Diet for very fussy eater?

Thanks for everyone's advice and suggestions, keep them coming, and good to see I'm not the only one.

To answer a few people that are accusing me of being childish or having a cop out, I'd like to explain why I eat the way I do.
When I was very young I use to eat everything and anything. Unfortunately when I was around 5/6 or so, I developed a very severe case of gastroenteritous. I lost half of my body weight through vomiting, and wasn't even able to keep water down without it coming back up. (being a very small child anyway this was dangerous). Obviously I had to go to the hospital, where I was kept for a long time, and refused to eat anything. The illness had gone but being so young I just connected any food with a painful experience. Because I wasn't eating, I had to be force fed. The doctors and nurses, or my mum and dad, had to pin me down and put food in my mouth, kicking and screaming, and particularly in the earlier stages, hold my mouth closed when I chewed. That is when (based on common sense) my food phobia developed. I know it happened a long time ago, but when I was younger trying new food was a very frightening experience. I lived on plain hotdogs and toast. for about a year and I outright refused in front of new people. To this day, even nibbling on a taste I'm not familiar with is nerve wracking, especially because if I don't like it, my body just physically will not let me swallow it and/ or I end up gagging loudly or vomiting. It's not something I can control.

This is why mushy foods like mashed potato are especially hard, or anything with a slimy texture. As for the vegetables, who knows if that's got anything to do with it. My dad was less than understanding and used to blend vegetables and hold the spoon in my mouth, clamping my jaw shut, until I swallowed, even when the illness had gone away.

Sorry if this sounds overly smushy or woe-is-me, not trying to come across like that. It's just that for some of us, new food or certain things happening with food is something that can be genuinely a big deal.

Oh, and infair, I didn't mention this at the start as I was just looking for some advice and guidance, and didn't want to turn this in to a therapy session :P

This is why I don't post judgemental comments. I had a similar problem, i was born premature and had loads of health problems and used to continually vomit as a child. When I was being weaned, it got worse, and so as a result, I cant eat certain foods without vomiting.

Thanks. I don't know why so many people will accept other mental problems in a heartbeat, but anyone who has a phobia or anxiety to do with food will just be told to get over it and man up.

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I'm trying to find something new on the potato front/ slowly get used to the mush, as I hate the texture of mash or even thick chips so they just tend to come back up :/

This may sound niave, but I didn't even realise you could eat vegetables raw without getting ill! Thanks, this may help with the texture, which like you is one of my main issues.



I take cod liver oil because I have hereditary bad joints (I'm just a barrel of laughs) but I only take others occasionally. Can you actually notice a difference in yourself? I've always been a bit skeptical.

I take cod liver oil because I have hereditary bad joints (I'm just a barrel of laughs) but I only take others occasionally. Can you actually notice a difference in yourself? I've always been a bit skeptical.