Kids And The Eat Or Starve Approach To Os

Pooky

Don't beat yourself up about it - you can only try your best with these things. It's best to take a calm and non stressed approach to all things food.

How about taking the changes even slower, if they're having chicken nuggets and smiley faces, keep the smiley faces and make HM nuggets, mix a few in with shop brought ones..slowly decrease the shop brought ones and see how it goes......if you can get them used to that over a series of weeks then you can maybe suggest few HM wedges on the plate along with a smaller portion of smiley faces...even if they don't try it - they'll be getting used to seeing it on their plate.....they will try it eventually.

As for things like bolognasie - a lot of kids I know seem to have problems with sauces/stews etc - anything where there's a mix of different things....I used to serve the pasta in a bowl and then put the sauce and some cheese in smaller bowls to share....the could dip their pasta in (go for tubes or twirls rather than spaghettie) and give it a try or eat it plain, again as they got used to seeing the sauce on the table they'd try it. Kids of that age love messy eating - just gear yourself up with a bowl of warm soapy water and a flannel to catch them before they run into the other room.

Both my DD's will eat a huge range of foods and we've always rewarded trying a new food with stickers when they were younger and now a new food gets 5p.

annie-c

4 and 3 is very young to be refusing food.... I wouldn't take it personally or be surprised that they will refuse a few times but at this stage, do persevere! You are the adult and you KNOW you are doing what is right for them....

thriftmonster

Also we found by using serving dishes so they could just take the amount they wanted rather than it all on the plate at one time helped - ds2 uzsed to get overfaced with large amounts

kiwichick

Thanks again guys, I have decided to stick to my guns and persevere. Tonight they can have sausages (80%) turkey so OK) with broccoli and potato faces. Its a compromise but they ought to be OK with it. I also have to be out of the house at 6.30 tonight for weight watchers so need something I know I wont have TOO much fuss over. TomorrowI will try something a bit new again.

Churchmouse

Kiwi I think you're a great mum!! Your kids obviously mean the world to you.

I was the fussiest child ever, I'll now eat/try ALMOST anything!!:rotfl: I've had four boys who range from if it's not moving he'll eat it to a real fusspot ( but who now at 24 will eat almost anything!)

I've never favoured the eat it or starve routine. Take everything super slow. Your kids need time to adjust to the new foods. As others ( and pooky is the only name I remember )have said, substitute a little at a time. I see nothing wrong in giving plain boring cereal if they won't eat the set meal.

And one thing I've always borne in mind is that you don't ( I imagine!!) cook foods that you absolutely loathe!! I well remember as a child waking up to that one. We didn't have certain foods, parsnips come to mind, because both Mum and Dad loathed them. Mum felt ill at the thought of tripe and onions, (one of my Gran's favourites!!) so never cooked it. She would have been unable to eat it, but according to some schools of thought she should have, or gone hungry!!

To paraphrase Flylady, your kids didn't get fussy overnight and they won't get unfussy overnight either. Just keep plugging away, they will eventually widen their tastes. Good luck!

annie-c

Well done, kiwichick. Keep going with it.

PS I use the food processor a lot when cooking for children. I chop up onion, carrot, courgette and mushrooms in the food processor until it is almost mush, then add to the meat in bolognese sauce, shep pie, chilli etc. It just blends in with the mince and they don't know what they are eating(carrot doesn't blend so well because of the colour mind you!!!). Also soups whizzed in a blender.

moggins

I would also add don't give up apparently it takes a child a while to get used to a new food, keep giving it and persuade them to at least try a taste. We praise DD to the eyeballs when she at least attempts a mouthful of a new food and this has worked wonders.

Smashing

I would say is that you may want to avoid giving too much attention to the refusal at the table. Sure, encourage etc. but refusing can become a way to get attention because they know mum sits up and takes notice. Don't make a bigger issue out of it than it needs to be (even if inside you're fretting).

Also, make sure you're sitting down with them - sometimes eating the same food as 'grown-ups' is seen as a good thing.

thriftlady_2

moggins wrote:

I would also add don't give up apparently it takes a child a while to get used to a new food, keep giving it and persuade them to at least try a taste. We praise DD to the eyeballs when she at least attempts a mouthful of a new food and this has worked wonders.

This is true, apparently it takes at least 6 tries for a new food to be accepted. I didn't like wine the first time I tried it, but I have learnt to love it:rotfl:

Churchmouse

thriftlady wrote:

This is true, apparently it takes at least 6 tries for a new food to be accepted. I didn't like wine the first time I tried it, but I have learnt to love it:rotfl:

And for that thriftlady, you shall receive a star on the goodgirl chart!!!:D