My own son is a terrible eater :(

My son is turning 5 this year and has a very bland diet, and very resistant to trying new foods. I totally recognize that this is due to my attitude towards his eating; it is one of the after effects for me of having cared for my older son through his cancer treatments and all the eating and food issues that come with chemo and transplant. If E was to eat ANYTHING, I was so happy that being forceful about eating a varied diet was not at the forefront of my mind at all. This has trickled down to my younger son, who has always eaten, is healthy and growing; he just prefers a bland, repetitive diet. I always put a bit of other foods on his plate, and he goes without eating if he doesn't like our food....but this has continued for the last two years. This kid will not eat any supper, go to bed and sleep all night without a fuss. He just doesn't care about trying new foods or varying what he eats.
This is what he does eat: bread, eggs, cheese, yogurt, apples, bananas, strawberries, watermelon, grapes, perogies, cereal, breaded chicken or fish, yam fries, mac and cheese, crackers, pancakes/waffles, cheese quesadilla, carrots, milk, protein smoothies, muffins (even ones made with lentils/beans/veggies). He won't eat: beef, sausage, hotdogs (which I don't mind), sauces of any kind (tomato sauce, ketchup, dips), and basically all veggies.
He would eat a cheese sandwich with a scrambled egg and fruit for every meal every day, I'm sure. I thought it would pass, but nope. How can he not get bored? We just had our yearly check up with the DR, and he is in great shape right on track for height/weight and no behaviour concerns either. Anyone ever have a kid who was so blah with food?

Well that doesn't sound bad to me, aside from not eating the veggies. My son is 26 and still will not eat most veggies. But at least they eat fruit, hopefully they are getting their needed vitamins from that.

A lot of kids do not like things mixed together so if your suppers are more of a casserole type then that might be why he is refusing. Also there are a lot of kids that won't touch a plate of food if there is anything on it they don't like - ex the veggies.

At our house, not eating your veggies is simply not an option. If the kids want seconds, they need to have 1 or 2 bites of their veggies first. If kids say they are done, but haven't touched their veggies they must have at least one bite. If they don't, they lose privileges like TV or playing games on the iPad. Otherwise they simply would never eat veggies.

Many times when we force them to have a bite of a veggie they will realize they actually like it and have more. But like i said, they dont have to eat a plateful, just one or two bites because i am a strong believer in " you dont know you dont like something until you try it" and i also think that if a kid didnt like something one day he might like it today...so you always have to at least try.

I know some parents don't like the idea of forcing to eat foods, but I think it's poppycock! Given the choice, lots of kids would turn away veggies in favor of something else! As parents it's our job to make sure they are getting a balanced diet.

I had a extreme picky eater (2.5 yo). He will only eat white familiar food (but he did not even eat pasta). I used to ask him to have a bite. If he did not like it he would not have to eat it. I kept my word. I did not force or punish for not eating. Since he did not see any pressure he started to try a bite of new foods. At the beginning biting counted, but later the request was biting and swallowing. He improved a lot. He started to notice he liked some foods he did not before.

It took a very long time and patience, though. It took me up to a year for him to like some veggies...