meat phobic 4 year old - ideas please

sammy_kaye18

Hi All

Thanks for helping

I did serve chicken thighs last night with summer veggies and he did put a piece of chicken into his mouth (i have only ever put a small piece on his plate knowing hes not keen on it) but he immediately spat it back out without even chewing it. Im not goign to force the issue - if he wants it then he can eat it - if not ill just make sure his plate has plenty of veggies on it for him.

I do think it is a case of the texture with him and not the actual taste of meat itself.

At the minute I have told bf that Benji is having a packed lunch, but with the option that ill read the menu with him and if there is something there he likes the sound of then maybe he can have it - although most of his friends look to be having packed lunch at the minute so im hoping he might see what his friends are having etc. Plus with a packed lunch I cna put in things he likes nad I know hes having a balanced diet. Unlike my nephew,11 (bless his heart) who has ADHD, Aspergers and Autism and for the last month of school was given free choice of his own school dinners and only ever ate fish and chips! :eek:

Should point out as well that the takeaway thing is posssibly once a month if that and only then if we have visitors and mummys too tired to cook or as a treat when his brother stays over but again thats not every time his brother is here! :rolleyes:

I think I will try getting him to make the dinner with me, he does help me alot with baking, preparing and adding vegetables into pans etc and is an expert crispie cake maker so i think he should start learning about meat and where it comes from.

smetf

Hi Sammy_Kaye

Just thought I would add my thoughts! My dd (now 7) was v. similar would only eat v. processed sausages and reformed thin sliced ham, my and dh's own preferences are for higher meat quantity sausages and ham from a joint and we have got her onto these by slowly buying more and more meaty sausages and thicker sliced ham- these are still the main meats she eats but I do feel at least they are good quality! She will try little bits of chicken and always has to have a mouthful (a try) of everything on her plate. I wish she was as good on her veg as your ds :rolleyes:

Hth
Smetf

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

I would'nt be too worried If he wants meat he'll come round to it on his own.I'm 53 and never eaten meat or fish at all.I'm perfectly fit and healthy.I have three daughters,two who were like me in that they refused to eat meat and they are perfectly healthy trim 30 somethings.Children are no different to you or I and they'll eat what they fancy.I would just give him some time,offer him bits of meat or fish and if he wants it he'll eat it if not as long as he gets protein from other things he won't suffer.

Teria

I really don't understand why you should want to make your child eat meat if he doesn't want to. My daughter is 5, never tasted meat in her life and is just fine.
IMO, blending it in etc, is just tricking him into eating it, and may well cause problems later on. When I first became veggie, at the age of 7, my mum used to try the same, or tell me it was a vegetarian alternative. She did the same with eggs and milk when I went vegan at 15. Since then, I've never liked or trusted anybody else cooking for me.

newlywed

You might find he changes his mind when he sees what others eat at school. One of my nephews suddenly wanted to eat brown bread and started eating peas (he never ate anything green before that) - because his friend told him "it helps you do a big poo"

My sister said she wasn't going to argue if he was asking for brown bread instead of white


With the step kids, they are older but they are now eating veg they claimed they didn't like.

Each time we make a meal we give them a tiny bit of the thing they say they don't like (eg small piece of broccoli, 2 sprouts, or small chunk of aubergine etc) and just say they only have to eat that little bit and can eat it with something else to cover the taste up.

They now eat red peppers and mushrooms instead of picking them out.

They say it takes eating something a few times before kids like it.

Idiophreak

Teria wrote: »

I really don't understand why you should want to make your child eat meat if he doesn't want to. My daughter is 5, never tasted meat in her life and is just fine.

I can understand this - meat provides a lot of things children need when they're growing up. Obviously, all of these can be eaten through other sources, but this will make people's lives awkward if they're eating meat and have to keep coming up with a veggy option for the kid the whole time. It's also part of most people's diet and eating it makes your life easier when going to restaurants, getting take out etc.

If the child's old enough to make a reasoned decision about it and really doesn't want to eat meat, then that's one thing, but when it's a 4 year old just being a fussy eater, I don't see that just giving up on trying to get them to eat meat is in their, or anyone elses (save, probably, several cows, chickens and the like ), interests...

Teria

Idiophreak wrote: »

If the child's old enough to make a reasoned decision about it and really doesn't want to eat meat, then that's one thing, but when it's a 4 year old just being a fussy eater, I don't see that just giving up on trying to get them to eat meat is in their, or anyone elses (save, probably, several cows, chickens and the like ), interests...

Except if you say to a child - even a non vegi one - "this is part of a cow / sheep / chicken, would you like to eat it?", then in most cases, they are going to say "no".
My partner is a meat eater, every meal time she has the option to ask for a taste of his burger / steak / etc, but since she's known since an early age what meat is, she's able to make an informed choice that she doesn't want it.

LameWolf

Just my two pennyworth, but when I was little, my mother used to *force* me to eat meat, and I was constantly ill (in spectacular technicolor a lot of the time). The problem stopped when I finally had the choice and was able to become totally veggie.

As long as little'un is getting protein from another source, I wouldn't worry.

PennyPinchingPrincess

Hiya! I'm another of those who has never liked meat and is now veggie. The thing I really hated about meat was the fat, Sunday roasts were torturous! The way meat left a fatty taste in my mouth - urgh! I would eat processed meats, though I didn't particularly like them, there just wasn't another choice. A healthier option that I'd tolerate was chicken, but very dry, and never with gravy. Have you tried giving him very lean dry meat?

I had school dinners, usually meat, except on Fridays when we had cheese pie - that was my favourite! Strangely, my second favourite was liver, but I think that's because it was so dried out and tough it met my strange requirements!

But don't worry too much if he won't eat as much meat as is considered the norm. Most people eat more protein than they need anyway. All food contains protein, and plenty of veggie food is high in protein. My favourite tea when I was little was beans on toast with grated cheese, so two high protein foods plus vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates

Have you seen this site? It might give you some ideas for interesting veggie packed lunches http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html
It's all vegan, but if you wanted him eating dairy you could easily substitute a few things. And you could use the few meats he will eat instead of the veggie meat substitutes used in the recipes. Oh that site makes me soooo hungry!

Edited to add link to info on nutrition for vegetarian kids you might find useful http://www.vegsoc.org/info/childre2.html

sammy_kaye18

Hi All

Well i wanted to pop in and update quickly even though i know my post is only a few days old.

I went to Mr T today and showed ben the meat counter. Told him which meat was which, what animal it came from (even had a particularly good mooded butcher who was helping too by asking ben the animal noises for each one!:p ) and from what i gather he understood. Also showed him the small fish counter we have in our Mr T and pointed out different things (remember a few months ago he was particularly interested in the octopus on the local morrisons counter) and was pointing out different fish, crab, mussels etc.

Anyway we bimbled off to do our shop and was walking round the frozen food bit and asked him if he'd like fish fingers for tea (birds eye so they are good quality) and he pointed at something - fish cakes. (ok so i know its nothing huge and in the same chiller but its something different)

well ive jsut cooked dinner - fishcakes, mash and peas. There was only 4 in a pack so did the lot - daddy had 2, ben had one and one spare (not hungry myself)

Gave him one cut up fishcake for him to try expecting him to spit it out, and he woofed the lot and asked for another! So hes had two fishcakes which he loved and eaten most his mash and peas too. So have had another 'meaty/fishy' triumph today.

Have talked to bf and decided to not force the issue of meat eatign but will put a small piece on his plate to try, even if he puts it in his mouth and spits it back out again - at least he attempted it.

He also picked out dinosaur shaped chicken things in tesco too - havent tried him on these yet but may tomorrow. I know they might seem like rubbish to some but they are something he can try and i can easily replicate them for him so he can continue eating them.