To think that if you cannot afford free range chicken/turkey meat and eggs...

[LolaTheShowgirl]

...then don't buy at all?

I mean the suffering these birds go through in cramped, dirty sheds is unbelievable. There is usually no natural light and the birds are usually ill before they're culled.

If you can stomach it, please look at these:
WARNING: NOT NICE PICTURES!
HERE

Really Thunderduck?

None of my four ever have, although they may occasionally have missed a meal or two or just had bread and butter if they didn't want what was put before them.

Is it just children from affluent countries who would do this or do hungry children also do this in countries where food is genuinely scarce?

I don't think the west has a monopoly on eating disorders deadflesh.

Yes really. I've encountered a few children like that in my childcare days, it's rare but there are children who will do this. A friend also has a dd who is like this.

They probably would eat eventually but by the time they are willing to eat, a child who is likely to have already been underweight or at least very slim, will have lost a few pounds.
I can't blame the parents for refusing to let it get to that stage, and feeding them anything they'll eat.

i haven't read the whole of the thread but isn't there some middle ground? Sainsbury's for example does RSPCA welfare standard chicken - which i know isn't free range (and free range doesn't necessarily = organic).

i just can't afford to spend £10 on a chicken. I try to make use of all the meat, for example making chicken pie with the left over meat but it is still too expensive.

some cheap stuff is fine oops - what about buying cheaper cuts of meat (thigh rather than breast for example)

There may be children in developing countries who are like this also. We just tend to presume that such fussiness isn't an issue there because they have little option.

I think it's likely that some children in developing countries are fussy, not when in extreme starvation of course, though by then they may be too weak to eat.
But in other circumstances when food is available but in relatively limited quantities, then yes I think it's possible.

Besides we aren't in a developing country and I dislike the ''children are starving in AAfrica'' argument.

Well, i can't really advise re buying meat tbh.
I once bought mince when a student 24yrs ago.
it was cheap and horrible.
I've never eaten it since.

nor pork/beef/chicken/whatever.

I was working at an abbatoir at the time and spent some years on and off intensive rearing farms.

So i've no idea what meat to go for, sorry.

it's jsut not on my radar of food to buy - mkae shppoing trips a bit quicker- i cut out about 3 isles straight away

I think the op makes a good point somewhere in amongst the guilt-inducing, disapproving tone.

The food we eat in this country can be shocking, more in terms of additives and preservatives, although some farming methods could do with an overhaul too.

A large percentage of the public will buy whatever is available and tasty. Government should get knowledgeable people involved and push through a few key reforms in food production and processing.

gvmnt is busy busting its own arse atm

pointydog - I think they buy what is available and cheap. Tasty doesn't even come into the equation. Factory farmed chicken tastes of nothing. It's like soggy cardboard.

My DS is a pretty fussy eater and I still won't feed him battery chicken. I cannot believe that any parent has the choice of battery chicken or child dies from starvation. There have got to be alternatives. Show me a child who won't eat baked beans. They were pulses last time I looked ...

'I'm someone on a tight budget with fussy children. (Like a lot of others). What should I do?' - helsbels

so am i, i have a very fussy dd with food intolerances, a slightly less fussy ds1 and a very fussy dp and not much money.

i prepare good food every day and rarely use lentils or beans in anything and have never touched tofu

tonight we had burgers, 100% pure beef from the local butcher...they were 10 euros for a dozen which was 2 meals with 2 left over in the freezer.

yesterday we had pasta, filled for me and dp from lidl and wheat free for the kids with a mushroom sauce (chopped onions and mushrooms with some stock and cream, a chimp could make it)

day before we had risotto, mushroom.

day before we had chicken (f-r) in a ginger cream sauce with leeks and tagiatelle (wf pasta for kids). we only need 2 breasts of chicken and it's still a hugely filling meal

day before that the kids and i had lasagne made with leftover bolognase sauce (400g of mince made enough for 2 generous meals and cost well under a fiver)

day before that the kids and i had scrambled eggs (f-r) on toast

day before vthat we had pizza, i don't get the chance to make the base these days so i buy wf bases in the supermarket, smear on a little tomato purree and top with mushrooms, onions, chorizo and either mozarella or goats cheese

i go to our local butcher (15 miles away!)about once every 2 weeks and buy about 20 euros worth of meat, give or take and portion it out,freeze some and use some over the next few days

Tulips. Could I have the recipe for the chicken in ginger cream sauce with leeks please?...flutters eyelashes.

true, spice, taste doesn't always come into it.

We eat chicken once a week and fish once a week. I buy the best organic fresh stuff I can find as the rest of the time we eat quite a vegetarian diet. I find the cost of free range chicken breast from our local butcher horrific, but figure it balances out from eating vegie stuff most of the time.

would not begruge families with limited money buying non-organic/free range, but it is a personal decision to buy more ethically and i would encourage people to do so if they can.

So I should feed my child baked beans? What every day, every other day? Some days she likes them and some days she doesn't. There lies the joys of a fussy child .

Deadflesh for what it's worth, (I did state this earlier), I most certainly do not pander to my dd's fussiness. She has what everyone else is having and either eats it or goes without. The difference being, is that I try to provide meals which I think my children have at least a chance of finding agreeable.

I could feed them chucken nuggets and chips and I'm sure they'd be most delighted but I at least attempt, to provide them with what I would consider a healthy, balanced diet.

I have stated a number of times now that my dd just doesn't like and won't eat pulses, if fact ds would eat chick-peas but not houmous ( tbh, I've only just aquired a taste for houmous ) and neither would eat soup. I have tried, trust me but I have fussy eaters! I have no idea why because dh and I will eat anything

My dd would most certainly not eat her dinner when she was hungry. She's far too strong willed for that! She'll eat her healthy wholegrain cereal for breakfast, she'll pick at her healthy lunch but if she doesn't like her dinner then I can assure you, she won't eat whether she's hungry or not! (She gets her stubborness from her father I tell you )

So if you could suggest something other than poisoned meat, pulses or vegan sausages for my beautiful but fussy eaters, I'd be most appreciative

You find the cost horrific.
I find the death horrifc.

Some of us are quite happy eating meat deadflesh, as odd as that may seem to you, and don't feel at all guilty about it.

Hels - I'll have a go

How about vegetable lasagna, caulifower cheese, pizza, potato and onion layer bake, or pies made with vege mince and mixed veg with mash and veggie gravy,

PinkTulips, if your dd and ds eat that wonderful sounding menu then she's not as fussy as mine, so count yourself lucky!

I make my own burgers and whilst ds would eat them, dd probably wouldn't.

DD would eat pasta with mushroom sauce but ds hates mushrooms and wouldn't eat it.

Neither likes leeks or creamy sauces ( I made a beautiful korma last week and they both took an age to eat it )

Ds would eat lasagne but dd doesn't like mince.

DD likes eggs but ds won't touch them.......

oh and If I managed to get to a butcher's or farm shop, I don't have a big enough freezer to keep it all. I have to buy all my food as and when I can use it.

I didn't actually think my children were particularly any more fussy than other people's children that I know (well dd is) but maybe they are, or maybe you all haven't got such fussy eaters after all

DD1 had a streak of eating baked beans, hels.

Then she went off them.

Now, she won't touch them, and again, she can't afford to go without eating.

'How about vegetable lasagna, caulifower cheese, pizza, potato and onion layer bake, or pies made with vege mince and mixed veg with mash and veggie gravy, '

DD1 would eat none of that. I suspect she has inherited my lactose intolerance. Like many people of Latin descent, I cannot eat cheeses or much milk or cream.

Tonight she ate chips fried in a deep fat fryer with taco soup over them.

It was a good night.

I tried being a vegetarian once, when I didn't have kids.

It really didn't work for me.

Thunderduck it doesn't seem odd to me. I was brought up eating meat and ate it for years.
It is however simple and cheap to make meat free meals either completely or in between free range/organic meat eating days.

helsbel,
without knowing you particualr child then we can't suggest stuff she'll eat.
In the same way that you can't suggest what my fruit and veg obsessed ds1 will eat.

And nobody suggested you feed baked beans every day either.

I struggle with my ds1 who avoids protein as much as poss, but will eat kidney beans like they are going out of fashion.

we all have kids with foibles and if your children's foibles are about cheap meat, then I agree it must be bloody hard.

I get ds1 to try stuff and sometimes he'll eat it and sometimes not. But he gets alot of priase for trying it.

Ds2 is protein obsessed on the other hand and doesn't eat anywhere near as much fruit or vag.

but that's kids for you

'Is it just children from affluent countries who would do this or do hungry children also do this in countries where food is genuinely scarce? '

I don't know because a) I don't live in a country where food is genuinely scarce, and I don't want to (been there, done that) b) we don't live in a Hindu place or that, we live here in the UK. So I don't expect my British children to act like anything else.

oh and my ds1 wouldn't eat any of the suggested meals either.
Too goopy.
So we are in the same boat- expect my kids don't eat meat either...

I agree it's simple and cheap to make meat free meals and I often eat meat free meals, though I won't touch soya mince.

However getting one's child to eat them may not be so easy.

helsbels - fwiw it sounds as if you are making a sterling effort in cooking decent food for your kids. It is very hard when kids are fussy eaters, and if you have 2 kids who are fussy about different things I imagine it must be a nightmare!

My dd has a year or two when she used to fiddle and take an age to eat her dinner. As hard as it was I never forced her to eat what she really didn't like (I was forced to the point of torture to finish my dinners when I was a child) and now she is 13 and eats everything like a glutton. So rest assured it is a phase!