My D is 18... and still an incredibly picky eater. We haven't really gone down a specific "child led" plan, although I infrequently serve food she doesn't like. Sometimes she just has to cope -- for example, she doesn't like spaghetti sauce, so I let her just eat some of the noodles without it and some garlic bread. I try to serve a salad I know she will eat with it (there is ONE kind, and they changed the texture of the dressing recently so even that one is dicey) or carrot sticks or some cut up fruit. I have stopped buying full fat ice cream (there is half fat & juice bars in the freezer for dessert if she wants them). I am not sure what she will eat in college next year, trying not to think too much about it. I doubt she will actually starve. She may have to get to the point in life where she has some health problems due to diet before she decides to work on it herself. Like many other things in her life, she will only seek to improve it when SHE decides she wants to. We haven't had any luck in rushing her much on other topics, this one is no different. Wish I could tell you it all gets better in the teen years, but not really in our case.
I will say she has taken to eating a few surprising things over the years. She likes grapefruit and tandoori chicken and turkey bratwurst. Who knew? So I guess serving a lot of different foods did allow us to find a few (in the multitude) that I could keep in the rotation.
Last edited by intparent; 05/30/13 07:52 PM.
