Processed meat or no meat at all?

How old are they?
my boys were similar when younger, had to blend bolognese sauce etc, but sausages were always a hit!
meat was too chewy for them & becomes a big lump that’s hard to swallow if over chewed!

they now both love steak though so it can get better!

slow cooked meat eg shoulder of lamb or chicken thighs become incredibly soft & melt in mouth, so that might be a good start!

good luck, will get better over time, try not to get to hung up on it X

PS dried fruit is often treated with sulphites. Do you plan to remove those from their diets too?

Good quality sausages are not highly processed. The biggest issue with processed meats seems to be ready sliced preserved and cooked meats. Eg bacon is usually preserved with nitrates. You can buy nitrate free bacon if it worries you.

Try making your own? Together? If a child learns to make and cook they are often more invested to try.
Buy mince and make burgers, etc but otherwise nothing wrong with lightly processed meats. It's not going to kill them. Food is good for you.

Annie Bell recommends this leek & lentil dhal as being popular with children - & red lentils are much smoother when cooked than brown/green. I can confirm that adults like this too ...!! It's a very comforting & easy favourite.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/take-root-1236635.html

I have an easy (ish) solution for you. Get some bone broth and use it to cook rice in. Or use it in soup. They will get all the meat benefits without actually needing to eat meat.

Better yet, make your own and you can add a bunch of different veggies in there too.

My freezer has loads of small pots of bone broth in it and we have one on the go in the fridge at all times, which gets added into whatever meals I’m making.

Will they eat mince? That’s a lot healthier than processed meats, and can make homemade burgers, we’ve made homemade kebab meat as well, tacos, bolognese, meatballs. My totally lentil averse kids often eat mince with a handful or two of secret lentils! They are none the wiser! We do also do sausages in my house, because whatever the current scaremongering I don’t see any issue with them. Either they have them with mash, veg and gravy or in buns hot dog style (since the weather has been nicer). My kids were absolutely stuck in a chicken nugget rut a little while ago, but we’ve worked our way up to quite a few other options now. There’s been a lot of rejected food and waste which is disheartening, but I’m so proud of them for adding so many new things now. It’s staying calm and consistent and not offering too many other options. I’m not a “eat your dinner or starve” kind of parent, but the alternatives are usually pretty basic like scrambled eggs or peanut butter toast if the main meal gets rejected.

I used to make my own chicken nuggets and fish goujons (called then fingers). It really isn't too much of a faff and if they will eat them, it becomes easier to leave off the breadcrumbs and just cook bitesize pieces. Eventually I managed to get steak into them by introducing fajitas - cook steak as usual and then cut into slices. Serve with grated cheese, tortillas and ketchup pluse any salad bits you know that they will eat. Let them put the fajitas together themselves.

Sounds like they are largely good on protein.

You sound so lovely and kind that my heart goes out to you that you are so worried. They have a great mum. That is better than any organic, sustainable, wild caught, was birthed-naturally-in-the-sunshine,lived happily meat out there. They will be fine!

There's nothing wrong with a good sausage, I only buy tesco finest

I don't allow processed meat at home. I am aware they may eat it elsewhere and that's ok as it isn't often.
If they are getting other sources of protein I would focus on that.

Also, if it helps to make you feel better, I used to worry about this a lot but don’t anymore.

A friend of mine was a VERY fussy eater when she was little. I mean, she wouldn’t touch anything other than Heinz jars of baby food until she was 4 (this was the 80s) and had an extremely limited diet for years. When she turned about ten, her dad nearly fell off his chair when she asked if she could try a langoustine prawn from his sea food platter - and she loved it. She is now the biggest foodie I know!

It's quite difficult to be deficient in protein.

She'd be better off without the processed meat.

I just forgot something else my DS has just started to eat - ‘smash’ burgers. High quality, 20% fat beef mince - roll in to golf ball sized balls and flatten and fry. Dead easy and I like them too!

I have a fussy eater so I sympathise. He will eat eggs and chicken, though. Occasionally, I can get him to eat a bit of salmon!

I would go for a bit in the middle - sausages or ham once in a while won’t hurt. Maybe once per week for each? Other than that, get them to have more milk, yoghurt, cheese, all full fat and don’t sweat it too much. It’s a battle sometimes to get a kid to eat a balanced diet but they will grow out of it. I cannot wait for the day mine will eat what I eat!!

I'd go for the least processed options I could find.

We have a village butcher and he hand-makes his sausages - you can watch, so you can see what goes in them.

Or good quality breaded fish fingers. Or home made chicken nuggets.

Will they eat hard boiled eggs or dippy eggs? Omelettes? Cheese? Dips like hummus or tsatsiki?

Personally I would let them have sausages etc
My daughter is like this- I blend meat (chicken, mince or ham)- into things like Bolognese, lasagna, fajitas tacos etc.... also can blend for chicken nuggets- it's the almost stringy texture of meat she hates rather than taste .....
I find it's the texture she doesn't like- she will also happily eat butchers sausages as long as they are fairly plain- started with Richmond sausages and changed them every few weeks till she accepted the butchers ones....
Again she won't eat Beans or lentils (apart from baked beans)- and would only eat cheese and peanut/almond butter as other protein sauces. We also make her have school/nursery hot lunches to get used to other food and try things regularly.....

Do you have a good processor? If so, get some chicken thigh/breast and process it down to a paste, that way the texture isn't like solid if you know what I mean. Definitely try vitamins if you're not already doing so. Fussy eaters are a nightmare to cater for. Hopefully it's a phase that will slowly move along. In the mean time blitz everything you can think of and pop it in meals where they won't notice. Good luck.

I would also say quality over quantity so no processed meat.

Mine also don't like meat but prefer mince is lasagna, shepherds pie, pasta sauces, rice based stir fry with veg.

Although I know it can be hard so don't feel bad if you do decide to give the some processed meats x

My daughter is similar, it's the texture. She likes salami and pepperami which is horribly processed. I try and get her in to other protein as much as possible (she loves yoghurt, milk on cereal, cheese, baked beans) and then probably once or twice a week she has nuggets/salami. She will eat roast chicken so we have that often as well and fish fingers which I know have processed bread crumbs but the actual fish is ok I think!!

@TheBuffetInspector I've got a 20 year old DS who's similar. I just give him chicken, Yorkshire puddings and gravy. I pray that one day we might introduce a vegetable...I jokingly ask if he'll try one pea but not luck yet!

Someone suggested "Naked" products. I made a dinner once and I'd already cooked the chicken when I realised the bacon I was cutting into the pan had strange green spots on the slices underneath. Didn't want to waste the chicken and thought I was being paranoid so I just fished out the bacon.

Ended up with a very bad stomach. Sodium nitrite is in these products for very good reason.

But back to your question, yes I would give my children processed meats. Chipolatas don't contain much rubbish. I'm not a fan of legumes as a source of protein as they contain a lot of anti-nutrients.

You could also try making cakes with almond flour and loads of eggs such as Nigella's chocolate orange cake.