Please help, very fussy 3 year old

[helenoberholzer]

I have two boys, the youngest is 18 months and eats almost anything you put in front of him. The eldest is 3 alomost 4 and is extremely fussy.
If I am honest it has got steadily worse since he was around 18 months, but even when weaning he was not as good to try everything as his brother has been.
We are now down to usually only having one option for lunch - dairylea on either bread or crackers, breakfast he will eat cereals and does try different ones sometimes but dinner time is a constant battle, usually ending with me and my husband getting annoyed with him.
We used to just put his food in front of him, if he didn't eat then say fine but never offer anything else, that didn't make much difference and he started complaining he was tired all the time, so I was worried he was not eating well enough, so then we started telling him he had to eat his dinner or he would go straight to bed afterwards, now that usually just ends in tears!
We try to offer his brother a dessert when he finishes his dinner to try and tempt the older one into eating his, but again that doesn't make much difference.
We have tried sticker / reward charts, still no luck.
We are really stuck for ideas now. Please Help!

[cathyg]

does he eat anything for dinner? does he have a favourite meal that he'll eat, if so i'd just keep giving him that so that you know he's getting something. does he go to nursery? school? what do they feed him? does he not like the sitting at the table business? you could try letting him eat in front of the TV to see how it goes. he might just be being stubborn! they are at that age. my lo went through an awful fussy stage, but has now come through it (more or less), so it won't last forever. keep patient & try not to stress too much. goodluck. x if you're worried about fruit/veg intake, i've found those fruit purees a god send i know they really for babies, but my almost 6 year old loves them with meringue, sponge fingers dipped in etc. same as like tomato soup - kids usually love a really smooth one with soldiers dipped in. does he drink fruit smoothies? make them into ice lollies. dried fruit (humzingers etc (so long as no added sugar). i think kids are just put off by a plate load of food being put in front of them, they prefer to snack on the go more i've found. x