Anyone experiencing difficulty getting kids to eat proper food

[tgm1974]

When my son was younger I used to make him all his own dinners - took loads of recipes from Annabel Karmel and he had a vast range of fruit, veg, pasta, etc.

Over the past 12 months the only thing i seem to be able to get him to eat are chicken nuggets (healthy home made), spaghetti (tins), potato waffles/croquettes, fish fingers, bread, cereal and some pasta. He will eat apples and is starting to eat the odd carrot if I have it on my plate and he takes it. I just cant get him to eat more fruit/veg.

Is anyone experiencing similar eating habits. We made salmon fishcakes last week to see if that helped him experiencing cooking then eating the food - he woofed them down but I know certain foods he will just turn his nose up at.

HELP - do I turn to forcing or maybe purify some veg and make a pasta source - thickening up over time!???

[Old_Geezer]

I'm an adult and there are still foods I turn my nose up at, either because they taste bad or have a horrible texture in the mouth (sometimes both). I don't think it is reasonable to expect kids to eat anything put in front of them, the trick, I'd guess, its to make sure they aren't just playing up.

Maybe of you got some green food colouring and formed the food so it all looked like bogies, he'd woof them all down :-) Kids eh ?

[Old_Geezer]

Ah veg .... most of it needs about 8 hours cooking to remove the flavour first.

[McMouse]

I don't remember children having food fads when there was rationing during WW2 and the food was pretty grim.

[tgm1974]

LOL - I dont want him to eat everything and anything, just vary his pallet a little more. I feel he is eating junk food and even having a jacket potato would be great. His cousins whoof allsorts down and even olives (yuk)!

I bought a childs cook book just to see if that would help but early days yet ... its full of wonderful funny shapes, faces, colours, etc!

[McMouse]

OG.....8 hour veg would be raw. My mother used to put the sprouts on in late October to make sure they were done for Christmas.

[woofgang]

There are foods that I didn't like as a child that I still cannot stand. the school I went to was a clear your plate school. I did try to force it down ( cabbage) but was sick all over the table. Is he healthy, active reasonable weight? If he is, I would let it pass.
You may like to say that you are cooking one meal for the family and if he doesn't like it then it's bread and butter but IMO if you can work with him then that's a better idea. My friend's niece only ate bread and you hurt for a good part of her childhood and she is a healthy normal young woman now. Btw how old is your son?

[woofgang]

Not you hurt, yoghurt!

[tgm1974]

My son is 3.5 yrs old ........ I wont force but wish he'd eat better

[whiskeysheri]

I'll eat anything now, but until my late teens, I wouldn't touch veg and rarely ate fruit. I was never ill, though, and grew to be 5'11" (female), so I wouldn't worry yourself too much. :) Maybe just top him up with kiddy vitamins and blend hidden veg into sauces, etc. Don't force him, though, I used to get so upset when my nan tried to make me eat broccoli!

[Jemisa]

When my G/daughters come round I always make sure theres a big dish of veg sticks, and while watching their fav kids prog they like to nibble, I do 2" carrot sticks, celery sticks, cucumber sticks they liks baby cauliflower florets & broccalli florets, they dip em in salad cream. I enjoy em too.

jem

[carolegif]

It seems to be a boy thing. They will only eat rubbish! Try the Jaimie Oliver method of chopping vegetables up very tiny and add that to some of the food. My daughter has to do this with her son and he is now 8, but still won't eat 'sensibly'.
I had a friend who used to tell her son that cabbage was bamboo shoots as he went to a friend's house and had them and said they were lovely. when she asked the friend where she got them from she said that it was really cabbage!

[pretty_snowdrop]

My eldest will eat everything and anything but my youngest ( nearly 4) tends to pick and choose. My mum advised me to plate up what i wanted them to have for their meal and not to get them involved in the decision. If they eat it all up (or most of it) offer them a pudding/sweet, if they don't eat it, don't react but don't offer a pudding. It took a few weeks but now she eats most of her meals. Good luck i know it isn't easy.

[annie0000]

my boys have both gone through the same thing. Eldest was always fussy as a baby and is gradually growing out of it, he is 10 now. Youngest would eat everything as a baby then got really fussy about 3ish and now is getting better again at age 9. Ironically when fussy, they both like different things!!!

I would just keep offering him a variety of foods and try to vary the fruits if you can't get the vegetables in. I couldn't get mine to eat soft fruits until they were picking and eating wild brambles and raspberrys so will now eat them at home. I finely grate carrot til it is almost a pulp and put it in the bolognaise and no-one notices. They like fresh pineapple but only if i do it as long sticks that they eat from a fork. Make ice lollies from fruit juice, or make smoothies - banana and mango always goes down well too. Youngest loves sweetcorn straight from the tin.

A little bit of bribery doesn't go amiss either. They both love crisps but aren't allowed any until they can show that they have eaten their 5 a day.

It is frustrating, but i am sure he will get better again. You know that he doesn't dislike these foods as he used to eat them, it's just that it may take time until you get him eating them all again.

[woofgang]

snowdrop, you could plate up the things that I dislike till you were blue in the face, I still wouldn't eat them :-)

[genstm1980]

I'm having same problem with my 20month old daughter she eats most of what you listed above - though won't touch cereal. She will eat quite a variety of tinned fruit, especially mandarin segments in juice - know it's not as healthy as fresh fruit but at least it's fairly nutritious. Sometimes she seems to really enjoy something like chicken kiev or fish pie and the next time I serve it to her she won't touch it . . . very frustrating but guess she just wants to pick and choose and her tastes change with her mood!

[pretty_snowdrop]

You would if you are hungry enough!

[woofgang]

no snowdrop....cabbage still comes back up if I try to eat it.

[mike11111]

There's cabbage and cabbage. The lovely spring greens my mother used to cook were far superior to the hard white cabbage dished up in school dinners.