Advice for a mum from your past experiences please

Also there is certainly a pattern to his eating. He could probably eat a lot of other foods but trying new foods makes him anxious. Why? If you make him a whole meal with a new food he will feel under pressure to eat it all if he doesn’t like the first bite. And if he does reject it after the first bite adults tend to say ‘but you haven’t really tried it.

when you introduce him to new foods make sure you only put one mouthful in front of him and make it clear he’s only expected to take one bite.

also try and observe the pattern. Did he reject fish fingers? Try avoiding serving him oily sea food. Did he reject curry? Maybe spicy food just isn’t for him. Pay attention to texture, bitterness, spice etc. Note the way in which custard is gooy in a different way than thick milkshake (one is shear thickening the other shear thining)

A lot of foods will be rejected for their texture not flavour. A dry chocolate cake may be received very differently than a moist fruit cake. but flavour can make a difference too. The difference between green and red grapes is important to me.

Hi! its usually only really loud noises, like hand dryers. hell clasp his hands around his ears like its painful, as far as im aware background noise doesnt really disturb him but i will ask. The food, i try to make a range of things but half of the time he wont even try it. im not sure if its how it looks? but its definitely a struggle. Hes more keen on processed foods and things like toast which isnt an ideal diet. ill keep a diary of the foods hell try and wont try to see if that will help. it feels like its things hes never seen before or new 

Hi! its usually only really loud noises, like hand dryers. hell clasp his hands around his ears like its painful, as far as im aware background noise doesnt really disturb him but i will ask. The food, i try to make a range of things but half of the time he wont even try it. im not sure if its how it looks? but its definitely a struggle. Hes more keen on processed foods and things like toast which isnt an ideal diet. ill keep a diary of the foods hell try and wont try to see if that will help. it feels like its things hes never seen before or new 

It's a bit of both. If you've bad experiences of being forced to try new things you instantly are on your guard the moment its suggested. You can also infer something about a foods texture by looking at it. Like I said just looking at a slice of sponge cake or a fruit cake you can tell they have quite different textures.

My personal bias is towards starchy foods, bread and potatoes type stuff. Stuff you can chew or crunch. Processed foods often have added sugar which in large enough quantities can cover up almost any unpleasant flavour. If you add enough sugar and or salt you can over power very bitter tastes.

Like ribena. Blackcurrant tastes awful. It's a fairly bitter berry. But by adding tons of sugar it can be marketed to kids as ribena. (even after all the sugar they add I still can't stand it though)

Orange juice is actually a bit bitter too. Try drinking it after cleaning your teeth (toothpaste suppresses the sugar receptors in your tongue). But natural orange juice has more sugar in it than coca cola so the bitter flavours are normally overpowered by the sweetness.

If you want to make home cooked meals more palatable but still low calorie you might experiment by adding artificial sweeteners to your meals. Sucralose and Steviol glycosides are available for home cooking under various brand names. Of course making the cooking sweeter won't help with texture and many sweeteners can have unpleasant after tastes.