meat phobic 4 year old - ideas please

OrkneyStar

sammy_kaye18 wrote: »

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.

Great, sounds like you are taking the sensible approach, and he will be learning about his food, even if he does not decide to eat all of it. I wish more mothers would do this with their kids, show them what it is, tell them where it comes from and (as they get older) how to prepare things.
Well done so far :T

Sarahsaver

My DD liekd Irish stew when she was 3, I am sure its because she helped me prepare it by rolling the meat in flour. You have made an excellent start, well done

Zed42

Good luck and congratulations on the fishcakes today.

I, too, prepped all my DD's food from scratch from the start and I, too, didn't introduce meat until way way down the line. She, too, is not the greatest meat eater in the world.

She's now 4 and 3/4 (let's not forget the 3/4!) and is eating more meat slowly. For her it's a texture and "boredom" thing .... it's effort to chew and can't always be bothered.

Slow cooked meat (stews and suchlike) worked better, as did mince. But she won't touch a burger full stop. Sausages she'll eat now. And her latest .. chicken drumsticks!!

My attitude was (is) that I'm not going to force the issue, but I am going to keep on offering, whilst ensuring that her diet is balanced without it, and I certainly wasn't going to go down the route of disguising it. I don't really understand the point in "lying" to your child.

You always do the best for your family and succeed, so I know Ben will be just fine and dandy.

lindseykim13

Teria wrote: »

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".
quote]

Thats not true at all while my kids are eating we will regulary have a conversation on what they are eating and what part, why shouldn't we? that animal died for a reason and they should be taught that. Why arn't people taught where their food comes from these days. If we lived in the county i would be teaching my boys how to catch, skin and eat a rabbit. We do eat rabbit anyway. Too many people don't know where ham comes from! I think there was a recent survey on it, perhaps then people would respect and not chuck food away so easily.

Happy-Rags

Gosh your son sounds like my son used to be! He was vegetarian for the first year of his life but due to me becoming very anaemic we started eating meat again. He wouldn't touch it for quite a long time, and I had to mince everything. So chicken chasseur would be made, and his chicken blended before being mixed with the sauce and rice. He used to question what the 'bits' were and I can't honestly remember my answer, but he ate them. He loves pasta so bolognaise with mince always went down. And at the end of the day it's no big deal if he doesn't eat meat more than two or three times a week. My son is eight now and still won't touch 'kids foods' and loathes sausages and burgers with a passion. But he loves roast meat (hates potatoes) and chicken, ham, bacon, mince etc etc. He actually will try most meat/fish even the stuff I won't eat such as rabbit or squid. So I'm sure your son will pass out of the phase, although I don't blame him for not eating hot dog sausages, have you seen what goes in them :eek:

sammy_kaye18

lindseykim13 wrote: »

Why arn't people taught where their food comes from these days.

This got me the other day - i tried making home made burgers and chips with my son (4) and step son (8) - I was absolutely gobsmacked, I said ' J go get the potatoes then' and he said 'ok' and then when he arrived back at me with said potatoes he asked 'what are we making with these then?' :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: and i know it was a genuine question and not messing because he has a tell tale smirk if hes being daft and he didnt do it that time. His mum is a bit of a box/packet mix/ready meal person though.

Thankfully my 4 year old has already memorised sponge cake ingredients and yorkshire pudding ingredients off by heart so at least hes getting there. Plus he can name most veg in the supermarket - although aubergine he has problems pronouncing, squash he tends to get confused with pumpkin, and courgettes because they look like cucumbers. lol

jamespir

i dont think you have to worry if you were vegetarians you wouldnt be so worried .he will get enough protein and vitamins from the vegetables he eats but try making things like meat and veg pie or make burgers using a mix of potatoes and meat

Lizbetty

Great news that your approach is working! I will be trying that myself on my eldest.

I have 2 daughters - my eldest is 3 and always leaves her meat, the youngest (18months) prefers it to veg but is starting to get hooked on her veg too, thankfully.

We have 3 chickens and I have a feeling that my eldest is linking the chickens in our back yard to the ones on her plate, she asks lots of questions and I don't think it's a coincidence that she'll eat sausages (full whack 80%+ meat ones thankfully, rather than the mechanically recovered ones) but not chicken. She probably doesn't think of sausages as part of an animal as the word sausage doesn't really connect animal and food to a kid I guess!

I used to be veggie and have no qualms at all if they would like to do the same, the iron thing really worries me though. I keep her stoked up on chickpeas but I do still worry, as you do..

I've avoided explaining too much about the meat counter as I was worried it might put her off even more, but after reading this it's made me realise she is a little person who needs all this knowledge at some point, so I guess now is as good a time as any. And if she decides to avoid meat still, then I guess that's not a bad thing.

Good luck with your little one, it sounds like he's got a head start with all those fruit and veggies anyway! :T

Luce x

thriftmonster

Teria wrote: »

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.

I agree with Lindsaykim. My children know where their food comes from, have always done so and still choose to eat meat. They also have been taught about the ethics of good animal husbandry and the sheer waste of people only eating the expensive cuts and refusing to eat the rest of the animal.

There are pheasants on the golf course where we play and the other day we were discussing whether it would be ethical to eat one if you killed it with a random golf ball - decided an accident would be ok but there should be no hunting with a 3 wood and golf ball......:D

Back on topic - that's brilliant Sammykaye - I think you can be really proud.