How do you get your dc to be more experimental with food?

[sharpscissors]

I really wish i had been more experimental with food when my dc were very little. Now they eat a fairly good selection of food that they are used to, but create when faced with something unfamiliar. How do you get your dc to eat what is put in front of them, or at least give it a try, without moaning about it. I would love to give them more unusual stuff, but tend to stick with what they are used to for an easy life. Dd is 7 and ds is 5.

Just offer it, I suppose - no pressure, but just have it there if they fancy trying it

I've got 3 - 1 will generally eat anything (can think of 1 thing she genuinely dislikes), 1 will try anything but won't necessarily like it (has more dislikes than the other one) and 1 who is slightly more fussy and sticks with what he knows (is still a toddler though)

I think stick to the safe bets but also have diffenent bits on offer to try, if they want to

put a little list on here of what they will/do like and somebody may be able to come up with a few creative ideas/recipes that are similar? maybe they might try something they know but in a slightly different formula ifyswim :) I don't know that many kids that are adventurous and try anything, most I know like what they know...

offer something new alongside something they already like...

So you could do a hot buffet type thing ( little ones love helping themselves) and introduce new things to try that way among things they like.

Thanks for the quick replies. They like spaghetti bolagnese, chilli con carne (with pasta as they won't eat rice), roast beef and yorkshire pudds, toad in the hole, roast chicken, lamb in tomato sauce, roast chcken and veg, homemade pizza with ham, bangers and mash, fish fingers, beef burgers, bacon butties, poached eggs, tortilla, omlete, salmon fishcakes. Last night i made a chicken pie with chicken and veg and topped with mashed potato. Dd eventually ate it and liked it, but ds was on the point of heaving and refused to eat it so went to bed having had no tea at all:(

I would say they eat a well-balanced and varied diet!

TBH I wouldn't push that much (esp the 5yr old) - it does sound like they eat quite a variety across the food groups (do they like fruit and veg?)

Just offer and don't stress if they say no

How about theming your meals one half term? You could have a French Day - croissant for breakfast, croque-monsieur for lunch, coq au vin for dinner. Or if that is going too far how about just trying it for dinner? Maybe get them to pick a country that they'd like to try food from.

I've found that if you keep offering it, they will try new things. Try a picnic lunch with lots of new things or ask them to try something new every day. I did this for a while with my DCs but to be fair they've always been happy to try new foods.

They did complain about my very hot mushroom stroganoff the other day though

Dont tell them what it is

I was soooo close to convincing dt2 that the sweet and sour frogs legs I made for dinner was actually chicken wings, but dt1 blabbed! Dt2 is the only one of four dc who doesn't love them

I offer them tastes of whatever I'm eating to introduce them to more unusual stuff, and sometimes, it takes 6/7 times of them trying something before they do get a taste for it. Mine are good with food, but the odd thing they don't like, I have managed to eventually get them to eat.

It does sound like they are eati a good variety though.

My favourite trick is not to put it in front of them... When I'm cooking the DCs are often wandering around the kitchen so I offer them bits and pieces of what I'm cooking, or get them to help taste things. There's no incentive like thinking it's something they're not really supposed to have for getting them to try things. Then once they know whether they genuinely like it or not they're more likely to be receptive when it's on the table. I've got DS to eat chicken this way (he was a voluntary vegetarian until recently).

Thanks. Typing all they do eat has actually be pretty helpful and i can see they are not as bad as i was thinking. I was watching '2 greedy italians' and they made a dish with pearl barley and spinach and the italian kids were loving it. I was thinking how much my two would complain about it and i wish i could just give them stuff like that without worrying that they wouldn't like it.

Oh I've done that with stroganoff. I made the mistake of drinking most of the bottle of sherry I bought to cook it, before starting and then putting way too much chilli in! Mushrooms can't take a lot of chilli for some reason.

I'd say they eat a lot of different foods, textures etc too, just keep going.

I watched Tanya Bryon on Tiny Tearaways and she talked about "food bridges", so if they eat something like sweetcorn, they should make the adjustment to peas say quite easily as they are similar in size, texture etc. I try to do it with mine, two are very young so I'm trying to broaden what they eat and I use this idea so that they are nudged along.

For my older one, he quite likes to assemble things, so pittas filled with hummous & chicken, fajitas and stuff. Also if something is new I give him a little bit and expect him to try it even if he doesn't like eat and want to eat any more.

thats actually a really nice variety of foods on your list! as you say, it helps to see it all written down - my DS is 2.6 and he went through a stage of barely eating, I kept a food diary and it helped me see a)that he was eating a little and b) the tastes and textures he did like so I could expand on them. Like, if yours like pasta (mine loves it as does the other kiddies in our families) you could try a few new sauces - I make all mine from scratch and they all freeze nicely too :) like, a simple cheese sauce with diced onion and mushroom in, a tomato-based sauce with garlic, diced onion, carrot, courgette and a heap of soft cheese stirred in at the end (a bit like tomato and marscapone sauce), or tomato and lentil; or you could try pesto, mine doesnt like that one much (yet). Lasagne isn't much of a leap from spag bol, mine loves lasagne already, its definately on his preferred meals list! also shepherds pie. Have you tried soup, like leek and potato, tomato, lentil, or butternut squash and carrot? some kids your ones ages might like that with a roll? they'd probably like sausage casserole and mash going by your list too, or try poaching salmon in milk/garlic/herbs, it flakes very nicely next to potato. mines gone off rice so also wont try couscous or bulgar wheat, very annoying... :) I think we'd probably like our kids to like adult type adventurous eating and generally they don't...

That's really not too bad a selection of things they will eat.

Do they help you cook at all? DS is usually quite game to try anything if he's had a hand in cooking it- if he hasn't, new things often get a turned up nose and reluctance to even try it.

I'm not sure you can. Don't want to be too negative. DD eats most things DS was a nightmare. And wanted Pizza every night for his tea. He's a bit better now he's older but there's a lot of things he doesn't eat.

I remember the first week of primary school the Teaching Assistant came racing out into the playground. I thought what has he done! He wasn't eating any of his school dinner. She said he'll have to go on sandwiches. I said he doesn't like bread so that was a bit of a non starter. But the only thing is to have a variety of food available. But it didn't really work with him I'm afraid.

I wouldn't have regrets, either. I think there are plenty babies who eat wild ranges of exotic food who narrow things down as they get older.

To be fair ChopstheScarletduck it was the first time i'd made it. Bless them they did eat most of it as did MIL who we'd intited to dinner.

Hard to believe but i'm the cook of both mine & DH's families!

There was a really great blog I used to read about this mother who got her super fussy son to try vegetables by working her way through the alphabet i.e. A is for Artichoke ... he had to try, was involved in the cooking etc. She ended up with a recipe book deal!

Do you eat out at all? We took DH's fussy cousin aged 8 to a Japanese restaurant called Abeno where they cook on a grill in front of you. He loved it!

I also think that it is reasonable for children to have items that they don't like. Everyone does. But I do think that it is appropriate for them to learn how to act when presented with something that they don't like.