Found a new food the kids will eat!

[Claire72]

Made mince burritos tonight (admittedly with a burrito dinner kit) but was able to sneak some peppers into the mix too without anyone noticing and picking them out.
What a breakthrough! (and oh, so easy!)

[di]

Well Done!not quite the season yet I know but anyway,i often dice some squash & cook with the mince,keep the chunks 4 andi & i,make the kiddies dissapear with the back of a fork!!When did yours become fussy?mine used to eat anything up until about 2or 3.now whenever i do something slightly different the meal gets greeted with an "uuurrrgghhwhats that!"gets so disheartening,definitley makes a difference if i've starved them for a few hours before teatime!think thats 1\2 the problem that in this day &age we rarely get proprly hungry,nor allow our kiddies to,dont know about you but although i tell them if they dont eat their dinner theyll go hungry i always give in to the guilt & make them a sandwich or something 1/2 hr later!looks like i just answered my own problem!

[squashysu]

mine are just starting to try things again, at 7! But i bought this great chopper from Pampered chef and it chops things so small you cant see them ha ha !!

I have though, asked the kids to at least try everything that i grow in the garden as it will taste different to the supermarkert and so far they are trying which is something.

Fingers crossed, but i have to say Claire, i hate peppers myself and still pick them out ha ha ha !!

SS

[di]

get this mine love shop bought carrots but allotment ones taste too much like carrot!!

[vicki]

just what my daughter says! 'too carroty'!

[kirsty b]

My daughter started getting fussy about 5ish. She has been telling me she doesn't like peas for ages, but last week I persuaded her to eat some out of a pod and now she likes them again!! Result!
Have you seen the Schwartz spice mixes? we had the biryani one last night made with chicken, and she was saying 'ewww I'm not eating that, then she tried a bit of her dad's, decided she likes it now and will have it next time we make it.
She has always liked allotment carrots, she's now growing some round ones in a little raised bed of her own and is gutted that they are not big enough to eat yet.

[areia]

hmmm i gonna come across as possiably a cruel mother now, my son will pretty much eat anything now but it wasnt always the case, sunday dinner was always a nightmare and he would still be eating it after we had finished, but he was never allowed to leave the table till he had finished, now being sunday lunch it ment he wasnt up till silly o clock at night i think his record was 5 hours to eat it, we had tantums and sulks but he just went without (i.e dessert)if he didnt eat what was given, my nan when she worked at a childrens home, used to find the sneeking in little bits at a time often worked you just dont tell them what it is or say it is something else, childrens taste buds change as they are growing up, but if they reckonise a food stuff they havent liked before they will not try it again, my son now nine loves cooking does a mean chicken kiev from scratch and loves baking, any new food he will try i just say chew it swallow it THEN if you dont like, you dont have to have it, teaching your child were it all comes from and getting them to help you prepare or cook does work loads i feel,
went to a pub lunch the other week with a friend and their daughter, the little boy on a table behind me just had beef yorkshire pud and gravy, the little boys face when he saw my son and his freind with lamb, chicken, broc cauli mashed swede roasties the works was a picture,
Also time is another thing we are not aloud to spend the time with our kids like our parents did as both parents now have to work

[Claire72]

My son is not fussy at all and eats everything put in front of him, my daughter is another matter altogether. Food is an inconvenience to her and she would happily eat nothing. With my son it was always eat your dinner or no pudding, he always rose to the bait and ate everything. With my daughter, you would say eat all your tea or no pudding, she would reply, ok, can I go and play now then? We have a rule that if they need to eat between meals, it should be fruit, but DD would last all day on half a bowl of cereal and half a banana if we didn't insist she ate!
She does not get her appetite from me!

[fastlearner]

Mine are the complete opposite! Although both pretty good, my daughter (8) is far more adventurous than my son with food and will try and eat pretty much anything - my son (10) will eat basic veg but seems to be getting fussier by the day!

[lynda66]

when my son went through a fussy stage, i would hide stuff ..... he loved tomato soup, so i made my own, with added carrots and onions, bolognaise sauces if you liquidise them can contain virtually anything ....... he always loved smoothies, but wouldn't eat the fruits on their own, also frozen onions go mushy, so you can add them to stuff without them being noticed. pies always worked too, could always add carrots and other veg to them, they don't seem to notice when covered in gravy.... also carrot cake with apple and sunflower seeds ....... home made granary bread, burgers with added carrot and onion....... flapjacks, can have added fruit, of many different types, and nuts and seeds ........ now he's 18 and 6'2" so it must have worked lol no one else in our family is anywhere near that tall, and now he'll eat anything ...... except peas and bananas ...... he's always hated bananas, and could always tell if i put the tiniest bit of one in something........ I never forced him to eat, but if he didn't eat he didn't get anything till the next meal ...... i remember being forced as a kid to eat stuff i hated, and i couldn't do it to him ....... to be honest i really didn't want to make meal times a battle, so i just made stuff i knew he would eat and hid stuff, so i knew he was getting the vitamins ...... but he knew if he didn't eat it there wouldn't be anything else. he always liked broccoli though which i found weird.

good luck

Lynda xx

[Mikey]

My DD (3), just loves the new thinly sliced cucumber batons on her plate (cabbage).

If she won't eat it, I lie about what it is, and call it something she does like.

I'm sure she will wise up to this, but hopefully not before she likes eating it. I find bribery works a treat, she only gets a dessert (fruit and greek yoghurt), if she clears the plate, love her sometimes she hasn't got room for the treat.

[Paulottie]

Areia, I'm definitely with you here. Old fashioned it may be, but I'm the 'Sit down together, no telly, have a little of everything, sit there till you eat it and say thank you' sort too. Cruel it is not, it is about respect and ultimately you are doing them a favour.

Children shouldn't be offered a choice. I was brought up in a pub/restaurant and we had very unusual mealtimes, mostly I used to go to the kitchen and order what I wanted from the chef...result = I lived on fish or steak and chips. I don't think I ate vegetables at all. If not I was at a boarding school and that coulourless boiled to death slop with icy spuds that did nothing to establish my taste for veg. When I was eighteen, I went to live with my no nonsense, slightly scary aunt in the middle of outback Oz ..She had a veg garden and within a week I had to eat veg or starve.(or dare to moan and die quicker!) I quickly grew to love fresh veg ..lucky because i would probably be living on freezer chips to this day otherwise! (all especially useful as my wife's vegetarian.)

What interests me though is son (5) eats what he likes first; whereas daughter (7) always saves her favourites to the end.... goodness can't she fiddle about though- hoping I'll give in.... if I do next time she try it on again. BE STRONG folks accept no moaning. Definatelly think a little white lie and a bit of salesmanship helps avoid the...I' don't like courgettes' etc. thing though

[Dipzy]

My little ones are 6 and 7 and beginning to try new veg as I begin to grow veg for the first time. They will not eat anything with a sauce which means we eat different foods most the time to them. They will eat veg and will eat loads of fruit (especially when pudding has been a no go zone) and we have the if you don't eat at least 2/3 of your veg no pudding rule.

I have to limit how much chicken/fish fingers and carbohydrates I put on their plates otherwise they fill up on that and have no room for veg, or so they say.

It is hard work getting them to eat what you want but my elder one who has never eaten them before has at least tried peas, potatoes and strawberries from the garden.

I am looking forward to our first courgette, just thinking up the best way to eat it, mmmmm

[rogesse]

When my son was born (13 now and 6ft) we had the most fantastic retired Sikh neigbours who had a large veg plot at the bottom of their garden and were overly generous with their produce. They also had regular festivals (huge house - two knocked together), revolving around food it seemed, and if we didn't attend we would get a telling off and a pot of something tasty left in the porch the next morning! When we did go (most of the time) my younster would be stolen by the grannies who just loved to feed him. I'm also lucky to come from a family spread worldwide, many countries, colours and creeds (and species, in the case of a couple of brothers-in-law........) all of whom love food, it can be a wonderful mix when we get together.

I'm very grateful for the early start and continued culinary experimentation, he eats most everything but has had his 'moments' with veg. I have been over the moon this year with him asking for seconds of PSB and mange-tout, all because he has had a hand in growing it himself on the allotment.

My dad always said 'try it once before you say you don't like it' but I was made to eat stuff I didn't like which is not always productive so wouldn't make something a battle of wills. It took me 25 plus years to appreciate parsnip and sweet potato, I can still only eat carrot raw - why would you cook a carrot