Oh, he/she'll eat anything

[Enb76]

Bit of a rant cos I have had a shitty day. When asked what my child eats I say "everything except courgettes, cucumber and melon". I am quite specific. When I ask, I get, "oh, they eat everything". I do my shopping safe in the knowledge that they'll eat everything, or at least give stuff a go.

I don't cook 'kid' food, no nuggets for example, no fish fingers, no baked beans. Mostly this is because I am a single parent and eat when my child does so we eat food that I like. That said, when other peoples' children come over, I play it safe, no lamb shanks, no Thai-style salmon parcels, no curry but I thought I'd be safe today with prawn stir-fry to discover that actually, the child who eats everything, doesn't eat noodles, doesn't eat peppers, doesn't eat prawns, doesn't like onions.

I'd like to think that I would say 'she's not particularly adventurous yet, she'll be happy with...' if my child had a limited palate and someone specifically asked what they ate.

Am I being unreasonable to expect people to actually tell me their child's preferences if I ask?

Pretty confident Worra, she'll happily tuck into chicken feet and snails and frogs legs. I wouldn't touch chicken feet myself but she was in Shanghai with her father so she tried them and liked them. In HK with me she ate the most odd looking fish things. She's probably been more exposed to varied foodstuffs than most children and I admit that I am used to her being like that and utterly willing to give anything a go. She's my only child so I don't have experience of children with other food habits.

Next time I'll just say what we're having and change the menu if required.

I found that my DD's friends were much more adventurous than my DS's. I also told the girls to tell me if they didn't really like it as if they weren't honest they may be served it again. So they would make a good attempt at eating the meal and then say yummy or please don't make again.

Resorted to nuggets/fishfingers/sausage and chips with DS's friends. One of his friends turned his nose up at home made pizza as only ate the frozen french bread pizza. Also had another one who was always angling for a McDonalds.

AppleBanana I hope that I would remember to tell someone if my child was allergic or intolerant.

Saying that neither of my DC drank milk (no allergies and drank formula milk but not cow's milk) so they ate cereal dry. When my DS went to a sleepover it never occurred to me to mention it as if he was offered a glass of milk he would just say no thanks. Next morning the mum asked if he would cereal and he said yes please so she served him a bowl of cornflakes with milk. After a while she asked son if there was problem as he wasn't eating his breakfast and his reply was 'there's milk on them'. I felt awful but she laughed and said it was so funny as the way he said was as if her family were strange not him.

my 7 yr old DTs will eat everything except yellow plums (coz they.re meant to be red on the out side) kiwi fruit and fresh figs - I think it's a seed issue. I realise when they are teenagers they will refuse to eat anything vaguely vegetable like.
We have only had a few times when kids have come to eat. Both times I did pizza and salad. Oh, and one time a vegan boy came and we had veg fried rice and sweet and sour sauce. (My 2 asked for egg in theirs though).

I'd have been so pissed off at wasting prawns.

I would stick with plain proven general kids favourites for a play date. Ds, 5, eats anything and everything, the weirder the better, but for me a play date should be stress free, so I'll just tell the other parent I'm making 'specific generally loved by kids meal' they normally say fine and that's it, spaghetti hoops and chicken nuggets here I come!!!

No prawns were wasted in the making of this post. I just ate far more than I ordinarily would have. Fresh king prawns too. I was perfectly happy with my extremely large portion :)

Thats a bonus then

I'd have eaten that at 7 (ate my first mussel at 1 year old and never looked back, I even sucked the heads of prawns as a child...) but I doubt most of my friends would have.

Oh and I hate baked beans, also tinned sweetcorn, tinned pasta of any sort, overly sweet tomato soup, marzipan and most nut related food (pistachios and chestnut are allowed) so never buy them. My daughter will eat all of them. I am fussier than her.

My DS would have eaten prawn stir fry but wouldn't touch mash, I still wouldn't cook prawns on a play date. My favourite is make your own pizza so kids can top it with whatever they like

I love prawns. And fish fingers

People say 'they'll eat anything' usually to mean that they will eat most bog standard food. I wouldn't serve a chicken stir fry (let alone prawn) to ds friends, purely because I realise that it would be hit or miss. I think you made an error in judgment. Particularly given the subsequent list of food you say your seven year old. It's silly to group those into 'anything' for children of that age.

I wouldn't serve prawns to most adults - too many people have shellfish allergies

Coffeeinnectar, also missing the point

I love baked beans. For lunch I chopped up toast into little squares and put into a bowl, poured beans on top, then grated cheese. Then added smoked tabasco and black pepper without checking the seasoning. I ate it with a spoon infront of the telly. So good.

My mum did tell a school friend's mum that my favourite food was pasta when I was little.

And that was what I got. Just plain pasta. With some ketchup or similar to put on it!

Now I know you should be grateful for whatever is given but I definitely couldn't have eaten it with the ketchup on. So I just ate it plain.

I'm not sure what moral of the story is. I know I was primary aged, and I know not to say I didn't like it. Just to eat the plain pasta. Maybe moral is that nobody will eat absolutely anything?

But it's easy to get so used to your child not eating a very few specific foods and adapt the way you cook constantly, that it doesn't even come to mind when someone asks what they'll eat. I've done it a couple of times. It does just slip your mind.

^This.

There's also the fact that how we cook things are different than how other people cook things. My parents would insist that DD won't eat meat. But the way we cook it, she does more often than not. She'll eat certain veggies raw, but not cooked, or only with sauce. But it's easy to forget that there's specific ways she likes those certain foods.

At the moment we're just lucky she still gives everything an honest try.

I have one who was picky so got used to giving a list of stuff she would eat, but the playdates she went to were used to her quirks. She is better since i weaned the youngest.

Second one will eat anything, always has always did - she had a melt down at four when at a food fayre we went to ( hoping to find other things the picky one would even try) when the fish stall ran out of oysters. They found some eventually and she ate them like she had been eating them for years.) she is particulary fond of wasabi on toast

Youngest one will eat most stuff unless its purple. Purple food is poison apparently.

Unless its a child i dont know we stick to fish fingers or chicken stuff.

Honestly, I have learnt that when you ahve a playdate, there is no point asking. You just play it safe with very bland foods that you know 90% of children will eat.

The problem with 'will eat everything' is that it means different things to different people. A lot of people will have 'children meals' for a long time (and noddles won't be part of it), don't expect a child to eat the same than adults etc etc.

In realiity, ime with the children who came to our house, very few children actually eat 'everything'.

Does it matter if they don't eat it?

none of my DC have had prawns because I can't stand seafood. I agree that many peoples range of usual meals will be limited - some much more limited than others- and that even when told 'oh they love pizza' you can discover that, in fact they only like cheap frozen pizza and not a fresh homemade one with loads of veg. And some kids idea of eating 'salad' is just cherry toms and a few bits of cucumber, rather than leaves, peppers, onions etc

I always opt for asking about a specific meal for playdates - bangers beans and mash, shepherds pie and peas, that sort of thing. I wouldn't risk anything remotely exotic, and I personaly would class prawn stir fry as exotic.

Yeah I wouldn't serve prawns or any other shellfish to any guest (child or adult). Nor would I say that my child doesn't eat prawns if someone asked as I'd assume they wouldn't serve these to a child. Playdate food should always be simple. Also, do bear in mind that most children won't have had the opportunities for travel that your child has had.

I also wanted to quote this (not from OP): As a child I wouldn't dare leave so much as a morsel on my plate if I was a guest - and say that I am so glad we are evolving past a place where children feel forced or obliged to put food in their mouths that they don't want to.

I know Aunty

I once did broccoli soup and briwn bread for tea. The kid went home raving about brocoli

The mum thinks I am a vegetable hero

In reality i'd simply run out of freezerfood (aka toddler foodz)

DS is unbelievably fussy. We currently have to send packed lunches in (despite his being Yr2 and entitled to free) at least 3 days a week. I tell people he is fussy, to make whatever they would usually, and if he won't touch it then bread and butter will be fine.

He eats all the normal kiddie food, so if they give him cheap pizzas (he is fine with plain home-made margherita, but anything fancy he can't do) or fish fingers he's okay. He has recently started to hate sausages, which rules out one prior safe bet.

Oddly, he likes baked salmon, cod, plaice, tuna, you name it, and loves prawns. But he hates bolognese, cooked veg, most meats. Plain pasta and baked potatoes are his idea of heaven, as is white bread. In fact if he had the choice, he'd live on fish and starch. Thank God he likes fruit, too. He also hates food that someone else has mixed, though he will splodge his own on the plate with gusto. This makes casseroles and lasagne etc a problem.

I used to think parents with fussy eaters pandered to them and were the cause. God decided I needed telling, it would seem!

I don't think a prawn stir fry is playing it safe tbh, my dd is pretty good but I think she would have struggled with that. Plus what is wrong with having some fishfingers and beans in, I am also a single parent and we find a compromise between food I like and food dd likes! Although tbf I am rather partial to some fishfingers myself