Annabel Karmel - helpful hints or one big guilt trip?

[Kmg]

Well, I stick by what I said earlier - I found her books great. My younger son couldn't eat dairy products, so had to have a radically different diet from what we would normally eat anyway, and there are loads of other things I wouldn't want a baby eating. It's all very well saying they can eat the same as you, but often they can't. And getting the processor out to blend up one meal is such a hassle. And anyway they want their food luke warm, whereas we want ours hot - but not stewed into oblivion whilst waiting for theirs to cool down ...

Sorry, but I found her book really useful. My boys ate almost exclusively AK 4-10 months, and some later too, (though we have always all eaten all meals together as a family). And they are now better eaters than any other children I have come across.

I might be the only one, but I am a fan!

My son (now 20 months) was a great eater up to 12 months but since independence has kicked in, is a complete fusspot. Jars ruled for a couple of months and then they got ditched so my cooking had to kick in. Annabel K recipes were tried and always spat out with great gusto. Pasta with pesto and baked beans is his staple diet right now. Anyone know how long this will last? Any helpful advice too?

lil - you didn't mention in your shepherds pie/ocean pie idea if you check the ingredients first? some are very high in various additives...thickeners, stabilisers, flsvours and colours.
if you're sure they aren't then that's a great idea!

mgf - don't want to depress you but mine would eat anything until past 2 - his favourite thing was spag bol, shovelled in with both hands.

now (8!!!) he lives on pizza...

well, yes, i'm exaggerating but the only veg he'll eat now is his dad's carrots in garlic butter, or ONE bean, ONE pea etc. the only fruit i can get down him is banana and apple but that alone is a triumph! thank goodness for yogurt/ff as he doesn't drink milk (used to at school but he's a junior now.)(only infants get it.)

the pasta and baked beans sounds good - protein and carbohydrate - and i believe, from what i remember of penelope leach, that beans+toast (or +pasta, presumably) makes what she called first-class protein...how is he with fruit and veg and milk (or yog/ff)? will he eat some of each? because if so, however tedious his diet seems, as long as he eats it he's doing fine. and there's always multi-vitamins to tide him over (saves you worrying quite so much?).

mine is still skinny, but does finally eat more proper food and is filling out a bit; and he is VERY healthy!!!

jac, did you really get through 15 eggs between monday morning and tuesday lunchtime??? and you only have the one chocoholic in the house???

Janh, good point about the additives, I'd forgotten what chemicals they put in preprepared adult food, am so used to organic now. Will check tonight and let you know!!

Don't forget about salt too - there was a baby who died recently after eating 'adult' mashed potato (reconstituted) which had too much salt for babies to eat safely. I suppose the same goes for eating any adult food, home-made or not. At least with giving them home made adult food, you can salt yours afterwards.

Well janh, we actually got given easter eggs from the beginning of last week and we started to let them have them by about Thursday last week as we couldn't hide them anymore! Hubby is the biggest chocoholic, 2 year old quite keen, me and 4 year old are a bit take it or leave it.

Our son, 20 mnths is a great eater - luckily.

However, from time to time, he does go off what seem to be his favourites. I think perhaps I over did them!
Some of the things he loved have included:

Sweet potatoes (lovely nappies)
Apple & Parsnip
Avacado
Weetabix (which he now hates)
Banana
Pear
Carrots (I thought he may turn orange I gave them to home so often)

The Anabel Karmel books do give a few pointers but they are not great & as previously menetioned I am not sure how she has managed to get so many published. I made turkey Meatballs which were horrid.

These days he eats what we eat - well at the moment. If he does not eat as much as I would expect him too, or seems to be fussy I try not to make a fuss & definately do not offer him anything more tasty afterwards such as chocolate or biscuits. I normally leave it and give him plain toast or bread later.

I have a friend whos daughter only eats potatoe waffles and won't try anything new. She says it a nightmare & completely her own fault

I actually saw an Annabel Karmel book in Sainsburys the other day, it was the party food one, has anyone tried it out, and what was it like? The pictures made the food look scrummy, but does it taste nice? I know I'll never get it to look like that.

Thanks v much Janh - although slightly depressing to hear that there are children out there that eat anything you give them! He is great with fruit/veg and milk - particulary bananas, satsumas and grapes and carrots (sometimes!)which I guess gives him loads of vitamins but it would be nice to get a little variety in his life!
Multivitamins are a great idea that I hadn't thought of - can you recommend any in particular?

I worried myself silly about feeding my son once he passed the puree stage, believing myself to be totally useless in the kitchen. I bought jars, but felt guilty about not giving him wholesome home-cooked food, so thought I would give AK's book a try. He happily ate more or less everything I prepared for him from the book, but it would take me 3 times longer than the time stated to cook anything - i could never just rustle something up 20 mins before lunch. I ended up spending my precious evenings cooking huge batches of food to go in the freezer, so that didn't last long.

I have now got over my feelings of guilt and feed him a mixture of jars and whatever we are having (my husband usually feeds him the jars when I work, he being an even worse cook than I am).

To those who have given their kids ready meals and used gravy/cheese granules, etc. at what age were your kids when you started this?

Ailsa, good for you for respecting what your child has said about going veggie. I'm no expert but you may be able to get advice from a nutritionist via your GP, if you want to go strictly by the book. On the other hand, think of the millions of big strong vegetarians out there. Offer your child a wide choice of food including veg sources of protein (pulses)and iron (green veg). Through my littluns' changes of taste and moodswings I've clung to the idea that a healthy child will not starve itself. Oh, and keep the naughty snacks out of the house but spend loads on fruit instead. My GP told me they don't start to worry unless a child is obviously losing weight.

I'm sorry guys but I bought the book & I used it from the very beginning and my son loves the stuff. It is time consumming I agree (and YES I too found a receipe thats supposes to take 15mins to prepare takes about 45!!) However I do a big batch cook and freeze it into meal size portions (Good tip - Use old empty Margarine tubs to freeze as they are so easy to pop the food out of! then I store the poped out portions in those re-useable Zip up freezer bags) Then I either get them out the night before to defrost or just defrost in microwave for 2 mins then full power for 2 mins and all done. My son loves the Fish Mornay & creamy chicken reciepes!! Also The Turkey Balls in Red pepper sauce is great. Even made it for a family dinner when my parents came round. We all ate it - it was lovely. The adults had more meatballs in their portions obviously. Also varied the recipes abit - The Chicken finger balls were nice & I made some balls from Pork mince with grated apple, carrott and other chopped veg like the receipe and froze them too.

On a final note......I have to admit I like the book and have found it helpful but I just take the info I like & dismiss her flowery bits of smoked salmon and other such pie in the sky ideas. But I do agree about the time consuming points 100%. Also fed my son Jar food if we were out and about - he loved jars too and they have good wholesome ingredients as well.

Another thing to mention is the 'Blue Parrott Cafe' range from sainsbury's - BRILLIANT READY & CONVIENT FOOD which has had all the ingredients, salt levels & additives checked for you!! The sheppherds pie is a big favorite of my son's I normally chop it in half whilst frozen to make 2 portions and that way he doesn't have to have it 2 days running etc.

Giz, I have looked at some of the ingredients on the BPC range, and if some of the things aren't additives then what are they? On their cod fish cakes - I would expect the ingredients to be Cod, potato, seasoning and breadcrumbs. Their ingredient list was as long as your arm with mono this and modified that..... What does it all mean, and if these things aren't additives then what are they???

Message withdrawn

hi, again, mgf!!!

superdrug and tesco both do kids multivits in a teddy shape with fruit flavouring. my son doesn't like either but dislikes the tesco less than the superdrug!

I ordered AK's Party planner book over the net and am slightly horrified by it. I was just looking for a bit of inspiration beyond jelly and sandwiches but it is full of incredibly elaborate constructions of sausages made to look like aeroplanes and mini rolls made into robots etc etc. And as for her suggestions for themes and games, I was exhausted just by reading about them. Full of bizarre tips too such as if you're holding a party for children aged 2 or younger, invite the parents as well!. Also not helped by endless pictures of her looking thin and immaculate in a tight white dress. Does anybody really hold children's parties like the ones in her book??.

I read on the weekend that she started writing these books after the death of her first child. It made me rather less willing to criticise her, somehow.

It was just the mere suggestion of coping with a dozen or so under 2's without thir parents present that I found so amazing!. Actually, SueW for our son's impending 2nd birthday, we are going for the option of an adult based bbq with a children's birthday tacked on. So the emphasis will be definitely on lots of beer, wine and hearty steaks rather than elaborate teddy bear shaped nibbles....

Bells, we recently had an excellent party for our 2 year old son which featured a huge pile of veggie sticks and hummus, mini organic jam tarts from the Blue Parrot Cafe range (a big success and very tasty), cartons of fruit juice from AK's endorsed M & S range for kids, big bowl of strawbs and a lot of wine for the grown-ups. Preparation time = approximately 30 mins. Most of it got eaten too, even by some of our little guests who claimed to be "allergic to salad" etc (not the 2s, these were some supposed older role models). The day was saved for them by my mother, who smuggled in a jumbo-sized bag of Quaver packets...
My solution was to get moderately plastered beforehand. And we had been tipped off by kind friends with older children that if you have their parents there, THEY have to change/hose down/manacle their little dears, not you. Worth a few bottles of bianco di custoza I feel. Good luck.

I LOVE Annabel Karmel's cook books. Both my children eat the stuff I make from them and my hubbie loves the shepherd's pie. Admittedly, it takes ages to make stuff, but I'm a loony - I love cooking!

My children won't eat those ready meals that are designed for them. My son just looks at the M&S children's meals like they're something from Venus. I suppose I should be chuffed that my children like their Mummy's cooking.

I do cook normal foods but occasionally I dig into an AK recipe. Her muffins are fabbo!

My son likes her recipes too, Ive got some to cook up and freeze tomorrow. There was one he didnt like, I think it was californian chicken, dogs liked it though.

if anyone can help me on this one I'll be grateful forever. I have always had a pretty poor relationship with food. I'm not that interested in cooking, don't care much for food. when I was a student I would make a huge pan of something - bean stew - and eat it for breakfast and dinner every day till it ran out, then I'd move on...

Plus, I am a recovering vegan - 12 years of no animal products now I have no idea how to cook anything that once moved.

Anyway, the point is, I think I did a good job weaning my son - all (well, mostly) home-cooked - carrot, brocolli, blah blah blah, no problem, then he turned 14 months, we moved, we stayed in a hotel for a while - no 'proper' food - new baby. Now he won't eat. I've been to the hv & the doc - they just say it's a power struggle & don't worry. He used to only eat dry bread, bananas, plain yoghurt & weetabix. Now he won't touch bananas or yoghurt, but will now eat fromage frais.

There is now only 4lbs difference in weight between my 2 children. I blame myself that my poor eating habits & detestation of the kitchen have created this problem. Maybe he's a normal toddler. I don't know. I wouldn't mind spending forever in the kitchen - but what do you do with the children then??

I'd really love to help my son eat well. I'm trying really hard now to show a good example, but is it too late? How do I help him

All ideas seriously considered.

Hi Bo,

Don't panic. My little boy goes through food fads like this. He used to havethe exact same diet as your little one, then he went off everything except the bread (toasted with Vegemite!) I just kept trying him on a range of stuff and found that his new fad was mandarins, corn on the cob, blueberries and egg custard! Whenever he goes off something that used to be a dead cert, I panic and wonder what he will eat now, but it doesn't take long to find him a new favourite if you keep trying a bit of everything.

With Tom, if we seemed stressed or concerned that he wasn't eating....he ate even less or not at all. If we pretended we didn't mind whether he ate or not, he was much keener to eat. Also, he usually wants to taste what we're eating, so we always have little bits of stuff cut up on the sides of our plates in case he wants to try it. He's particularly keen on fish (including smoked salmon and shellfish!), sausages and carrots at the moment and helps himslef to apples from the fruit basket!

Tom's been like this forever and is now 26 months, eats a wide range of foods (not usually at once though!) and is smack in the middle of the appropriate weight range for his age (he started off below the range completely!)

Don't panic and remember that it is very rare for a child to starve themselves to death!