To tell my toddler DD fish is chicken?

[SalemSaberhagen]

DD is 21 months old and horribly picky. She will only eat bananas, chicken, pasta, ham chips and bread. Yesterday I made myself some fish and asked if she wanted any. She proclaimed it to be 'yuck, disgusting' and refused to try it. I broke off a few bits and put it on her plate and asked her if she wanted some 'chicken'. She ate it with gusto! I was so pleased.

I posted a light hearted thread about it on a Facebook group (yeah, I know) to say how pleased I was.

In amongst people sharing their own stories, I've been told that I don't respect my DD and I'm undermining her trust. I was asked how she will feel when she finds out.

Was I doing something bad by letting her think it was chicken?! I was just happy she was eating something else to be honest!

I made macaroni and cauliflower cheese yesterday. DS 6 says 'but I hate cauliflower' so I cooked the cauliflower and blended the whole thing in with the cheese sauce, he asked for seconds

Undermining her trust? Some people are ridiculous! She's a baby! You're doing it for her own benefit. You're her mum go with your own instincts and don't let others make you feel bad

Fish = chicken of the sea in my house. Sweetcorn = drops of sunshine. The carrots have been grown by the fairies. If it means she eats healthily, I'm sure she'll forgive me a few harmless white lies

We eat a lot of 'chicken' in this house too. No drama

My toddler won't eat tinned tuna but loves 'chicken' which looks, smells and tastes remarkably similar! Sounds like you need new FB friends. I'd laugh at anyone who suggested that I wasn't respecting my toddler and was breaching his trust for feeding him good, healthy food with a slightly inaccurate name. Haven't they seen that divine episode of Charlie and Lola where Charlie gets Lola to eat vegetables by calling them all sorts of creative names and telling her imaginative stories to go along with it. Possibly my favourite episode of any kids show ever!

I'm going go totally against grain, and say that being honest about ingredients important. However, my ds1 has severe, life threatening food allergies, and accuracy is pretty important!

If there is no actual physical safety risk in lying your children, then it's up to your conscience. However, if somebody lies to my ds about what's in his food, they could kill him. I don't ever want well-meaning folk thinking this is okay, and I can't leave with anybody who hasn't been trained to deal with him.

We had chicken lamb, baby trees (broccoli), tree pie (broccoli quiche).

When our first two were little one liked spaghetti hoops, the other beans. DH told them that the beans were from the hole in the hoops and then they both ate both things.

DS3 would only eat pink yogurts or fromage frais so I used to add food colouring so that the peach ones got used up.

When DD was v. Young
, we were out one day and didn't gave much money for food.
Boots were knocking out a triple sandwich for 20p so I bought it.
I cannot eat seafood neither can partner. So guess who got the prawn one?
My DD. If I told her it was prawn, she would not have eAten it and there was no more food.
So I told her it was chicken. She loved it 👍🏻a fib is better than going hungry.

sea sausage has tickled me

Eh, DS (4) "hates" tomato sauce, but loves pasta sauce and pizza sauce (tomato-based). He dislikes quiche, but very much enjoys his bacon and egg pie...

YANBU. Kids take funny notions.

Re fish and chicken, my dD aged about 5 got chicken nuggets at a party. She has always liked fish fingers, but never fancied nuggets, so afterwards I asked how she had liked them. 'The fish fingers? They were yummy!' So I'm guessing fish and chicken are pretty interchangeable to a young palate and you are unlikely to damage your child by fibbing about which one it really is!

I had a couple of friends who were very stern about me 'lying' to my DS, who was 4 at the time. I find it a bit precious really, little white lies can help you can through the day, some of the 'lies' they understand to be lies and go along with for fun (we pretend the waste disposal unit contains a hungry monster).

I always say: "food" when my kids ask me what's for dinner. It irritates them, but they are 20 and 18 and eat everything anyway.

DS2 is apparently vegetarian, but only when I'm visiting.

All leftovers went into a sort of bubble & squeak fry up, which was christened "Power Food". Sometimes it was rice based, sometimes potato, with extra onions, greens, mushrooms and peppers.
The DC preferred it to actual recipe meals.

Trufflethewuffle:
When our first two were little one liked spaghetti hoops, the other beans. DH told them that the beans were from the hole in the hoops and then they both ate both things.

Excellent

Both mine were fussy and as people have said, the frustrating thing is that you know they would like it but they refuse to try because they have got it in their head that they don't like it! All pasta was Thomas (the tank engine) pasta here for a long time after he'd seen the cans with Thomas on them

YANBU, all meat was chicken here for several years. I'm pretty sure most meat still is actually

Also regarding breaking trust, my DS still thinks I'm 21 for some reason because I told him I am and he gets very annoyed if anyone tells him it's not true.
I think he knows, but he's too loyal

I never had to call anything by a different name because my 2 weren't fussy BUT I did tell them that Cadbury's Fruit & Nut was only for Mummy because it made children explode. They believed me till they were about 12 and DD now uses it as an example of what a fabulous mother I am

All fish was cod for a while in our house. Salmon was pink cod, tuna dark pink cod.

Yes,DS only ate chicken for quite some time here. " what's this,Mummy?" "It's chicken, darling,you like chicken" ---> DS eats pork/lamb/salmon with every sign of enjoyment!
We still tease him about it now he's big,one of our family jokes