A confession of a bad mother for feeding kids

liz545

instead of squash, how about giving them half fruit juice, half water? It gives them more vitamins, but is kinder to their teeth than pure juice.

taplady

You dont seem to be doing too bad to me!;) I have 2 incredibly fussy kids(my fault) but I promise they do get better.My youngest has just decided at 13 years old that he likes cheese:j for example. They both love HM bread and wont touch the polystyrene stuff any more HM pizza is also a favourite with one of my boys. I also find that they will try new things at other peoples houses which they wouldn't touch at home:rolleyes: so I always ask what they've eaten so I can introduce a new food at mealtimes for them.

We had the problerm of separate meal times, still do most of the time but we have just started having at least 2 meals a week together - theres only 2 meals we all eat!:rolleyes: fish and chips and pizza but its a start. My 2 are 14 and 16 and seem to be out most of the time but they know they have to be in twice a week for tea.

Chipps

Re the cheese:
My kids were a bit funny about eating cheese at one point, but my Dad liked Red Leicester. When we went to visit my parents, the kids would always eat loads of red leicester, cos it was Grandad's special cheese & he used to make a big fuss about them eating his cheese. They thought it was hilarious if they could manage to get some before he "found out"!!!!!
Any chance of a similar ploy to get them to eat the real thing? It worked with my lot!

FZwanab

Sarahsaver wrote:

Not too bad, but they only eat what they are given, and if you start offering only 'real' meat and cheese they will have to eat that!
I think they maybe have cheese to often.
If it would help I can post what my kids eat in a week, when I get back from the gym;)

I am learning so much from all of you thanks. Many heads are certainly better than my one. I am certainly going to try all the suggestions mentioned. Sarahsaver, yes please if you could post what your kids eat in a week including snacks that would be a great help to me, as you are famous for being both thrifty and healthy.

Loubee_2

beachbeth wrote:

They have both been brought up the same and yet eat so differently. So it isn't always the mother's fault. Some children are just fussy.

I used to eat anything when i was a kid, and my sister was very fussy-used to live on crisps, cheese, milk, bananas, spaghetti hoops and pasta! when she went to University, a miraculous change occurred, and she now eats anything (ostrich burger anyone?!)

seraphina

I was a very fussy kid and for a long while lived on lettuce sandwiches (on white bread, with lots of butter), salt and vinegar crisps, with the odd egg sandwich thrown in for good measure. My sister was a gannet and ate everything my mum cooked.

Now we're grown up the tables have turned - I eat and will try everything, my sister is still eating the same food she grew up with. So don't despair.

Also, it's easy to forget that children's palates are much less developed than ours. Naturally, they prefer bland and sweet things - just think how long it took you to get to like red wine or coffee, which certainly don't appeal to the average child's tastebuds! So don't get wound up if they won't touch highly flavoured things (cheese is my example - I went from the mildest of cheddars/mozarella to being an absolute stilton/extra strong cheddar fiend) - they will get there in the end!

FZwanab

Murray wrote:

Have you tried the Raspberry Activia Fruit Layer yoghurt? I think that the novelty of mixing it yourself would appeal to children & they taste great (not cheap but reasonably good for them).

Smoothies are a good way to get fruit (& veg if you're feeling adventurous!) into them.

Home cooked chips (roasted not deep fried) taste much better than oven chips and might encourage them to try more things that are homemade rather than out of a packet.

Will they eat corn on the cob - there's loads of it about at the moment and its quite cheap. Its good fun to eat because you can get in a right mess!

I have absolutely no experience of feeding children but these are a few tips that I have learnt while trying to encourage my OH to eat healthier foods!!

I never thought of corn on the cob, they love sweetcorn, so i'll give that a try. Fruit layer yoghurt sounds like a great idea too.

MimiF

Don't worry, on the whole they are getting an okay diet. If you can do HM pizza and maybe HM garlic bread, introduce some proper ham or perhaps cold roast chicken as an alternative if you're doing a roast anyway?

Perhaps making some lollipops with them instead of Cool Pops? I'm sure smoothies would be lovely frozen too.

On the subject of separate mealtimes, DH and I eat separately a couple of times a week because we value some time to eat a meal just the two of us but the other meals are with the kids and they eat whatever we are having.

One tip if you are looking for a quick and easy meal, tortellini is great, I sprinkle grated cheddar or parmesan on or perhaps some pesto. It cooks in a couple of minutes and is very filing, a great standby as you can also cook it from frozen.

One of these days I'll make my own but for now Asda's some reasonable ones.

The fact that you are aware of what your kids are eating and are concerned about it shows you're actually a great mum, don't beat yourself up!!

MimiF

Peem

Hi

your kids' diet isn't that bad. Although there is an ideal we all aim for I kind of go by the 80/20 rule for them (ie 80% good 20% not so good).

We live in the real world - while I would love never to go to MacDs, I don't want my kids to feel odd or left out. I also don't want to make it into some sort of mythical place they go daft over once out of my control.

I remember kids at school who were never allowed sweets and chocolate at all at home, we had to wait outside the village shop for the school bus, so at 8:00 am every morning they were stuffing their faces with sweeties. The rest of us weren't bothered, we knew we would get sweets at home on a friday.

It's all about balance really.

(She says while wolfing down a Peanut butter sandwich (HM peanut butter) - Some would reckon it's a balanced snack with protein, fat, carbs... mmmm tastes good, quick and easy and I'm afraid that was my priority at the time.)

carriel_2

Have you tried them with Edam for cheese? it has a softer texture that they might like.

It sounds like your children have a pretty good diet to me, we've tackled the eating together thing this week & my extremely fussy daughter has really taken too it, I used to feed the kids at about 4:30, then us at 6:30, now we eat all together at 5:30 ish.

I have to make a few adjustments, for instance last night we had chicken fajitas, Kara wont eat chicken, so I made up a big platter of chopped veggies, grated cheese, cucumber strips etc & we all sat at the table & made our own, everyone loved it.

Dont be too hard on yourself, you are doing great :T

My next challenge is to take away everyones crisps, this is NOT going to go down well lol.