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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Would your dc eat this?

90 replies

Dancergirl · 14/04/2015 11:25

I have some frozen spinach in my freezer and I fancy making tonight pancakes filled with mushrooms, spinach and cheese which me and dh will love.

My dds aren't brilliant eaters (one has sensory issues so she has an excuse) and I know they won't eat it.

Would you:

a) Do the 'one meal or nothing' thing?

or

b) make a plainer alternative e.g. pancakes just with cheese?

They are 13, 12 and 8.

OP posts:
reni1 · 14/04/2015 12:15

'Accidentally' delay dinner by an hour and hand out no snacks before, I usually find anything gets wolfed down if I do that. Who knows, they might actually like it afterwards, I have (sometimes accidentally, sometimes not) introduced new foods this way.

Welshmaenad · 14/04/2015 12:15

Dd would.

Ds would if I put bacon in it. He'll eat anything if it's got bacon in.

Original poster
Dancergirl · 14/04/2015 12:16

That just wouldn't work for us unfortunately reni

OP posts:
Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 14/04/2015 12:19

As a child I would eat anything. So would my brother. My parents had an easy time of it, but their siblings, who cooked very similar food and seemed to take a similar approach to childrearing, each had a child who was a very fussy eater indeed. This was in the 60s, so this is not a new phenomenon!

When he was little my son had a very restricted range of foods he'd eat (just as my husband had, when he was little - he grew out of it too). It wasn't done for attention or mischief, he genuinely struggled with the taste, the texture or just the strangeness of many, many foods. His older sister, given the same stuff, would eat it all with pleasure.

I did worry about it, but forced myself to think about the nutritional value of what he did eat, and actually it was fine. I would have been happier to see him eating a greater variety, but he was extremely healthy, active and slim, as he still is, so really, in the end, what would have been gained by making all of us miserable by constant rows none of us could win?

Fast forward to 2015 - he is now 21 and eats just about anything. He cooked calamari for our Mother's Day dinner, having told us it was now one of his favourite things!

I just don't see the point in making a huge fuss about food. I could always put a meal together for him quickly and without it really interfering with our meal, which was usually different.

bonkersLFDT20 · 14/04/2015 12:22

I generally do one meal for everyone, sometimes substituting the odd thing, but for pancakes I think it's OK to do different fillings. That would be a normal meal, not necessarily pandering to fussy children.

One of mine would love this, the other wouldn't.

Original poster
Dancergirl · 14/04/2015 12:23

I really hope that happens for us gasp

I really do despair sometimes about my children's eating and wonder if it's my fault, e.g. did I not them enough variety as babies etc..? Should I have been stricter, one meal for all etc...?

My oldest is 13 and she IS getting a bit more adventurous as she gets older and is wiling to try things. Middle one has dyspraxia and sensory problems so textures are a problem for her, and youngest isn't great either but does enjoy what she does eat.

OP posts:
Enb76 · 14/04/2015 12:23

My child would eat it quite happily but she's unfussy. I've never made separate meals because I tend to have a few different things on the plate so there's never a whole plate of food she won't eat. I tell her to eat the bits she likes.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 14/04/2015 12:26

They sound delicious. Do you just do normal pancake day pancakes? Do you cook the fillings first, then just whack it all in the oven to heat through?

I might try this with my lot; three out of four will give it a good go, I reckon.

WestEast · 14/04/2015 12:27

If make a little one with the spinach in for her to try, but do a plain one that I know she'd eat and just put them both on her plate. That way she can try if she wants but won't go hungry.

Original poster
Dancergirl · 14/04/2015 12:28

Yes normal pancake batter. Fill pancakes with filling, roll up, put on baking dish, sprinkle cheese on top, bake.

Think I will do this as planned for me and dh and keep some plain pancakes dds can fill themselves.

OP posts:
chocolatelife · 14/04/2015 12:32

i just add a bit of spinach to stuff. not a lot. jsut a bit to a curry for example or lasagne

BertieBotts · 14/04/2015 12:33

I would do the plainer option too - or yes fill themselves sound fab.

TinklyLittleLaugh · 14/04/2015 12:40

Thanks Dancer, I'm trying to expand my vegetarian repertoire.

AmateurSeamstress · 14/04/2015 12:48

Mine don't eat spinach in quantity, and one doesn't like mushrooms.

I'd sub most of the spinach for sweetcorn, broccoli or a can of beans, eg butterbeans.

RL20 · 14/04/2015 12:53

Haven't read other comments so someone may have already suggested, but I'd say make plainer alternatives (just cheese, or cheese and ham?) but then also put the same as yours on their plate too, and perhaps not say anything?
I always remember my younger brother being a massively fussy water (only ate chicken nuggets, mashed potato, gravy, chips, potato waffles, tomato sauce- not all together though!) for years and years.
My mum used to mix bits of carrot into his mash and he didn't notice. She also used to buy them carrot waffles/potato smilies you can get from ASDA.
Good luck!

RL20 · 14/04/2015 12:57

Oh and also, you could always blend the ingredients together if you have a blender? (If you weren't already doing that, of course). I'm not a fussy eater, but do have problems with certain textures, for example I might like the taste of mushrooms but the texture would make me feel all Confused. Also, I'm the same with tomatoes, love the taste but I'll only have tinned/chopped tomatoes - and that's only the juice of them, not the thicker bits. So sometimes it's not always about taste, but about the texture, which children would probably just explain that they 'don't like it' and you'd presume they meant the taste

Ilovehamabeads · 14/04/2015 13:02

I've never ever touched a pancake with savoury filling in my life but that sounds delicious even to me. I'd definitely eat these with wraps instead of pancakes. It wouldn't go down well with DCs though, both would pick out mushroom and one would also pick out all the green!

Discopanda · 14/04/2015 13:20

Why don't you defrost some of the spinach and mix it into the pancake batter so it's there but you don't have the texture

Pengweng · 14/04/2015 13:26

One would eat mushrooms and cheese but not the spinach and the other one would eat the pancake as hates mushrooms and cheese and green things. They are only 2 though so i would most likely make plain pancakes with some fruit and veggies on the side for them. Sounds yummy though and i'd
scarf the lot.

greensnail · 14/04/2015 13:34

Mine wouldn't eat this. I would make them plain pancakes and let them sort out their own fillings. They both ate absolutely anything as babies but are now fussy at age 4 and 6 so not sure where I went wrong but I find the best thing to do is not make a fuss about what they won't eat. I offer an alternative or adapt food for them only if it is easy to do so, but wouldn't make them a completely different meal.

TheMagnificientFour · 14/04/2015 13:43

My children would eat that but to be fair, to start with, as with any new things, they weren't keen at all.

I've never offered them an alternative or a plainer pancake. They are allowed ot move any 'offending' item to the side of the late (eg dc2 will not touch mushrooms) but are expected to
1- eat at least a couple of mouthful of the dish (to try at the very least. Otherwise it's clear they will never touch it)
2- have a slice of bread afterwards if still hungry after dessert (dessert is fruit in our house)

What I don't do is plain food especially for children, or two meals for them and us. Never have done.

TheMagnificientFour · 14/04/2015 13:43

Btw, my dcs are similar age than yours (11yo and nearly 10yo)

ouryve · 14/04/2015 13:51

Trying again - I posted but it didn't work! So apologies if it does appear twice

___
Mine wouldn't touch any of it.

Both have sensory issues and gag on pancakes. The older one has such a issue with them that he's banned them.

The younger one won't eat the vegetables.

The older one hates white/creamy sauces and would consider that sauce to have ruined perfectly decent spinach.

And then there's the whole matter of cheese, which they're both intolerant to (in a pukey migraine way).

I'd wolf them down, though!

OutragedFromLeeds · 14/04/2015 13:55

I would make a plainer alternative for anyone who wanted them.

I don't cook separate meals to accommodate fussy eating, but when it's something where you can easily make a range of flavours (sandwiches, pizza etc.) I'll make them what they want.

ouryve · 14/04/2015 13:55

If I did that, reni, I'd have 2 screaming kids on my hands, and my 11yo would probably go to bed on an empty stomach, having become so worked up he'd completely lost his appetite.

And DS2 still wouldn't eat any of it.