To not understand adult food vs kids food?

Omg please, please order a fillet mignon and lobster tail for him next time 😅😅 it will be worth it to see the horror on their faces 🤣

At 3 it all might change. My youngest was fine as a small child and ate most things which was a relief because he had food allergies that meant his diet was already restricted. But once he outgrew his allergies and started school he got very fussy and at 12 still struggles with new food. His sisters are teenagers, one was never fussy, the other was within the normal range of fussiness but slowly added more food to her repertoire and is now, at 15, a complete foody.

All children go through a fussy stage, although some have it a lot worse than others depending on a combination of personality and parental attitude. It takes a lot of patience and acceptance that food will be wasted to get children through the fussy stage. When our teenage DDs have friends over most are much fussier than our DC and the DDs now tell us that the unfussy kids are from 'ingredients only' households. So parental cooking skills has a direct influence on children's diets. We really should be teaching cooking properly in schools so that everyone has the skills to feed their DC a variety of foods, it would have long term benefits.

My three always loved garlic, as do my grandchildren. So pasta dishes and garlic bread always a winner. Kids meals aren't good.

I don’t see it as rude to say “ my child would never eat that or really any of the comments

my fussy eater eats calamari

I remember a friend being amazed watching DC1, aged about 4, eating mussels and putting the shells in the colander. But kids eat what they see you eating. Both of mine had a passion for veggies.

Edited to add that one of mine was dubious about cauliflower until I told him it was ghost broccoli.

DS was a total nightmare eater when he was younger. Refused the children's meal. He just wouldn't eat at all. He started to then eye up our meals.

He has been eating the 'adult' meals since he was 6. Now he eats better than I do out.

But he still won't touch school dinners or a nugget. He just likes nice food.*

I do not get children's food at all.

*Thankfully we've now trained him to eat McDonalds as that was a problem.

Blimey, they would have a fit with my DD's tucking into buckets of moules frites 😂

Seriously, my kids always had the same as us. I was a complete pain in every restaurant insisting we didn't want kids menus, thank you very much, just starter portions of "normal" food.

And may the odds be ever in your favour 😁

Haha, I was so like you. "Oh DD will eat whatever we eat."

And age 4 she became the pickiest eater on the planet. If it wasn't beige and tasteless, it wasn't getting eaten. It took her till her teens to start expanding her range again.

Same here I have 2 DC, both teens now.
DD (now 18) has always been fussy since the moment I started weaning and I was very earnest with my PFB doing all sorts of purees and Annabel Karmel recipes but she just didn't like almost everything. I remember wirking my way through a baby recipe book and cooking every meal in it and all were rejected. For probably a year she existed on mainly porridge, breadsticks, petit filous and chips. She's still fussy, hates food touching each other, anything spicy, different textures etc but has massively improved (thankfully)
DS started eating family meals pureed almost at the beginning of weaning and is infinitely less fussy!

Agree entirely with you. I always fed my DC whatever we were eating and we ate lots of spicy food - I fed both chappatis with chilli pickle from a road side stall in Gujurat, with no ill effects. And if they had fish-fingers that's what we all had. I don't like calamari in batter, so wouldn't order it (though Wagga mama's squid balls (!!) are good) but if DD or DS had wanted it in a restaurant then why not? Giving children baby food sets them up in unhelpful and unhealthy eating habits.

It sounds like they are weirdly competitive about something which is a real non issue! I used to get horrified looks when both were little as they would just have what we had but we would order knowing to share so I wouldn't order chilli noodles for instance as they both hate spicy.

Mine usually eat from the kids menu now when out as that's usually the cheapest and they are happy with fish fingers etc. Unless there is a smoked salmon bagel on the menu which they both go nuts for and cost me a fortune!

YANBU but I think many people just have the palates of children themselves and can’t cook anything beyond chicken nuggets, so it’s no wonder they feed their own children the same crap.

My DS ate curries, stir frys, loads of veg etc at a young age. Now, as a young teen he only ever picks Margarita Pizza or Fish and Chips from a restaurant menu. When ever I cook anything different he stares at it suspiciously and proclaims he is not going to eat it.

Parenthood is a journey.

It’s easy to be smug when kids are 3…they then develop their own likes and dislikes and even children who were eating well at 1 can become very fussy and also have a mixed profile. My eldest can appear to be brilliant- starting to like curry, eats loads of fish and vegetables, loves mussels and other sea food. That child though hates pasta and pizza so is actually a real pain going to other people’s houses. Depending on what you served, she could look incredibly fussy.

My other child barely eats anything wellother than pasta and soup. We do try and encourage her to eat meals with us but she is also stubborn enough that she’d rather not eat. She won’t starve but you do have to meet her half way over the week so she’s getting meals she likes as well as ones she won’t eat brilliantly.

HNRTT but in regards for your questions, except for the parent of the child with medical problems, I suspect the parents who commented represent what can sometimes appear to be the majority of parents of babies and children in that any parenting that differs from theirs in relation to food, sleep, discipline and so on is inferior, worthy of comment and a deliberate, unforgivable criticism of their parenting. It is usually intended to make the commenter feel better and the recipient feel worse.

Interestingly, the parents most likely to give advice are those who loathe being given advice and take any comments even if not directed at them as murderous criticism and a declaration of eternal war.

Good luck.

I say good for you for not feeding your child the crap usually served up for kids! I was the same with my DS. As long as it was safe, the he had what we had pretty much from being weaned. I don’t add salt to meals so sodium was never an issue. I remember when he was really little (probably around 1 year old) I mentioned that the previous night I had made a Thai red curry (veggie version, lots of coconut milk) with cous cous, and my son had loved it, couldn’t get enough. My friend at the time was horrified 🤣 her baby was weaned exclusively on jars of baby food as she deemed that to be the safest thing possible.
Long story short, my DS is now 18, and he has such a broad taste for food-there’s literally nothing he won’t eat (I unfortunately am incredibly fussy 🤣 but he fortunately is the polar opposite)

Mumsnet can be very uneducated and ignorant on these topics. Glad your LO is up to a healthy weight now, sounds stressful enough on its own without factoring in judgemental comments from idiots.

You’re supposed to offer children a variety of foods when they’re little so their diet isn’t restricted when they’re older. They can F off with their judgements

I hate "children's menus" here in the UK. Everything is just greasy brown junky shite. I normally get an adult portion of food and ask for an extra plate so my two children can share.

Also-
Kids eats that I eat, and don’t want to raise a fussy eater.
Nothing worse than an adult that eats like a baby.

I can solve your mystery and save you wondering. My toddler just wasn't eating, or drinking. She was later diagnosed with autism, and she has ARFID. She wouldn't drink water and professional advice was to give her flavoured water or a little bit of squash in the water so that she would at least drink something - so we did.

I offered her ketchup to see if it could entice her into eating something - but she didn't like ketchup (she won't have any sauces) so that didn't work. By the time we realised the extent of her sensory problems with eating she'd already tried the occasional chip or crisp, and had liked both of them. If I knew then what I know now, would I have let her have one? Possibly the chips but probably not the crisps.

She's up to a healthy weight now and has a wider range of foods she'll eat, but if you have never watched despairingly as your underweight toddler refuses meal after meal after meal, don't judge parents for offering "junk food" as a last resort.

Yes, I did much the same with my DD. Unfortunately she would only eat the bland elements of the meal, the rice, the pasta, the potato, certain veg, chicken, no other meat; and highly flavoured sauces meant the whole meal would be rejected. Its surprising how quickly getting a child to eat at all takes priority over getting them to eat your preferred menus when needs must.

My severely autistic child is too he's always Been happy to try anything unlike his NT brother who untill recently was very picky

Is it? I'm British yet unaware of this!