'Please tell me it's just a phase!' Christine McGuinness begs parents for advice on getting fussy kids to eat

Paddy McGuinness' wife Christine has been despairing over how to get her picky toddlers to eat, seeking help from her Instagram followers.

The mum of three has even been carefully cutting out pastry letters and baking them to get her point across, highlighting how she'll 'do anything to get them to eat.'

'Mums with fussy eaters please tell me it's just a phase!' she captioned the photo.

'This is my 'rock n roll' Saturday night, I'm baking pastry letters! Kids make you crazy.'

The 28 year old is wife to presenter and comedian Paddy McGuinness, and mum to three-year-old twins Leo and Penelope, and two-month-old Felicity.

Parents offered up their sympathy, and gave Christine the tips she was looking for.

'My son is now 10 and he would only eat ham, custard, potato waffles or nothing at all,' commented one mum. 'He is getting much better now but we made a rewards board, so each new food he would get a sticker on the chart and then get a reward for a number of stickers.

'To start would be to touch, then smell it, then lick it, then eat it, it's a long old slog but we got there in the end.'

'Thank you for your message, this is pretty much the stage I'm at,' Christine replied.

'Trying stickers, rewards, charts, and lots of praise whilst hiding my tears, holding my breath and just praying for the best, I'm grateful for every mouthful of food. It's so worrying, thank you again for sharing.'

Christine and Paddy while she was pregnant with the twins in 2013

'My 3 year old ate a meatball last night I almost did cartwheels round the kitchen.... 1 meatball and I was delighted.... she will never eat meatballs again though,' wrote another parent.

One mum had encouraging words for everyone. 'My advice to any parent is to stay calm, encourage as much as possible, don't beat yourself up and try not to worry,' she wrote.

'It's reassuring to know we are not on our own with this, I hate how much I dread mealtimes, I really want it to be a nice, family time experience.

'I'm trying to stay positive, I can't be baking pastry letters forever!' replied Christine.