fussy four year old - how to make her eat meat and fish?

[Woollymummy]

Please, please, how have you succeeded to make a veggie childe eat meat? She eats spaghetti sauce with beef, but not actual meat or fish cooked plainly. I want her to grow! She managed to eat tiny scraps of tuna as long as they were wrapped invisibly in bread today, some progress. Any tips willingly accepted.

watching with interest. DS is someone a 4 yo italian vegetarian (sigh)
He will eat ham as he doesn't know it comes from an animal.
He is tiny.

She was fine when younger, ate anything, even octopus stew! The problem is I am very unadventurous cook, and DP is often away and so she slipped into dreadfully conventional easy food habits and got older, wiser and more suspicious. Watching Serena Williams win persuaded her to nibble a tiny piece of chicken, and eat some lamb stew, but I want to get her eating like a normal person, not relying on celebrities/fairy stories/mermaid aspirations.....

You can grow without eating meat and fish

Vegetarian children 'grow' just fine! Don't force her. Educate yourself on how to provide her with a good variety of vegetarian options, and she will thrive.

www.veganparent.com - yes, aimed primarily at vegans, but should satisfy your needs re plant-based nutrition (www.veganparent.com/?q=node/66), and meal ideas.

A child can grow very well on a vegetarian diet. Eggs, beans, lentils, chickpeas, cheese and other dairy products are all good sources of protein. My dds were big fans of peanut butter too. Meat and fish are not essential.

Also she is eating some meat anyway. Maybe she just prefers it with a sauce to give it a bit of flavour.

Dd1 was the tallest child in her year until she was 15 - she has never eaten meat or fish.

Yuk! If my mum had sneaked dead flesh into my meals I'd have been pretty pissed off.

A vegetarian diet is perfectly healthy and probably more healthy than one with meat. You just need to learn to cook well with beans, pulses, nuts etc. There's a whole world out there.

Why force her to eat anything? You wouldn't force her to eat chocolate so why make her eat meat. No-one needs to eat meat - there are plenty of other good plant and animal-based sources of protein - beans, eggs, cheese, milk, nuts etc.

You could try cooking one pot meals and offer the veg but not the meat. She will get used to the flavor to start with. Chicken does not have a strong flavor and usually falls appart when cooked for soem time. For as long as she is happy and is not affecting her health, dont worry! If you get stressed about this she will pick on it and might even play up to it. Have fun!

My brother was accidentally veggie as a child. Once we discovered that he enjoyed sausages, everthing from a pork chop to a fishcake was a 'sausage'. Problem solved :) Just keep persevering by adding chopped up meat & fish to various dishes. Her health won't suffer in the meantime.

DD does not eat a lot of meat, never has. She prefers veg and dairy products.

I never forced her or tried to get her to eat meat.

If you start food battles now, then it is a very difficult habit to break.

And don't hide meat/fish. My mum did that and I found out and refused to eat her "chicken pie" that was actually tuna. Never ate it again.

She will grow fine. What else does she eat?

i know you can grow well without eating meat or fish but you usually need some kind of protein from somewhere. As DS lives mainly on bread i would like him to eat some meat / fish with it and maybe even a vegetable. He would eat cheese bu tnot beans, eggs, milk, nuts or lentils. If he did manage nonmeat protein instead i'd be less worried.

But there's protein in most foods. Things like brown rice, oats, quinoa & soya are good as well as fruit and veg such as artichokes, peas, courgettes, potatoes, peppers, apples, bananas & even cucumbers and of course seeds. If you eat a balanced diet, most people will consume enough protein with or without meat/ fish/ dairy products.

You can whizz many high protien foods up into a sauce for pasta etc.

I just don't see the need to force a child to eat something they really don't want.

DD doesn't eat them much either.. I think she would mostly happily exist on fruit, veg, and dairy! She will eat the odd sausage, Fish Fingers (always get the best ones that are filed with what they say on the packet!)

But she is happy with cottage cheese and carrot sticks. She is quite robust and a bundle of energy (at 7)

"I just don't see the need to force a child to eat something they really don't want."

It's not forcing, more encouraging. Some children don't eat vegetables and it's quite socially acceptable to hide them in sauces etc. If you're an omnivorous family and want an unfussy child that has a broad palate, encouraging them to eat meat and fish is no different.

My DS1 is not that keen on meat, but he's just starting to eat more. I can remember not liking meat much at that age - I found it tough and chewy. My mum would encourage me to eat little bits with veg and potatoes on the fork at the same time. It worked, as I now like meat quite a lot. I'm taking the same approach with DS1.

For what it's worth, DS1 loves tuna and seetcorn sandwiches, tuna and sweetcorn baked potato, salmon steak, spag bol, shepherd's pie anc chicken. I think that if he eats these well, the eating of the plain meat will probably come later.

Don't make her eat something she doesn't want to. It WILL make it worse.

I was very similar to your dd from weaning onwards. I refused both meat and fish - it was not a conscious decision on my part. I just don't like the taste of it.

I was supremely fussy as a child - my mother had a terrible time getting me to eat ANYTHING new. I was too clever for her hiding tactics too. Apparently made her life a misery . She took me to a dietician who actually told her that I had had one of the heathiest diets she had seen in a child. So then she started to relax and let me eat what I wanted. Happier everyoe all round.

I got better over time with new foods and am still vegetarian with a very very healthy diet. It's really not so bad being vegetarian. As long as she eats a balanced diet including iron, protein etc there is no real issue.
Plus everyone more or less caters for vegetarians quite well these days.

FWIW my son is also very fussy about meat and will ony eat a bit of fish.
Doesn't bother me. He was a huge baby at birth and is still a big stong healthy lad now!!

OP didn't ask if veggie children 'grow' properly; what she asked was how could she entice her DC to eat meat. Die hard veggies, look away.
Have you tried a slow cooked beef stew with tons of sauteed onions, chunks of sweet potatoes, carrots and couple of tins of tomatoes? The whole thing will be so tender and meat would be almost 'melted' if cooked long and slow.
Also, diced chiken breast, pan fried with lots of diced and browned onions, some sauteed mushrooms and covered with dash of white wine (the alcohol will evaporate) and cream, let simmer and serve over noodles.
Another favourite is chicken breasts with skin on, wedges of butternut squash and some sliced red onions: drizzle with olive oil and balsamic, a bit sweet paprika and in the oven to brown.

rollmops that is true but it was also insinuated that veggie kids were worse off.

The OP said she wanted her child to grow. Could be that her little girl is on the small side because her meat & fish-free diet lacks sufficient calories and nutrition. Doesn't mean that all vegetarian children are worse off.

I really cant see why you would be lacking nutrients. You just eat different food to make it up.

My dd loves watching Katie I can cook on CBeebies and several times has asked if we can make those things ... maybe worth a try???