Mumsnet Talk

Following on from the banana bread recipe on the support thread, which I will make later, I could do with some tips on how to get healthier options into DS2. He has HFA and only eats a small handful of things, he eats very little fruit and veg and very little meat, eggs etc.
Has anyone got some tips on how to hide some healthier options into food?
My only tip is to puree carrots and other veg into pizza base sauce to make our own pizzas.
I am lacking in inspiration and creativity!

I think I once had a recipe for chocolate mousse using avocadoes. can't remember how 'healthy' it was, will have a hunt.

what kind of things does your ds eat? sometimes beefing up known foods can be easier than introducing new ones, iyswim?

What does he eat happily and what food groups are you looking for?

Remind me how old and how compliant, I am having a senior moment.

ok, have found a seriously easy one:

mashed avocado (about 3/4 - 1 cup)
cocoa (about 1/3)
sweetner to taste (could be sugar, or honey, or agave syrup - anything really)

of course, you could use your normal hot choc mix and then you wouldn't need anything to sweeten it (probably)

Can he do milk? Eggs? Chocolate?

He is 5.5, he has HFA and is very strong willed! He will eat some snacks, usually crackers and butter only or cheese on toast for lunch, last week I did get him to eat some ham though-a breakthrough!
Evening meals are sausage, mash, pizza, home made cottage pie (although I have tried hiding pureed carrots and he finds them and then refuses to eat), he will eat pasta with pesto/creme fraiche. I havent attempted to put broccoli in, but I will. He will also eat jacket potatoes with cheese. He wont have spag bol. He will eat crappy beef and onion pies if I scrape out most of the filling so need to have a bash at making my own, but I am no cook. He likes yogurts, he will eat sliced apples and grapes sometimes. He loves jelly and he will also eat chips. I think thats it

Yes he can eat milk, eggs, chocolate. He doesnt have allergies to these, although he does have a nut allergy. He used to have milk but not now. He also loves toast, and I can get him to eat shreddies at breakfast, sometimes-at least that is a fortified cereal.

things that worked for us:

mushroom cut up tiny in mince (single mushroom in for entire mince pack though)
similar with tiny amount of frozen spinach cut up tiny in beef mince.
smoothies
pasta or cous cous made in home made stock rather than just water (good for protein)
blueberry picking and blackberry picking.
salted, buttered veg.
tricoloure pasta.
eggs are very healthy so cooked them in lots of different ways.
home made fruit salad (takes ages though and was often refused!)

I think the nutritional value of what we did was quite limited, but I think it made me feel better and made him a bit more open-minded in the long run.

goodluck!

I was amused to read that "parsnip brownies" was put in the vicar of dibley script as an example of a totally inconceivable recipe - I grate or puree just about anything and try and hide it in either bread or chocolate cake. Sometimes this is succesful. If you grate it on the finest setting you can get just about anything in -but only small amounts - too much grated fruit or veg and you get a rubbery consistency. you might need more baking powder in the mix as well.

If only the b***er would eat meatballs or burgers I could have no end of fun hiding stuff

If he will eat pesto you can beef it up with almost any green veg etc.

Are you wanting to add variety or nutrition? Because the two things are IMO totally different exercises.

I'm going to freak you out and say, that's actually not that bad. Are you limited by variety? Ie one type of sausage etc.

Do you think the issue is more texture or taste or temperature or colour?

Hi diet I am with zzzzz, when I was really stressed about Dd3 only eating marmite sandwiches and cherry tomatoes the health visitor suggested that I keep a food diary over a week instead of a day.

It gave me a much clearer picture of what she was actually eating and it wasnt as bad as I thought. It was about the only useful thing the HV suggested though

Keep putting tiny bits of new food on the table so that they become familiar and massive praise for touching, licking or tasting.

Good luck

Thanks-I will keep offering new things and putting them out. I have made banana bread-but he wont eat it! Will perservere.

Dont know if you ever saw Tanya Byron on House of Tiny Tearaways but she said a child with food issues needs to see a new food upto 20 times before it becomes familiar.

I have used the familiarisation technique with Dd3 and I can say it does help to take the fear out of new foods.

Good luck

Nutritionally you've got quite a good mix, agree with zzzzz Some apples and grapes, will he drink juice? Could you try occasional fruit smoothies blended until smooth with apple or orange juice as the base? He's having cheese on toast and milk so some dairy and protein. How about good quality chicken nuggets to increase the protein? Fish fingers? Or is that too out there? Veg is harder, caring carrot sticks? Mine will eat raw carrots but not cooked. I have a veg chopper thingy that I chop mushrooms up and hide them in mince, perhaps you could chop up a small floret of cooked broccoli very finely and hide it in the pesto? Jelly can be made with fruit juice.

Thanks for the tips, i will try some of these. He doesnt do nuggets or fish!

How about mixing other veg in with the mash, like carrot or sweet potato.

Also what Ellen said about raw carrots - DS will eat lots of veg raw that he won't touch cooked, including peas & sweetcorn straight from freezer.

This gizmo has sent apple consumption through the roof in the zzzzz household.

www.lakeland.co.uk/AllProductReviews.action?productId=13181

Hmm, some tips my way would be great (I'll start my own thread, rather than hijack, if you'd rather!)

Ds eats

Crackers
Dairylea/Philadelphia
Chipolata sausage
Toast+marmite or jam
Cake (most varieties
Biscuits (ditto)
Sweetcorn
Apple
Petit filous
Fruit pouches
Organic crisps
Chips

That's it. We have been referred to a dietician, and try to put different foods in front of him, but he gets upset if there is something he doesn't like the look of anywhere near him. I make banana bread and courgette cake, but could do with some other suggestions!

still cake, but beetroot makes a good cake too

can he have nuts? ground nuts in place of flour also very nutrient rich.

crisps - have you tried eg a micorwave crisp gadget and making your own vegetable crisps? I got my then teenage dss eating loads of veg he would otherwise have turned his nose up at by slicing thinly and turning into crisps...

Ground nuts in cake is a good idea, I have a recipe somewhere for hazelnut cake, which might even be gf, so good for dd1 too!

Off to google microwave crisp thingy, more for dd's than ds, who can't really manage crisps, as they make him choke.

I agree with Ineedmorepatience about the amount of exposure needed.
I would have heard a figure of over 20 but there you go.

My own experience with DS has been similar.....he had a appalling diet about which I would get extremely stressed....until I decided that I wasn't doing that anymore.

I started about 2 years ago, set a goal of one new food at a time. I wanted him to eat plain roast chicken. Started with tolerating it on his plate, moving to putting it on his fork and sniffing it, then 'try it in your mouth and put it back on your plate if you dont want it'.
Eventually, and v-e-r-y slowly, he tolerated and then started eating plain chicken. Yeah!
I've used the same routine with lots of other foods, and while he is still very 'faddy', he is much much better. And now he trusts me that if I introduce something new, he only has to try it, not eat it regardless.
Our latest has been success eating plain rice (sounds ridiculous to celebrate that as a goal but we will never be stuck if we are out, and hungry, near a Chinese now).

nigella's clementine cake is gf, and uses ground almonds in place of flour.

polenta is also a good gf option. I have eaten (many ) polenta cakes, but never made one. I have used polenta for a quick supper though - make up and boil/stir as per pack instructions, then mix in some grated cheese (and maybe the odd bit of finely chopped veg if tolerated), then pour onto plate/dish and leave to cool to set. (20 mins?)

then slice up into fingers/wedges, and shallow fry until it turns a bit golden.

yummy.

Ooh, I have a lovely polenta lemon cake recipe, if you are interested, I can dig out the recipe. I did actually try that one with ds, but it must the the only cake he wouldn't eat! Dd love it though, it makes a really nice pudding with Greek yoghurt.

Fruit and veg are DS2's brick wall.

He has ready brek for breakfast, every day and we mix half a pot of organix fruit puree in to sweeten it (it has more fruit solids and less juice than other brands)

He has decided he likes apples - cooked or raw, though they tend to go straight through him so he only gets them a couple of times a week. He'll also happily eat berries and blackcurrants cooked with the apples

He loves rhubarb crumble. And fresh blueberry muffins. And banana bread. Just cake in general!!! He often asks for cak if he knows or suspects there's some in the house.

We can sneak a small spoonful of tomatoey pasta sauce onto his chips instead of ketchup, if we're having pasta (which he can't eat without gagging, even when he tries)

Fruitus bars - pretty much just dried fruit and oats.

He's been through phases where he'll tolerate small amounts of veg (eg spinach) cut small, in an omelette.

We do the familiarisation thing, too. He'll now happily completely blank a piece of carrot on his plate, instead of rejecting the entire meal

I think it's all bout morphing what's ok to what you want him to eat.

So something like

Cake morphed to flatter round cake morphed to pancake morphed to pancakes with ever more egg morphed to omelette morphed to scrambled eggs faint with joy you are da Mama

Chipolata sausages are good, morph through to pasta tossed with chipolata and you are on your way to eating out at an Italian restaurant.

Philadelphia can be slowly doped into humous or "dip"

Ds stopped eating almost everything last summer and we are slowly working our way back. I suspect it will happen several times while he grows. For us supplements have been a huge boon, though I was a little with the paediatrician when he told me they were recommended for all small children. When I think of all the times I brought up diet for ds and no one said anything!