Feeding children 'weird' food

meester

I'm sure I'm not the only one who delights in watching his children eat strong-flavoured foods.

We have just had roast rib of beef, smothered in garlic and horseradish. My daughter is 15-months and LOVES bones (chicken, beef, duck), so sat for five minutes gnawing at the bone.

My son, who is 6, has asked for dessert, which we don't have, so he's asked for cheese instead, and has chosen the unpasteurised goat's milk cheese (Chabichou), and my daughter has demanded the same, because she likes to copy whatever her brother is eating. The one time I bought andouille, which is a rolled tripe salami (strong flavour, not to my taste), he was the only one who would eat it. His favourite food is tagliattelle with dolcelatte, gorgonzola and bacon sauce. Somebody gave us some Dolmio cheese and ham sauce, which my wife warmed up for him a couple of weeks ago, he refused to eat it, as he quite correctly said it was revolting (nasty reformed ham).

ifonlyitwaseasier

congrats on having children who like proper food and not reformed meats, i'm very impressed.

have you tried them on curry yet?

Pink.

It gives me a thrill to watch small children enjoy 'proper' food too. My youngest is eight and counts mussels, snails, all fish, offal and Roquefort amongst his favourite foods. He enjoys curry and chilli too as long as he has a big glass of water near at hand. My biggest problem with it is that he has expensive choices so he doesn't always get his favourite foods as often as he'd like.

All of mine have had their moments, turning their noses up at something they loved yesterday, :rolleyes: but I've been very lucky in that none of them have been fussy eaters. I think that's down to the fact that they were b/f exclusively for six months and then had a very wide variety of foods introduced as they were weaned. We never did baby rice, rusks, jars etc. We just gave them what we were eating (obviously minus excess salt etc) and I think it maybe helped them learn to enjoy trying out new foods. Dd's first solid food was lemon sole (yellow stickered, of course ).

Oh dear, just read back over my post and it sounds a bit 'holier than thou'...it wasn't meant that way. I just enjoy watching kids enjoy food.

Pink

Churchmouse

I so agree, feed them what you're eating. The problem is such a lot is made of not giving babies anything with salt in ( or so it seems) that many mums are frightened to give their babies a mashed up portion of their own dinner. Unless you're heavy with the salt I really don't think it should be a problem, it hadn't been for all those years before commercially produced babyfoods. My DIL rarely fed *baby food* to my grandsons, but did cook their meals totally separately because of the salt factor ( and I don't interfere:D ) which is extra work. They both enjoy proper food, and some quite surprising ones too.

My own DS4's favourite at 10 months was beef stroganoff It had never occurred to me that they wouldn't want to eat things that tasted of something rather than bland food.

meester

ifonlyitwaseasier wrote: »

congrats on having children who like proper food and not reformed meats, i'm very impressed.

have you tried them on curry yet?

We had leftover Indonesian lamb curry and liver and potato curry for lunch. My daughter likes liver and also likes curry, though not too spicy. My son isn't keen on liver, but likes his food spicy, and prefers spicy ketchup to normal.

meester

Pink-winged wrote: »

It gives me a thrill to watch small children enjoy 'proper' food too. My youngest is eight and counts mussels, snails, all fish, offal and Roquefort amongst his favourite foods. He enjoys curry and chilli too as long as he has a big glass of water near at hand. My biggest problem with it is that he has expensive choices so he doesn't always get his favourite foods as often as he'd like.

Mussels are cheap, so is offal, not sure about where to get snails from, fish is not cheap, and Roquefort is quite pricey, but you only need a couple of quids worth to make a meal, which is less than you'd need for meat. Danish Blue is the obvious substitute, cheaper though not as nice.

Pink.

meester wrote: »

Mussels are cheap, so is offal, not sure about where to get snails from, fish is not cheap, and Roquefort is quite pricey, but you only need a couple of quids worth to make a meal, which is less than you'd need for meat. Danish Blue is the obvious substitute, cheaper though not as nice.

Thanks for the tips.

I'm afraid mussels aren't cheap where I live if you're buying for [strike]five greedy gannets[/strike] a hungry family of five. I got some recently from the market and to have them as a main course. For all of us they cost £7.50. :eek: which fairly ate into our weekly budget. Needless to say it was beans on toast the next night.

Liver makes a cheap meal but lambs kidneys from the butcher are also silly money compared to a few years ago. I know you can buy them from the supermarkets, but here they are imported frozen from New Zealand and pretty poor quality once defrosted.

I'll have a look at Danish blue cheese though...thanks for suggesting it.

Pink

Chell

Ny two both eat food that you'd not expect children to like. We are all veggie and we've always all eaten the same meals, no seperate kiddie food. My son loves pulses, he'll eat kidney and butter beans like sweets.

ALIBOBSY

We fed ours the same hardly bought any babyfood for any of them. They especially love seafood and fish. DS adores langustines (expensive tastes lol) and fancies trying lobster!

ali x

hollydays

Well done,hopefully your kids will never be the kind of person who says "I don't like that",without having even tried it.

My kids tried all sorts of food,even the types considered too posh for kids,but why feed kids on crap..now as adults they have very varied tastes and not at all fussy.

meester

Pink-winged wrote: »

Thanks for the tips.

I'm afraid mussels aren't cheap where I live if you're buying for [strike]five greedy gannets[/strike] a hungry family of five. I got some recently from the market and to have them as a main course. For all of us they cost £7.50. :eek: which fairly ate into our weekly budget. Needless to say it was beans on toast the next night.

How much did you buy? Sainsburys charges about £3/kg for fresh ones (avoid the nasty pre-cooked ones), but they're often not in stock.

Liver makes a cheap meal but lambs kidneys from the butcher are also silly money compared to a few years ago. I know you can buy them from the supermarkets, but here they are imported frozen from New Zealand and pretty poor quality once defrosted.

If you can get to a Chinese supermarket you'll find lots of chicken offal, which is mild tasting. Chicken gizzards and hearts are both delicious.