1. The Boy has never been a fan of anything with a strong flavour or smell. I will ask him to try something, and if he says no, I leave it and try again another time. If he says ok (usually reluctantly) I will give him just enough to be able to taste it and feel the texture in his mouth, then its up to him. If he like it and wants more, I’ll give him more. If he doesn’t want more, I don’t push it. Also, if he ever asks about anything on mine or Dad’s plate, we always let him try it.

2. The Boy has table manners when he focuses on what he is doing, but he struggles with his co-ordination, so finds it hard to use the knife and fork together to cut, or push things onto he fork. If he’s sat at the table on his own, he will often use his fingers to push thing on the plate onto his fork, or into his mouth. He also often puts too much food in his mouth at once, and usually ends up with some food/sauce/gravy on his face.

3. I don’t have too many concerns about his diet, he knows when he has eaten enough and will turn down treats of he’s not hungry. He won’t drink fizzy drinks because he doesn’t like the feeling in his mouth, so really only drinks water or juice (doesn’t like squash too much as its too sweet)

4. We can take The Boy to a restaurant, although he struggles to understand why the food doesn’t come as soon as you order it, and I am always concious of people watching his table manners.

5. School (as you appeared to imply) is a different matter. When he was at nursery as a 2/3 yr old, he would eat anything he was given (including things that he ‘didnt like’ at home) and on the occasions that he does have school dinners, he will eat whatever is on the menu. He does prefer to take packed lunches though, because he eats cooked meals quite slowly, and says that he has more time to play when he eats his packed lunch – he always eats everything though!

As an aside, he will only eat McDonalds, and will only have a cheese burger happy meal (without the gherkin, they are ‘dirty’)

when younger my boy had lots of trouble with food, manners and eating in general. Textures were/are the biggest!!  Made mash potatoes a little more creamy(extra milk or eggs), also would and pumpkin and spinach. over time just kept adding more vegie varieties. his table habits were bad and he would scoff his food and overload his mouth, not sure how he never choked!! he had to be told b4 every bite “just a little, chew, chew, chew” and while doing that place his hands flat on table till he had swallowed. still only likes cheese, yoghurt, bananas, pineapple and hot dogs and hot chips!!  has learnt to eat his mash vegies and fish chicken and red meat. all minimal. but loves sausages, meatballs and rissoles.(not terribly healthy), oh and chicken nuggets! has improved  over the years and have always put out utensils for eating, which he now uses, mostly! still needs to b reminded of small amounts in mouth. he gets to have input for lunch which is generally the same every day. cheese sandwhich, yoghurt museli bar(this is fairly new) or fruit stick, and a banana. As always persistence and patience. hopefully improves over time. And we didn’t go out for tea ever. we have kind of tried but its hard to find things he likes on the menu, lol!  good luck with it all.