Travelling with a fussy eater

Have I mentioned earlier that S is a fussy eater. Of course I have, and my patience was sorely tested in our recent look see to Zurich. Breakfast took an hour to convince S to finish her milk (still in a bottle!) and eat two slices of toast. Lunch at any restaurant was mostly refused even if it was pizza/pasta . Sometimes she would have some fries though. We would then have to come back to the hotel and make her lunch- I had purchased and carried a small rice cooker and hand blender with me which turned out to me the smartest thing we did. Yes it sounds so silly, to carry a mini kitchen with you what with the rice, dal and rasam powder and salt also having to be carried and an hour being spent each day in cooking up meals for S, but I've always had this problem, I cant stand to see S not have a proper meal. Left to her she can happily skip meals and be cheerful/sleep properly etc, but after one skipped meal I get all jittery and worried. So it was either Maggi or dal rice for her lunch and then again dal rice for her dinner. The icing on the cake was when we went to a colleagues house for dinner and S refused to eat anything though there was dal, chapatti, sabzi, rice everything on the table. I guess she is just too stubborn and I am just too worried. I was a bit apprehensive about the flight back as that was a day flight and with difficulty she had half a chocolate doughnut for breakfast (c'mon which kid does not like chocolate doughnut), cucumber and 1/3 of chapati for lunch!!!, turned her nose up at the fries on offer and finally 3 mini samosas in the evening. I managed to give her milk twice and made all sort of promises that I would make her a more varied eater before we finally shift (don't see that happening!). But yes, travelling with a fussy eater is difficult, but if you just resign yourself to the fact that you need to prepare what they usually eat and carry the stuff with you, at least it saves a lot of shouting and screaming and general tension!

On the positive side, I had my elastics removed before our trip to Zurich and was pleasantly surprised to find that most restaurants have at least one veg dish (not just fries) and while I couldn't eat most of the amazing bread, cheese or chocolates there, I had some really nice ravioli, spaghetti and puffs.