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Kids And The Eat Or Starve Approach To Os
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Thanks 'cos I always drink it all up like a good girl0
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Great thread. I have 4 kids ranging from 2-14. they are all different in thier likes and dislikes. DD2 - 13 has always been a nightmare - she used to do the vomitting on cue thing. She hates any kind of veggie so picks through every meal that contains onions, mushrooms peppers etc. she would love to live on pizza, chicken nuggets and oven chips. OH gets so mad with her. This thread has given me loads of ideas about the younger kids but what do people do with teenagers who refuse to eat something? Her attitude is affecting the younger ones as thay have started to copy her - mealtimes feel like a battle0
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My kids are all young 7.4.4. but just a thought about older kids that don't have wide food tastes - what about asking them to cook one meal a week (with help if needed) - say it must be homemade but their choice so it could be hm pizza for example but to make it for the whole family. I'm not sure but would that begin to give them more awareness of cooking for a family and of involvement in family meals.
One thing I do with my family is that when I make the weeks meal plan everyone has to suggest one meal for me to cook. THat way everyone has one day where they know they will really enjoy the meal as they have chosen it and even the 4 year olds manage to choose something - this week my dd,7, chose chicken korma, and the boys chose sausages and mash, and pasta and sauce and this seems to be working for me.0 -
Just a quickie to let you know I think you're doing a bril mummying job - well done.:T
I think everyone has made some great suggestions - you are so right not to make food a "big deal". I was always brought up with "clear your plate or there's nothing else" and various other food strictures and by the time I was in my teens I had some real issues with food which took a few years to sort out.
I tell my littlies to eat what they want and leave the rest, but remind them that it's a long time till the next meal. I do find they'll eat something one day and not the next - they seem to self-regulate.
I also don't mither too much if they don't like new things - I'm suspicious of new things, especially if i've cooked them:eek: I find it's best to introduce new things one step at a time, and preferably "disguised" in something else.
Something else I've found is that if we eat out or at a friend's house they're far more adventurous and will try different things.
I also find that introducing healthy snax when we're out and about makes the whole "new food" thing less of a threat.
As they are young there's still plenty of time to introduce new things and by the time they're 7 or 8 they won't know what a turkey twizzley thingy looks like.
It's always hard to change and you and your littlies are doing really well. Just don't turn meals into a battle ground - I can remember choking down food as I wasn't allowed to leave the table until it was finished and it was horrific.0 -
for younger children try making funny faces with food a small sample of each food with something they like too....spanky xx
DFW weight watchers 28lbs to lose
lost so far 11.5 lbs0 -
patchwork_cat wrote:Can I ask your advice do you think that a generally healthy diet with a few crisps low cal pop is OK or do you think all or nothing?
A few crisps a week/month aren't going to be a huge problem, but I'd cut the soft drinks out completely. Low calorie ones especially, all the sweeteners in them are worse than sugar.
To the OP, as has been said it is going to take time. Best thing is to make an asian style (not taste, unless your children like spicy foods) meal - lots of small courses. Do this for at least one meal a day and there should be one or two things in each meal that they'll like. It means you can stop worrying about them being hungry/malnourished and it will also give you an idea of what they will eat - t hen in the future you can make meals based around that.
Congrats on actually making the effort though - so many people just don't care and feed their children anything, and eating habits picked up in childhood are exceptionally hard to break. You have caught it just in time to teach them good food ethics. :>
Aॐ Signature Removed by Someones Mum. ॐ0 -
When my Ds was younger, he was a fussy eater too. After having a couple of years on processed food (like your kiddles), I decided to start cooking more and avoiding artifical additives in food. My son revolted and wouldn't eat the casseroles, stews, pulses, organic veggies etc that was put in front of him.
So I had to tackle it from his point of view - make the food look like processed food.
I would make things out of the food that would appeal to him.
For example - spagetti bolognaise became a smiley face.
the face was a circle of the meat and sauce, the hair was the curls of spagetti, the eyes were two sliced mushrooms, the mouth was a smile shape of grated cheese.
Broccoli became baby trees, yoghurt and freshfruit was layered in a knickerbocker glory dish with a few shavings of choclate on top so it looked more appealing, chopped fruit went onto a barbeque wooden skewer (with the pointed ends cut off), I would make chocolate milk to go over cereal (skimmed milk + 1 tsp cocoa + 1 tsp icing sugar put in the blender), I made homemade pizzas and snuck lots of veggies under the topping of cheese etc
Good luck xx0 -
While I don't have a child old enough to be eating solids yet I have the same problem with my husband!! He loves junk food so I have to find ways to make healthy junk food. I make home made low-fat pizzas at home and I have now found a way to make low-fat chips which really taste like the real thing! So now I serve something healthy with the chips as a side dish so he feels he has had his junk-food quotient for the day.
I got this recipe from Recipezaar
Low-fat chips
Cut the potato into strips
Boil until mostly cooked
Drain and toss in colander until the edges are scuffed
Spray a sheet of baking paper (placed on a tray) with low-fat spracy, spread the chips out then spray again with low-fat spray (I just use olive oil in a spray bottle).
Bake for about 30 mins (turn once during cooking)
The recipezaar site is great for finding just about anything to cook and has ratings by the users so you know which recipes work. So just think of what they'd want to eat and type in the recipe. Eg. chicken nuggets and there's probably a recipe on there. Then I adapt the recipe eg. if the recipe uses ghee I substitute with olive oil to make it healthy. It usually tastes the same.0 -
I haven't read the whole threads so someone may have suggested this already. Do your children watch Lazytown on Cbeebies? Telling DS that he will be big and strong like Sporticus often helps. Even when DS is eating well I tell him which things are good and make you healthy like Sporticus.Nevermind the dog, beware of the kids!0
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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:
Yes, it can take some perseverance but you get there in the end don't you! :rotfl:phizzimum wrote:I remember reading somewhere that we should imagine we're in a far off country and presented with something revolting to eat like monkey brains. Could you eat a whole plateful? probably not! a spoonful? maybe just a peasized amount?
This is true. I can still remember as a child being presented with foods that looked and smelt absolutely revolting and made me feel sick just looking at them (it could be fish, a certain type of meat I wasn't used to, or even a vegetable I didn't like). I can still remember that feeling and can totally understand when kids won't eat something they don't like. Apparently, their taste buds are a lot more sensitive than an adults too, so vegetables taste a lot stronger to them than they do to us.0
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