Kids

[jenny_haddow]

I'm just starting to give some courses here on child nutrition, the main aim being to try and persuade people not to feed their kids processed cr*p. Given that we all seem to be more or less of like mind on this forum I'd be interested to know how you persuaded your children to eat the good food in front of them and not bow to peer pressure and take them to the local burger joint. I've come up with some recipes that seem to go down well, but any input is always gratefully received for what I consider a very important subject.

Cheers

Jen

[saucisson]

The best advise I can give is this:
Cook good, simple, healthy, wholesome food.
Don't put too much on the plate so they can't end up leaving some.
Don't spread it out too much, they need to see the real size of the portions they are eating, so don't cover more than half the plate and they won't be overwhelmed.
Use a small plate for smaller kids and smaller portions and increase the plate size for bigger kids and bigger portions.
Fill the other half of the plate with ketchup...

[saucisson]

Now for my serious response

My best trick is to make sure that they prefer my cooking to the processed stuff.

Give them burgers and chips by all means but make your own burgers and give them baked potato wedges lightly brushed with oil. Don't make any food taboo, find a healthy or healthier equivelant or make it an occassional treat.

It fills me with pride (and acute embarrassment) when we go to a pub lunch or similar and my 11 year old says "Dad these (insert word of choice) are nearly as nice as the one's you make"

Edit: Oh and if you leave the last line off my last post that's pretty close too, just stop at don't make a plate look more than half full.

Dave

[Wohoki]

This is a subject very dear to my own heart. I'm a full time house-husband to six children between nearly nine and just over 4 months (not that she's into anything other than my wife's chest at the moment ), and I've been doing it for eight and a half years.

I agree with Dave's comments: cook good ingredients well. I'd add that it is important to limit choice, our kids eat with us every night and I cook what I want. If it's fresh I buy it and cook it, there is one option other than to eat the meal I serve, and that is hunger. I serve menus from all over the world, and I don't stint the spices if it's Thai or Indian, and they love it. They will happily scoff down a plate of devilled kidneys, or sushi (my oldest daughters request for her birthday dinner this year.)

Sure, there are meals that my wife and I like more than they do, and some of the blander meals are definate favorites with the kids (bloody spag bol!), but I do make sure that there are burgers and pizzas from time to time. We live as a household, so their choices are as valid as mine.

I guess what I'm saying is that you can't let the little swines get the upper hand and dictate how you run the house. Provide great meals made of the best you can get and afford, and if they don't eat it then tough, they will sooner or later.

(I had a splendid moment in a restaurant in France last summer when my six year old daughter told the chef what he'd put in the amuse bouche, and why he should have left out the kiwi-fruit. She was bang on, it wasn't ripe. He laughed like a drain, and gave us a bottle of wine.)

Any help I can give, Jen, just drop me a line or post here. As you said, it's an important subject.

[jenny_haddow]

Thankyou guys, why am I not surprised at your response, just what I wanted to hear. My daughter ate what I ate from the moment she was weened, and her 3rd birthday dinner request was for a curry.
Had a good amuse bouche in France this year at new year. I just about managed to replicate it. Lemon sorbet, cassis, vodka and strands of caremelised lime peel. I think that's right but we well down the line with a 6 course new year menu at the time!

Cheers

Jen

[Paul Kribs]

Jen

I think Wohoki is doing the right thing, I believe he's stating (in a roundabout way) that a variety of flavours interests a childs tastes. My reasons for this observation, albeit a bit outdated, is that my grandaughter went through the inevitable stage of not eating her veggies. I stepped in with julienned carrots lightly steamed and then cooked in honey and cumin... a favourite with all the family.. and the peas, which were spat out (she was only 15 months) were cooked in chicken stock with caramelised onions.. and went down a treat.
My daughter in law said (cue the Aussie accent) "that child would eat sh*t if you cooked it".. They (Aussies) tend to be a bit forthright in their sentiment, but I took it as a compliment. Mind you, she still liked a macdonalds burger, you can't win them all.. But when they visit this year she will find out how burgers are made and how nice they taste (3� years now).
She wants to make bread, cakes, sausages, burgers etc.. I will just bring her in on the immediate interesting bits as childrens attention spans are not that good at such a young age.
Hope the courses are successful.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[saucisson]

I hope you don't mind me cutting and pasting from your post Wohoki, especially as I've messed up the quote function.

["Wohoki"]This is a subject very dear to my own heart. I'm a full time house-husband to six children between nearly nine and just over 4 months and I've been doing it for eight and a half years..["Wohoki"]

I took over full time house husbandry in October in charge of a 2, 4 and 11 year old so I'm a bit of a newbie in this respect. Previously, day care for the little ones and after school care was in the charge of others.

It's hard work but I haven't looked back yet.

[Wohoki"]I'd add that it is important to limit choice, our kids eat with us every night and I cook what I want. If it's fresh I buy it and cook it, there is one option other than to eat the meal I serve, and that is hunger. [Wohoki"]

I agree, I often offer a choice but only one menu gets picked. If the picked option isn't liked then there is no other option. I have to applaud my 11 yr old son for trying to entice his sisters to go for something they don't fancy. He should have got an Oscar for his performance of "how can you not like rice and sweetcorn" tonight.

Dave

Edit:

PS I am gradually getting the girls/boy into cake making, as much a new experience for me as to them,

But now also bread, cheese, curing and sausages (and I only registered in March)


Dave

[Rik vonTrense]

You would never believe the different stages I went through with my eight kids.......

My eldest right up until he was about six would only eat for his sunday roast lunch the yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes smothered in Heinze salad cream.

For a long while we used to have a set monthly menu as it is difficult to please all of them and we have had the set too where it's been ....

"Well that's all there is to eat and if you don't eat it you will have for every meal until you do " but like the bloater it never got eaten.

Wednesday used to be one of their favourites as it was Liver and bacon mash and baked beans with the liver being cut into thin strips covered in seasoned flour and fried until crisp...........but now not one will touch liver.

Another favourite that we tried the grandkids on with the other day was Tomato hedgehogs.......this is seasoned minced beef combined with long grained rice moulded into meat balls and pressure cooked in Heinze tomato soup they would have this with fresh vegetables and they loved it....it really used to be tasty. The meat use to shrink and the rice would stick out like hedgehog quills. My grandkids turned their noses up at them and it was a disastrous attempt at a meal.

The only meal that was popular with all of them was a roast with yorkshire pudding and roast potatoes..........but you cant have a roast every day.


.

[moggy]

I don't have kids, so this is based on what I have read and from my own experience as a kid
The kids needs to be shown the food being prepared and to take an interest in it. After if they have made it they will probably want to eat it.

Most importantly - kids tastes buds are developed when young - give them chocolate and sweets when they are young and you will set them up with a love of chocolate for life. Also a kids "visual tasted buds" are also developed when young, so if you give them green stuff early, they learn to recognise it as foodstuff.
If there is something they don't like the look of, but it isn't particularly unsual, then try making it fun eg my hubbie use to be served up Dr Who Cabbage (savoy cabbage - think back to a very old episode where people gradually turn into trees), I was served up crocodile peas swimming in a lake with an island (aka marrowfat peas with mashed potato and gravy)

[jenny_haddow]

Well I had a fair turnout for the start of what will be a 5 week FREE course in healthy eating for kids, also addressing budget issues as I'm targetting low income, possibly single parents here. The Govt. are keen to address the increasing problem of poor diet and are prepared to help fund such courses. It's the one subject I teach that's been snapped up here by the council, and hopefully will continue to run. A bit like the theatre, it's all about bums on seats though. Adult Ed. funding has been well pruned back.

This morning I demonstrated in a room on my portable hob and did a chicken and rice dish and a burger that is 50% grated veg with cheese hidden inside. I thought I'd have enough to take home for lunch but it all disappeared, and everyone agreed the morning had been a real eye opener.

Thanks for your input everyone. Next week I'm tackling breakfast, dessert and snacks. The latter being the big problem if the crisps have gone in the bin! Now I must go and put on my Indian cookery hat for tonight.

Cheers

Jen

[moggy]

Glad it went well, I hope you can continue to dispell the myth that healthy eating has to be expensive

[jenny_haddow]

Thanks Moggy,

I would have fed 6 kids good food for just under �3 this morning.


Jen

[welsh wizard]

All very interesting stuff.

We started by deciding that evrything we would eat so would the children, and right from a very early age our dinner used to go into a whizzer and the puree that came out was scoffed by the kids. The only thing I used to hang back on right at the start was not too much meat but the gravy used to go in wholesale (proper gravy not the OxO variety which has a huge amount of salt in it) and they could not get enough of it or goo goo gaa gaa. Later when they were eating meat I used to show them in the fields exactly what they were eating and at a very youg age they knew pork came from a pig, chicken was a chicken, beef came from a steer and so on. I wanted them to know that not all meat came pre packed and wrapped from a supermarket. We also did tests in the kitchen and I well remember one day we had a little competition to see how much fat we could get out of a 100% meat Birds Eye beef burger and still be able to eat it. Try it you will amazed at the fat that drops out of them, its tons! This then made them want to product their own food i.e. burgers, spag bol and more recently sausages. I honestly believe if you get them young enough you will make healthy eating be normal eating. Kids will always want unusual things and I laughed at Rik's post as I went through a similar thing but with tomato sauce (we ended up making our own). I have been very lucky and veg and fruit is somthing both the kids have always liked and apart from tripe there is not much they wont eat. It came home to me a month or two ago when I took my eldest to Cardiff University to see if she liked the course and we ate in the refectory and she said if I come here I want to go self catering.......Sorry too much waffle I know but it really annoys me to see people stuffing their kids with total junk, which cost a fortune, and think they are doing their kids a favour.

Cheers a waffled out WW (anyone want to buy a soap box)?

[BBQer]

Ah... kids and healthy food. A noble effort Jenny!

I agree with the idea of including the children in the preparing of the food. Another thing I've found is including the kids in the growing of the food.

I've had a small garden every year. Ever since my oldest was big enough to dig in the dirt (he's 6 now) he's helped out in the garden. He has liked most vegetables since he was big enough to eat them, because he helped grow them.

Even if there's no room for a garden, window boxes or planters on the patio work to interest the kids in growing vegetables.

[Josh]

My daughter in law said (cue the Aussie accent) "that child would eat sh*t if you cooked it".. They (Aussies) tend to be a bit forthright in their sentiment, but I took it as a compliment. Mind you, she still liked a macdonalds burger, you can't win them all.. But when they visit this year she will find out how burgers are made and how nice they taste (3� years now).

My mum used to say I'd eat sh*t if McDonalds served it.

Have to say I'm still partial to a McDonalds though. My tastes are fairly broad as I love things from BirdsEye Crispy Chicken portions and Super Noodles through to Michelin starred food with about everything inbetween.

I'd agree with getting them involved. I was fussy ish as a kid but the more I've got into cooking the more I eat and now there's not really anything I don't eat.

I think you should listen to what kids say though. Kids tastes aren't going to be as broad as adults so you shouldn't expect them to eat everything. If they say they really don't like something there's no need to force it as there's plenty of other healthy things about.

If you make food well and tasty though kids should eat it. Just bear in mind they tastebuds are probably a bit more sensitive as they've not been battered through time, alcohol and smoke.