Hi I'm Rachael, ever since my mum first tried me with solid foods I've been picky! She was told by the health visitor to keep trying different flavours and textures but that didn't work, so they told my mum to put the food in front of me and if I was really hungry I'd eat it, in desperation my mum tried it thinking I'd eat the food, but it didn't work.
I don't eat any fruit or vegetables, which obviously makes meals away from home difficult (there are other foods I don't like as well, that is just the major groups), going into primary school I was always made to feel bad about not eating fruit or veg and my teachers would always try to make me have it. I can't even touch the foods I don't like, even the thought of it makes me feel anxious. If I did touch food that wasn't within my safe foods I'd have to wash my hands.
When I started getting school dinners it became more difficult, there was never much option! The dinnerladies always put the foods I didn't like on my plate and when I didn't eat them, which was every week I was always asked if I was ill. One time it was 'fish and chips friday' and they didn't have any beans left so apparently they had to put peas on my plate, and I didn't touch them, a teaching assistant told me that if I didn't eat them I'd have the fish taken away, the fish was the only thing I was eating!!
As I've got older I have learned to manage anxiety more with picky eating, I cannot touch foods that I don't like though. I am more relaxed with 'contamination' now as well, but I still have to pick out all that I don't like before I eat, only then can I actually enjoy the food.
Over the years I've lost count of the amount of times I've heard people tell me to give a certain food a try or to try their meal that I don't like because they cook it a special way and it just makes me want to scream!!
My family are really good about it, my sisters new boyfriend however is determined to make me try new things.. It won't happen
Friends in the other hand have been tricky, I've had to decline invitations to meals as I would not eat anything there or I would have to spend time picking out bits from the meal, obviously it would then not be enjoyable. I also am one of those people who looks up the menu beforehand and I will ask if certain things come with the food, my close friends are really good about it as they know its not just me it's an actual problem and I can get really worked up over it.
That's a very shorterened version of the story!