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Food/recipes

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Original poster

"As long as my kid has a balanced diet, why should I care if it is varied?"

50 replies

NotQuiteCockney · 13/03/2006 13:23

That's what my BIL in law said to me the other day. I honestly didn't know what to say! I thought a varied interesting diet (and an open mind about food) was obviously a good thing.

Am I on my own here?

OP posts:

Heathcliffscathy · 13/03/2006 14:20

isn't it about trying them on anything and everything as you have a window until they are around 3 by which time their taste will have been 'set'....

i find best way to do that is to have something myself...ds invariably wants to try and more often than not, eat most of it!

agree with not making it a massive deal though and counting lucky if you're getting good enough food into them.

GDG · 13/03/2006 14:29

Agree with eating something yourself sophable - we've got the boys onto so many things by eating something different ourselves as they always want to try it.

Not sure about their taste being set by 3 - ds1 is just coming up to 5 and his taste has become quite a lot broader over the last year and he's added quite a few things to what he'll eat. The funniest things set him off aswell - he was never a fan of cheese until seeing 'A Grand Day Out', the Wallace and Grommit film and now he has cheese and seeded crackers every night when he gets in from school!

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 13/03/2006 14:36

sophable, I thought the window closed earlier than that. I find 1.5 years to 3 to be a bad period for food.

My DS1 is 4.5 now, and will eat nearly everything, or at least try it. I can take him to any restaurant, and he will eat something. (Not sure about sushi.)

DS2 (17 months) will mostly just eat carbs at the moment, but we do offer balanced interesting food, and hope for the best.

OP posts:

Mercy · 13/03/2006 14:38

GDG, my sounds like your ds. She's 5 next month and also now eats a wider variety of food, although she was pretty good beforehand. Still not sure about cheese but will now eat broccoli

blueshoes · 13/03/2006 14:42

Is there a window for tastes to set? I don't think so - along with the "if you don't get that child out of your bed by 6 months, you never will" school. I was a fussy eater as a child - because my parents made such an issue about food.

I only enjoyed food when I left home. Will eat anything now. And cook almost all meals from scratch. Dd won't have any of that though

harpsichordcarrier · 13/03/2006 14:55

no I don't think so either blueshoes
dh came to college with very conservative tastes - nothing spicy or exotic etc. now he eats most things.

iota · 13/03/2006 14:56

I am hoping the 'window' will open when ds1 gets to double figures....so far he was a good eater as a baby abd became very picky when he was about 3 - he's now 6 and it's a v slow process

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 13/03/2006 16:18

I'm not suggesting it's the end of the world if a kid doesn't see everything, goodness knows! But my BIL seemed to think there was no point in even trying to encourage your child to be openminded about food.

Of course, now I'm wondering what sort of food rules he has.

OP posts:

Blandmum · 13/03/2006 16:25

The things you can afford to be relativly 'relaxed' over are the protiens and carbohydrates. So It doesn't matter that much if your child will not eat , say, lamb, since protein is protein is protein, regardless of where it comes from. And while it is intereting for you child to eat starches from a range of sources, it doesn't really matter if they refuse, say, rice as long as they get their starches from somewhere.

Fruit and veg you need a range of colours to make sure you get all the range of nutients. But if they will eat peas, I wouldn't lose sleep if they refuse green beans IYSWIM

Rhubarb · 13/03/2006 16:30

We're lucky to have such a varied choice. Even when I was a kid, our main diet was potatoes and canned veg with corned beef and eggs. But I've grown up to love all sorts of food!

I don't suppose it does really matter so long as they are healthy. I don't really think it will affect them when they are older. I'm sure there are those children who had lots of interesting things to eat that are now as fussy as hell.

Blandmum · 13/03/2006 16:34

And just because they start well, doesn't mean that they will stay that way.

I was the smug bitch mummy from hell after weaning dd who would (and still will ) eat anything. 'Wean them well', I smugly thought' And they will be good eaters'

And then I was blessed with ds, weaned the same way who was the chicken nugget kid, for quite a while. He is getting better now. FWIW, as long as the kids eat a reasonable range, I wouldn't die in a ditch over this one

Rhubarb · 13/03/2006 16:38

I knew a NCT member (hope she doesn't come on here!) who went into a rant everytime someone tried to blame fussy eaters on processed babyfood or no variation. She claimed that she cooked everything for her kids and gave them a brilliant varied diet but it all went wrong when they were toddlers and she had no idea why.

Then I went to her house once for lunch, she was making spicy lentil soup. Her ds (then 3) kicked up a fuss saying that he wouldn't eat orange soup, he wanted white soup. So what did she do? She opened a tin of chicken soup just for him!

I wonder why they were so fussy?
Oh and her teenage son refuses to eat anything except potatoes, bread, pizza and other starch based things. No fruit, no veg. She panders to him obviously!

Rhubarb · 13/03/2006 16:39

Perhaps our children have too much choice these days?

How many parents ask their kids what they want for lunch/tea/supper? We just got whatever was cooking!

Blandmum · 13/03/2006 16:46

We always had a choice, Rhubarb

Eat it or leave it! I offer the same choice to my two

I also worry that people think that every meal has to be a culinary 'creation'. there is nothing wrong with meat and two veg. (as long as you are not veggie )

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 13/03/2006 17:02

Other people ask their kids what they want for dinner? Really? I just make it and serve it. DS1 might get asked, "do you want rice or pasta with this", and then I'll cook what he wants, but for everyone. It's pretty rare that he gets any say at all, though.

OP posts:

Blandmum · 13/03/2006 17:06

and at the end, what fruit would yu like?

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 13/03/2006 17:09

Oh, yeah, he gets some choice for afters sometimes. Fruit or yogurt, what kind of fruit, sure.

The thing is, if he could pick, we would have Nigel Slater's sausage pasta every night!

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harpsichordcarrier · 13/03/2006 18:13

yeah mb my dd1 was a fantastic eater until she was about 2 - I mean she ate everything in huge quantities. sometimes I still say to her, wistfully - well you used to eat kiwi fruit/potato/butternut squash/lentils/couscous and she looks at me in utter disbelief
hard to believe it myself sometimes

Blandmum · 13/03/2006 18:17

Glad I am not the only one this has happened to, HSC.

Nightynight · 13/03/2006 19:17

If you have a family history of food allergies (rare, I know!), it is a good idea to keep the diet varied. If you are hammering your system 3 times a day with the same foods, those are the ones you may become allergic to.

harpsichordcarrier · 13/03/2006 19:29

that's interesting nighty night because I am allergic to bananas now and they were my staple dietwhen I was a child

Mercy · 13/03/2006 19:47

Harpsichord and Martian, same here. ds fantastic eater (variety and quantity) then he got to around 18 months - personality transplant I think.

dd will give most things a try but still has fairly long standing likes & dislikes. I find it weird that she will eat feta, mild goats cheese and Boursin but not cheddar. She insisted on trying cheese strings recently but after 2 attempts gave up. Hurray!

GDG · 13/03/2006 20:03

same here - all mine ate all sorts of things as babies and young toddlers as I made most food from scratch. Ds1 ate lasagne with no problems but it's a nightmare trying to get him to eat it now. Ds2 has turned out the same. Ds3 will eat anything and when I see him wolfing it down it makes me think how great it is if your kids are good eaters - so much less stressful.

Original poster

NotQuiteCockney · 13/03/2006 21:02

I do think there's a period where all kids are dreadful about food. My DS2 is 17 months, and would happily live on bananas and cereal.

When he's around 3, I'll start expecting him to try whatever's put in front of him, and be a bit more difficult with him. For now, I make sure to offer a wide range of food, and not stress about it.

OP posts:

Bozza · 14/03/2006 11:28

Just got back to this. I tried when weaning mine to give them as wide a range of food as possible. Most children seem to go through a fussy stage where they reject certain foods (and initially this might not just be on taste - texture, appearance etc) so I thought the wider range of tastes they had the further they had to go to reject so much that they end up with a limited diet.

I agree DS who is just turned 5 seems to be past the worst in terms of fussiness. And is also much more open to try things in a reasoned kind of way - "just eat one mouthful" - turn to deal with DD and he's scoffed the lot quite often. He is also much less obnoxious at meal times. Thankfully. DD who is 22 months would probably be termed a "good eater" but a lot of it depends on her mood/inclinations that day and her appetite is definitely less than DS's was at that age but she is a smaller child altogether.

But I could definitely take them into a pub or English/French/Chinese/Italian/Indian restaurant and have done in the last 12 months and they have eaten happily and well. And often better than at home because they enjoy the novelty factor.

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