You have had to have tried this food in the past and just really didn't like it. If that item is being served, then you can make yourself a pb & j. So, for one child that is jelly, for another its scrambled eggs and another its mac and cheese. They are allowed to pick one item and that item can't change for an entire year. They decide on their birthdays if they want to change their one no-eat food! We think this is a nice way to give them a sense of control over not eating something they truely dislike but at the same time making it clear that we eat a well-rounded diet.

Sounds like you could use Super Nanny!!! My youngest daughter only liked chicken, so I made white chicken (chicken), brown chicken (beef) and pink chicken (salmon)and she loved them all, she was probebly close to 6 before she realized they weren't all chicken and by then she liked 'em all.

All three of our kids are required to eat what is served (I don't serv anything beyond their young tastebuds)and it's fine if they don't eat it all but when it leaves the table dinner is over and that's that. I don't give dessert as a reward for eating dinner, but if an acceptable amount of dinner isn't eaten, dessert isn't an option. I have given plain (no butter, no jelly, no honey & no peanut butter)as a snack at bedtime for a tummy that was just too grumbly to allow sleep.

One tip I learned with new foods like vegetables- I have a 3 1/2 year old. If we are having something new- say creamed spinach. I only serve it to me and my husband. I tell my daughter it is grown up food and she is not old enough to handle it. We then ooo and aah over the spinach as we eat- "it's so good, yummy" etc. Pretty soon she is eating the creamed spinach too!