How many different meals will your children eat ?

[KatieDD]

Mine are starting to turn their noses up at old favourites and I'm panicing because at the moment they will all eat :
Spag Bol
Cottage Pie
Steak and Mash (carrot and swede) and baked beans
Fish and chips
Roast dinners (one will only eat meat and potatoes)
Meat balls and pasta sauce.
And that's it, i'm scared to try anything else because it goes to waste, what do other people cook and goes down well.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

As if.

I start coming out with some right silly ideas late at night after a drink don't I?

oh you've been drinking! That explains the insane interesting ideas!

I am trying to think of my staples;

bolognese
turkey,leek and mushroom pie
bacon and bean pasties
cottage pie
chicken korma
roast dinner
stir fry
kedgeree
fish pie
tuna fishcakes
beef stroganoff
a thai inspired meal with minced lamb, basil leaves, oyster sauce etc
lasagne
spinach, green basil pesto and ricotta pasta dish
...and so on

they eat tonnes - and have receptive palates...

But it hasn't always been like this. Oh no! at one time they would eat from a range of only 3 or 4 meals (those were dark days!). I basically did what Dottydot advocates - eat what is put in front of you, you little bleeders or starve. And you know what? - they chose not to starve

Keep the faith. Keep on plugging away at it

God knows.They are offered what I like to cook and if they don't like it, there's nowt else.

So what age do you start saying 'Eat that or there's nothing else'? DS has a fairly limited diet (see my other thread) but he's only 17mo and wouldn't understand that concept at all.

Eats everything put in front of him except potatoes and melted cheese. Last night I made sweet & sour chicken for the first time - he wolfed it down. He is 5.

He was a really fussy baby though and would not eat home cooked food or jars just ate that really disgusting dried food crap !

MegB - from about aged 3 I think....(slightly unfair prior to then)

Any kind of fish
Pasta
Rice

Roast dinner - Chicken, Pork, Beef

Spag Bol

Chicken Korma/Tikka

Pizza

Jacket potatoes

Casseroles/stew and dumpling

Shepherds pie

Kedgeree

Chicken Kiev (homemade even better)

Pie - chicken, mince and onion

Home made pasties

Sweet and sour chicken

Hmm, the only meal Tom really enjoys is shepherds pie. He usually eats mash, carrots, swede and the Morrisons frozen roast potatoes. Meat is a major problem though. He usually eats curly coconut pasta (chicken, broccoli & pasta), but even that can go untouched.

I just offer him it. One day he might eat something new.

He will BexieID - if you persevere. It can take a long, long time

I hope so. Tom is usually good with breakfast - Oatabix, mashed banana and milk. He has refused milk (I breastfed) since just before he was 22 months old in February. It had been suggested by family that he wouldn't eat properly whilst I continued breastfeeding!

He is a very late teether as well. He still has some coming through! He has always been fussy as to what goes in his mouth. Never took to a dummy and would never put anything in his mouth. He will self feed 50% of the time. He loves mini chedders and those organix tomato crisps. Milky way stars and milky bars as a treat.

He hasn't eaten much all weekend, but we think he may have teeth coming through. Drink wise, he has only been drinking out of one of those 2 handled 4m+ cups himself for a couple of months. He does like to play gerbil and have us hold it sometimes. I had tried almost every cup you can buy and he went with these ones in the end, as theres no effort involved!

Re the perseverance. My dd1 refused to eat cucumber and tomato at home literally for 1-2 years. I wasn't bothered as she eats quite a range of foods and I don't think it necessary or fair to insist they eat absolutely everything

Anyway, as I posted earlier, it was finally at nursery she started eating those particular foods. NO exaggeration, she must have been offered them several times a week for months and months before trying them and enjoying them.

I have seen child psychologists on tv saying that for a food to seem familiar (for a young toddler) he/she has to see it at last 20 times.

Lol at "play gerbil" I had to think about that one.

dd2 willl eat anything dd1 is v fussy but varies atm she will eat...
cheesy pasta (with or without brocolli but prefers without)
pizza (has to be plain)
cheese sarnies (also plain)
home made burgers with carrot and cucumber sticks and cherry toms
fish fingers and smiley faces
roast chicken dinner
any sort of fruit or veg
sausage and mash
jaffa cakes
yoghurt
melted icecream
pancakes

Not many that all 3 will eat.

DD will eat most things, there are quite a few things that ds1 will eat that she eats but very few that ds2 eats as well.

Off the top of my head those are:

Roast chicken dinner
Pizza (but have to have two different kinds )
Sausages
Chicken fajitas
Home-made chicken nuggets (sometimes)

Err I think that's it

Quite often I cook something else that I, dh. dd and ds1 will eat. Ds2 has to make do with some toast if he won't eat it!

Chicken fajitas are a great favourite of my dds. There is a new one they have brought our called crispy chicken where you use chicken breast and make your own nuggets with a spicy breadcrumb mix then give them lots of salady bits (peppers, carrot sticks, cucumber, cherry toms) and some nice dips/ salsa to wrap up in the tortillas. Mine love them (and so do all their finicky friends who I seem to feed endlesslessly!)

We eat lots of pasta- my 2 are very partial to pesto (especially the green one recently) again served with a bit of cheese and lots of salad.

They love roast dinners and grilled fish and meats like chicken and lamb (nice with a mint or barbecue marinade)

mine eat what they are given or they don't get fed, simple as that!.

I haven't got the money or the patience for them to dictate what they will or won't eat, only last week DS1 was telling me he wont eat stir fry as it had rice noodles thrown in with it.

HELLO , he eats pot noodles..

Last month he ate parsnips this month he doesn't.

There are some things I know he genuinely dosen't like, that's fair enough, I leave them off or give an alternative but he isn't going to be fussy and I will not be cooking seperate meals.

They pretty much eat anything, they are good eaters part from DS2 it's a struggle to get him to eat anything unless it's pasta, hotdogs and prawns