We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING
Hello Forumites! However well-intentioned, for the safety of other users we ask that you refrain from seeking or offering medical advice. This includes recommendations for medicines, procedures or over-the-counter remedies. Posts or threads found to be in breach of this rule will be removed.📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
Kids And The Eat Or Starve Approach To Os
Options
Comments
-
Thats reminded me how I used to be with meat. Even at a young age I just could not eat it, it literally made me gag and be sick. I've been vegie since I was 8. This is the reason I puree the bolognaise sauce for them as DD1 wont eat the mince. Having said that, shes gone right off the sauce now too
. I WILL keep it up though, havent decided what to give them tonight, we do have lots of frozen chicken to use though so I think that will feature in some way.
WW Start Weight 18/04/12 = 19st 11lbsWeight today = 17st 6.5lbsLoss to date 32.5lbs!!!0 -
I take theeat or starve aproach. But they know they will get a snack of something before bed, usually it is fruit or warm milk. Dont make a fuss if they dont eat, i know it can be annoying sometimes, especially when you have spent so much time preparing the food. i read somewhere it takes up to 15 attempts to introduce a new food before a child will accept it.
also i get them involved. If it is pizza, i get them to make their own, redonions, mushrooms, sweet corn, ect ect. That way they are more likely to eat it. Home made Burgers are real good, as they can get a lil messy and making Taco's or Fahjitas. I put all the ingredients into bowls on the table ( tupperware dishes that way any leftover salad ect can easily be stored without washing up) and they put their own fillings in.My son 9 the fussy one) started with just putting cheese on his, then mince, now some lettuce. It takes a while, but they love that they have some control over what they are eating.
Another thing i do, is give them 2 choices. that they both have to agree on. Shepherds pie or Spaghetti B. That way they think they are i n control a little and 9 times out of ten my son will eat it. He is just a control freak lol!!
What ever you do, dont give up!!0 -
Just to say, I think what phizzimum said about being faced with a plateful of revolting stuff, says what i tried to allude to ( having missed her post on my skim read through)
None of us regularly present ourselves with a platefull of stuff we dislike, yet we feel free to do it to our kids with a hearty " it's good for you!" and "You'll like it if you just try". I do agree with asking them to try the tiniest amount because you do learn, if not to like, but to be able to eat a wider range of foods. But maybe in the interests of fairness we should make a point of trying to make ourselves "like" those foods we currently avoid like the plague! For me that will be celery, just one whiff of which has me retching and running to the loo!!:rotfl: Funny thing is i quite like a little in a casserole, but raw, yuk and that smell, double yuk!!!You never get a second chance to make a first impression.0 -
Kiwichick - great thread and give yourself a huge pat on the back for deciding to give your kids a healthy start to life. I know it's hard sometimes but keep going.
There have been some great tips on here which I'm going to adopt, I'd like to add:
1. Take it slowly. Apparently it takes an average of 15 times before a child takes to a new food :eek: I've been offering DS cauliflower for some time now and he's just started eating it in big chunks!! I was so happy I skipped round the house - sad I know
2. Hide veg / new food in sauces, stews, muffins etc. DS has no idea the amount of veg I get into his favourite spag bol - blending also helps. PLus he loves muffins even if they have courgette or carrot in them!
3. Get the kids involved. Eating / not eating is one thing a child can control in their little life. When DS has been involved in the preparing / cooking of meals he tends to eat better.
4. Eating is a social event. Try and sit and eat with your kids. OH and I sit with DS at breakfast, I sit with him at lunch but not always at tea as OH likes company and gets in later! If you know kids that are good eaters invite them round for tea. DS always eats better with a crowd particularly at other people's houses (must be my cooking)
5. RELAX - I would get very stressed about my son not eating and what he did eat. After reading quite a few books and watching too many of those Supernanny type programmes I realised that kids self regulate. Don't think about the amount/type of food your child eats in a day but look at it over a week - you'll find they eat more than you think! Try not to turn mealtimes into a battleground (easier said than done!). We play games (match what daddy eats, here comes the train, etc) and I just encourage DS to try everything on his plate NOT EAT EVERYTHING!
6. Make mealtimes fun. My friend calls veggies Sports Candy for her DS after Lazytown I think. We call some of the food silly names like the Charlie & Lola book - I Will Never Ever Eat a Tomato
7. Don't feed between meals if you can help it except maybe the odd healthy snack - we found DS ate much better when we dropped his snacks
I think that's all that I do. I won't lie - it's a daily challenge but it's worth it. BTW I cook lots of Annabel Carmel recipes- she makes nutrious and fun food for kids and I freeze lots as somehow I don't get so upset when DS refuses a defrosted meal rather than a cooked fresh one!
Good luck and let us know how you get on. Punky xPunky x0 -
Hmmmm I was brought up on the "eat it or go without" and for many years lived on boiled rice when mum cooked things like sweet and sour uncle bens. My mother CAN cook, but she's not a fantastic cook... She has a few dishes only she can get right but otherwise I have turned out the superior cook
Anyway it was one thing to do "eat or go without" when we had little money, even when young I could kinda understand that we just didn't have anything else. As I got older and had pocket money I ended up buying junk with my pocket money and having a stash of food in my room for when I didn't like what was served... Same at school... I lived of pasta and rice with grated cheese for about 3 years for school lunch... (and cookies, kitkats, muffins, hot chocolate etc) with an occational burger or portion of chips...
Odd as this may be then now I wil try most foods... apart from fish. If it didn't some in a tin I won't eat itStill throw up if I taste fish as I got a fish bone stuck in my throat as a child - never quite recovered from that.
DFW Nerd #025DFW no more! Officially debt free 2017 - now joining the MFW's!
My DFW Diary - blah- mildly funny stuff about my journey0 -
I think it is fair enough to allow kids to have a few genuine dislikes, but kiwi's kids are 4 and 3. Their ideas of what is 'revolting' are not yet fixed in stone and now is a good time to encourage them to develop tastes for a wide range of foods, in order to:
1 Save Kiwi's time - at 4 and 3 they are not yet old enough to make their own alternatives and so if they can eat the same meal it leaves more time for Kiwi to spend being a mum and being herself!
2 Save Kiwi's money - it is so much cheaper for everyone in a family to eat the same meal and money not spent on faddy eating can be spent on other things for the family
3 Ensure that the kids get a healthy balanced diet - lots of 'kid-friendly' food is slathered in sugar, salt and or fat which tastes great and has good 'mouth-appeal' but !!!!!!-all nutritional value
4 Help the kids develop polite social behaviour for when they start to eat outside the home - at some point, hopefully they are going get invitations to other people's houses for tea/ school holidays/scout camp or whatever and it will stand them in good stead for later if they can learn now to eat (most of) what is put in front of them and behave politely even when they don't much like it.
Personally I think that 'revolting' is a very subjective term. Yes, I would draw the line myself at monkey brains, but I wouldn't pronounce them 'revolting' if I were in another country and sat at a dinner table with others who were about to tuck into a plateful. While on holiday abroad, or even at my mother's house in the next town, I always make an effort to try new things and put my hosts at ease - and I don't think it is ever too early to start to teach the same habits to kids - far from it - they learn so much easier when you start them off on a variety of foods while they are young.0 -
Oh I do agree on manners annie-c. While I used the term revolting in my post I would never use it at my or anyone elses table. My 4 kids were taught from an early age that they were not to say yuk to food given to them. They were allowed to say that they were sorry but they had eaten enough and didn't want anymore.
One of my children liked only what could be termed healthy food, and really didn't like burgers and chips much, but he was instructed never to comment when out at a friends, and to simply eat what he could.You never get a second chance to make a first impression.0 -
I think I might borrow one of the Annabel Karmel books from the library. At first I thought how silly to have to use a recipe book for kids meals but then
I thought I DO use recipe books for loads of things that DH and I eat so why on earth dont I use them for kids things?!?!?!?!?!?
I have just had DS and DD2 helping me to make a curried parsnip soup for DH and I. Whilst I'm not expecting either of them to try it due to the instense flavour they both had a kids knife and sat on the floor with a chopping board each hacking away at red onion. They loved it, the same as they love it when I let them help me make cakes or similar so it is something I WILL keep up.
On the whole my 3 are very polite but if they have "failings" in this area its deifnately around food. I would want the floor to open up and swallow me if they were to say "Yuk" or "Disgusting" at a friends house when presented with dinner.:p
I am working on some star charts now and hope to have them up and organised properly soon so that we will be able to work together towards a reward for them. And if they eat my cooking then that is reward enough for me!WW Start Weight 18/04/12 = 19st 11lbsWeight today = 17st 6.5lbsLoss to date 32.5lbs!!!0 -
Well done, Kiwi, sounds like a good plan... of course, you could always give yourself a sticker chart too... and give yourself a treat for eating up your dinner too! Think of what you'll save by cooking from scratch and treat yourself with the proceeds0
-
PS Just a thought - after doing all that work, they might WANT to try the soup 'they' made... you could dilute a bit with milk and chicken stock and give them just a couple of spoons each to try in a cup? No recriminations if they don't like it - just lots of fuss and praise over how much you love the soup THEY made for you....0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 351.1K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.6K Spending & Discounts
- 244.1K Work, Benefits & Business
- 599K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177K Life & Family
- 257.4K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards