To wonder why most parents don't give their toddlers any spicy food?

[laweaselmys]

I understand not giving tiny babies jalepenos.

I understand (when they are confident with eating solid food say over one at least) giving them some plain options and a bit of moderately spicy stuff to try.

I don't understand waiting until they are 5, making a big fuss about it, then being surprised when they don't like it.

"We love spicy food- dd (now 5) has been given it from being tiny and.......SHE WONT TOUCH IT!!!

Coughs and splutters if she even gets a grain of black pepper in her mouth and needs to drink a gallon of water aferwards!

So bog off! and stop congratulating yourselves on your fantastic vindaloo eating toddlers- I doubt it's anything that you did that made them that way!"

My daughter was like that as well, but now at age 10 she is slowly starting to eat more spicy food.

Some parents are just plain lucky that they don't have fussy eaters and make the mistake of assuming that those of us with difficult to feed children are making rods for our own backs by giving in and making things that they will eat. But when you are faced with a child on the 2nd centile and who really can't afford to miss a meal you do tend to go for the easiest option. I never gave up trying to get DD to try new foods though, and it has been a long, slow haul.

Having said that there are at least three dishes at our local Indian that she likes (all mild) and she loves poppadums and naan bread. Because I am passionate about food DD gets to watch a lot of cookery programmes with me and is beginning to get more interested in food in general. Although she can still be a fussy little madam she does have some quirky likes - sushi, olives, anchovies, capers are just some examples.

Maybe. I ate kimchee, neat by the bowlful whilst pregnant with ds2, but not ds1. Ds2 loved very spicy food from the time he started fully on solids, whereas ds1 couldn't bear it. That's changing now, and he is rapidly becoming more tolerant (after spending 6 summers with Korean food only eating grandparents).

Kat - not sure what is strange about asking a question about parenting on a parenting website.

I and nobody else have judged anyone else's decisions, just interested in why. All the why's have been perfectly sensibly reasons, question answered.

As I said DD doesn't like everything either. She doesn't even like all veg let alone all spice.

Sorry again if I have hit on any parent of fussy eater's nerves.

But that's the last time I'm saying it, since being the parent of a fussy child doesn't stop you from being able to read.

so touchy and tetchy.isnt a competition.for every item my dc will eat there's a list of something innocuous they wont eat.if you interpret some discussion about whose dc eats what as a brag or competition, then thats your touchy sore point

Well mine ate what we ate as soon as they were eating lumps. Neither are fussy - both eat fish (all kinds), meat (all kinds), veggies (all kinds), fruit (all kinds), etc., etc. Oddly one loves food covered in sauce and gravy the other will only eat dry and on the whole prefers quite plain food but not complaining about a dc who will eat a grilled rainbow trout and new pots with a side salad. Neither of them like spicy food - have both tried it and seem to dislike. Both love: olives, anchovies, moules, prawns, crab, etc., so by no means unadventurous.

oh and one dislikes mashed potato, mousse and chocolate icecream. Like adults they're all different.

I'm not going to validate my reply about chilli eating DD2's appetite for variety with tales of DS2's refusal to eat anything with sauce just for the 'sensitive' folk here

I've given what we cook (lots of Asian food, Indian, south Indian, Vietnamese, Malaysian, Indonesian) to our daughter from the minute we weaned her at 7 months. She's never had a 'kids' meal cooked for her and was into everything from early on. Last night we had Gong Bao prawns (sizchuan pepper corns and 20 dried red chillies). Night before it was an Indian chicken curry (spices, but not hot)

I did and do make concessions. I used to cook without salt when she was small (although I wouldn't worry about small quantities of soy) and I sometimes hold back the chillies until I've served her and then add them at the table for us.

She has complained about the food being 'too spicy' and I've felt bad! But generally she eats everything. If she doesn't like it, she'll eat the rice and whatever veg dish and almost always comes back to it. If she really won't eat it I'll offer fruit but I don't hit the fish fingers (if we eat those we all eat them for a quick lunch or snack)

I was puzzled when I friend asked me when I'd 'tried her with a curry'. They don't have fragile tastebuds that 'develop' in two years so couldn't see why you'd not offer it sooner.

I should add that I had my daughter in Singapore and basically every meal I had when pregnant had LOTS and lots of chillies in it.

My DD (3 yo) loves spicy food. I accidentally defrosted and heated a portion of my chilli for her as opposed to a dish I'd frozen for her. She loved it (was about 10 months old). She regularly has thai curries, chilli etc now.

Morning everyone
I am sorry if you all thought I was being oversensitive last night (a bit hormonal if thats any excuse!) I just found it a really odd thing to be wondering about. Maybe its just me but we all give our children different things to eat and our children all like different things as, yes they are all human and prefer to eat a range of different things.
The thread just seemed a bit boastful thats all "mine eats raw scotch bonnets"!!!
FWIW mine does like some spicy food but it took ages of encouragement on my part for him to even try any spicy things
I do also see a massive link with what you like to eat when pregnant and what they then like when weaned anyone else?

Valid question to ask, given that some baby books persist in advising parents to only offer bland food. That advise seems a bit '1950s' and unnecessary for most children.

Kitcat83 - yes, I see links too between what I ate while pg and bfing and what DS likes now. But I don't know if that's genuinely because he was used to the flavour or if he just saw me and DH eating those food and wanted to copy us.

Ds1 bland food only to about 11 then bit more adventeros now eats korma etc but has always eaten pickles

Ds2 is a bloody human dustbin will eat most things ,used to love fish but now gone of it .Curries well hotter and spicer the better only thing he won't eat is olives and fresh tomotoes(they burn his lips)

Dd very bland and when pregnant I lived on grapes,bread and cheese so maybe a link she has recentley started eating pizza

ds3 well not going post as he has sn dietry ones to so can't really compare

As dc they all were fed the same things so shows that like us as adults there tastebuds are differnt

LOL! My son as a toddler could actually tell if you'd ground a little black pepper into his scrambled eggs. He'd gag and spit and ... oh, dear... I dread to think what a sneeze of chilli powder would have done.

My ds1 doesn't like spicy food. He likes most things but like lots of children he is a slightly fussy. He doesn't like raw tomatoes or mashed potato (except on shepherds pie ) or pizza and when he was younger there was a few more things.

He used to eat spicy food until a D&V incident following a visit to an indian restaurant and he has been put off (doesn't even have black pepper on pasta now). Nobody questions his (or my other dcs) fussiness about other things but when it comes to spicy food I generally get a patronising comment about how I should have exposed him sooner and how they have always just given their dcs whatever the adults are having, the inference being I only feed mine chicken nuggets and plain pasta. Nobody has ever made a comment about the raw tomatoes or mash, people accept that in a 'takes allsorts' sort of way but loads of people do about the spicy stuff.
I get defensive about it because its rude on a 'you haven't weened your child properly' level and a 'you obviously don't eat as a family if you child has to have special children's food' level and a 'you don't know about other cultures or how to cook and are obviously a very narrow person' level.

I wonder if what you eat when pg has an effect too.

I didn't stop with garlic or chillies etc, and one of the first things dd nicked off our plates was some garlic bread.

Only downside was if she ate it and I didn't she stunk when co-sleeping!

Oooh I don't know, I do find it a bit smug....it's the way it's phrased, e.g. when people are 'shocked' or 'puzzled' when other mums ask them about their spice-eating DCs. Not genuinely puzzled, surely, since it's seemingly pretty common for parents to avoid giving their DCs such foods, for whatever reason.

Just to blow one of the theories out of the water...I ate anything and everything when pregnant (including stuff on the 'forbidden foods' list ) and my DCs are a picky. DD is starting to get more adventurous now she is 5. I didn't try Chinese or Indian food until I was in my teens and didn't have a Thai curry until I was in my 20s....I liked all of them instantly so I also don't believe that 'depriving' one's DC of exotic flavours as a child will necessarily affect their life-long chances of enjoying a variety of foods.

My DCs are healthy; they eat a reasonable variety of stuff; they eat fruit and veg and get a balance of protein, carbohydrates etc. so I'm not at all concerned. I'm sure they'll start enjoying spicy foods when they're older.

Oilfin. If you live in Asia then you could be 'puzzled' that people give their kids special, blander food.

I had no idea parents did separate 'kids' dinners until I saw it in action in the UK.

I don't know any parents who actively avoid giving their small children spicy food. I know some kids who don't like it - fair enough - but tbh the only people who I've encountered who are surprised at DD's spicy food eating are either non-parents or much older people who were perhaps advised when their children were young to feed bland food?

It's not a requirement to feed your children spicy food, but I do think it would be a shame to actively avoid it.

Turning clock back. When I was a lass it was meat and two veg (oh granny's pies). Had first pizza at 16, first McD's at 18, chinese at about 20. My mum was quite adventurous - we had spag bol - most of my class had never had pasta. Kiev's were sophisticated - I remember my mum doing them for a dinner party and she bought 4 chickens to do it because that was the only way then to get a chicken breast. I'm only talking 60s 70s here.

Any one think a bit of perspective might be in order on this thread?

Well, yes otchayaniye, I can understand that but I'm guessing most of the posters here who were so very 'shocked' at others' DC's bland diets are not in Asia.

maybe they have Asian heritage, or have lived elsewhere? Lots of presuming going on. Not everyone on mumsnet is white and lives in a village in Shropshire ....

I just think its down to personal taste,

DS would eat olives and ensaladilla when a baby - not now.

I would never have given him spicy food (not sure why thb!) but at 10 months he toddled to me and his Dad when we were eating a masala and wanted some - he still loves it.

Won't touch a fishfinger or raw tomato tho. [hgrin]

DS just doesn't seem to notice a spicey food but when my friend and her DD's are over for pizza night I have to chose carefully the pizza as they will call it spicey. [hhmm].

Different horses for different courses and all that.

OK otch.

I'm with bunbaker. There's a lot of luck in what your kids will eat. My ds, now nearly 12, will only eat a very bland diet of plain meat, vegetables and carbs despite years of encouragement with other foods. Dh and I are spicy food types, have always enjoyed hot curries and chillis etc, but ds absolutely will not tolerate them. He literally gags, sometimes just because of the smell of foods we are eating, not even on his own plate.

OTOH, he has a fabulously healthy diet, so I'm not complaining there. Socially though it's rubbish - won't eat pizza, burgers, Chinese, Indian... it's easier to list what he WILL eat. But it most certainly is NOT for the want of encouragement. He just doesn't like the sort of foods most people will eat and he's more than happy to go without if that's all that's on offer.

Be glad if you've got kids that will eat a more adventurous diet. You really are very lucky.