Chicken Nuggets

[aardonpardonwenttothegarden]

So this is irritating me a lot. DH and I are working professionals. We don't have a cleaner and send our DS to nursery 5 days a week. It's hectic for me with all the house work and office work and stress and looking after everyone. DH does his fair share (dishes/ hoovering) but I'm the main caregiver.

When DS is home he eats proper home cooked meals. He's tried chicken nuggets before when he was about 1.5 years but doesn't like them since. For context he's turning 3 soon. I casually mentioned that DS needs to eat/ try chicken nuggets before his birthday party. He's hardly ever had them and I've noticed whenever he's at birthday parties he never eats the food there, most times it's nuggets , or pizza. And then demands food immediately afterwards as soon as we get in the car.

So my DH went, he doesn't need to eat processed food. I said okay so what about bread , etc he said yes let's not give him that. Then he added something on BBC that most suppliers don't know where their chicken comes from. I said well okay let's become poultry farmers and breed chickens and then we will know for sure. His mood went off and so did mine.

AIBU to introduce him nuggets for one off parties / occasions.

Also, I've introduced him to pizza and he used to dislike the thought / sight of pizza earlier but now slowly he gets excited about it. I got him (and he ate) pizza for the first time at NYE.

Of course YANBU! My kids had turkey dinosaurs today because DH nicked their homemade chicken soup! We always have oven food on standby in the freezer because life happens, and it's nice for kids to have something different. Not every meal needs to be a perfect 10.

My DD has never eaten a chicken nugget and hates bread/ pizza. Parties have never been a problem, shes always just ran around having fun and eating party rings.

I don’t think it’s essential or a big deal either way! We never have chicken nuggets or any other frozen processed food and my kids love it all when they get it elsewhere. It’s not a bad thing if he never gets a taste for them though. I make my own pizza and regular take away pizza makes one of mine feel sick. I wouldn’t be a fan of it myself - it’s fine.

Never met a kid who didn’t like KFC nuggets but I suppose they exist. In my experience not all kids like McD/Burger king or similar, or standard shop bought frozen nuggets but KFC ones hook them in. One of my kids couldn’t eat solid food for a long time (medical issues), and they wouldn’t look twice at a typical nugget but they would suck and suck on the KFC ones🤣. Another of mine would happily eat any nuggets but only if they were absolutely plastered in tomato sauce. Another only if they had aioli to dip them in. You get the picture.

Probably dumb question but have you tried home made nuggets? I don’t disagree with your DH as to importance of origin of your food. Our kids only got KFC nuggets/McD etc on ‘special occasions’ including other kids birthdays in party rooms. At home we would use free range, ethical chicken from a source we were happy with, and just cut tenders or breast into chunks, crumb them and chuck in oven. Was quick and was often used as busy working parents.

I’ve never seen nuggets at a child’s party but feed your child whatever you want. I don’t understand why people are so precious about it all which causes far more issues.

I got him (and he ate) pizza for the first time at NYE

What about homemade pizza? I found they were all really enthused about pizza if I did little single serve and they got to ‘make’ their own putting the toppings they wanted on from a selection. As they age they get more adventurous with toppings.

My son lived on chicken nuggets and bananas until he was three!! He is now a very high achieving adult and eats food that I could have only dreamed of !

My eldest was never a fan of nuggets, and doesn't like pizza with a lot of cheese. So she used to have a couple of chips at parties, shed loads of sweets and then I would give her a proper dinner when she got home. Wouldn't worry about it to be honest

You could make your own then both you and Dh are happy? I use flour, egg and panko (sometimes add spices to the panko mix). My kids prefer the home made version and I know there’s no crap in there. I make loads then freeze what we don’t use.

I really don’t think you need to ween your child onto chicken nuggets just so that he will eat them at the occasional party. That seems like a fairly odd thing to do.

Your husband is right that they are full of junk. He’s right about shop brought bread too.

I don't see what it matters. Mine likes chicken nuggets and will eat them at home. But at parties it always seems to be pizza, cocktail sausages and sausage rolls. He eats none of it and is always hungry after. He just has dinner at home afterwards. I don't see the problem.

I don't understand the big deal tbh.
He's 3 and doesn't like chicken nuggets. That's fine! Our child didn't like meat (apart from minced) until she was 4.
I don't understand about the introduction to your post either re working professionals, cleaner and you do the housework and he's at nursery has to do with chicken nuggets either.
Unless I'm totally missing the point of the post!

To be honest I think your reasons are weird.

He doesn't like chicken nuggets, so what? Why are you making it into this all important thing that he 'must' like them because of birthday parties? I've never seen a child's party spread that had only nuggets to eat and nothing else. And anyway, parties are 2 hours long, if he doesn't eat the food then feed him afterwards.

Thanks everyone.

I know it's not a big deal about missing out on chicken nuggets (we've tried Birds Eye brand and mc Donald's and M&S breaded chicken as well) He wouldn't even touch them.

It's not just about chicken nuggets for me right now. He's always running around and playing at the party. He gets upset when he has to sit down and eat like ALL his age group are doing. Except him. And I struggle to even get one bite down.

And he'll get mad in the car after 15 minutes that why I don't have food for him. I also took some of the party food couple of nuggets and some fries once in the car with me and he ate 3 fries 🍟 and slept (tired of all the playing) - and that's what is motivating me to introduce him to fries (he likes) and nuggets so he knows it's not alien food.

As PP has suggested I'll do a homemade one next weekend with him.

We make our own. My daughter has allergies so packed ones are off the menu. She doesn't eat much at parties and the only bits of the food provided she can eat is the cucumber and carrots sticks. I have to take a packed lunch for her.
She loves the chicken nuggets we make and they are very little extra effort to making non breaded chicken. Slice a chicken breast on the small side dip in (oat) milk and then dip in shop bought panko bread crumbs. Shallow fry. They cook in about 5 minutes. We only buy high welfare or grain/corn fed chicken as my daughter is very sensitive to soya and can't have meat from soya fed animals.

I would probably just take a mini packed lunch with me for the journey home if I knew there's a slim chance of them eating the food at a party

Some kids don’t like to eat at parties because they’re excited from running around. I have one of these; she had her first party ring last week aged 6.5 which tells you how much attention she pays to a buffet spread. Pushing nuggets because they might be served at parties is a really odd thing to do! I wouldn’t even say they’re particularly common at parties, you get a lot more cheese sandwiches (which both of mine hate). A birthday party is typically max 2 hours and it’s usually 50:50 whether or not they’re over a meal time anyway. It doesn’t need this much headspace. Make sure they’ve eaten before, encourage coming to the table to sit with friends even if they just have a drink, they have to sit to sing happy birthday and make sure you have a snack for afterwards.

Also if you are really insistent on the nugget thing- break them in half when you offer so they can see there’s nothing suspect lurking under the batter. That’s what got mine eating them! I had a pretty good reason to do this though when we were stuck for 8 hours in an particularly grim American regional airport that had only 2 food outlets- Starbucks (which sold out of sandwiches at 11.30 am) and Chick-Fil-A. Or maybe they were just starving hungry and there was quite literally nothing else? 🤣Anyway she now eats nuggets!

My daughter loves chicken. Roast chicken, chicken grills, chicken tenders, popcorn chicken, KFC etc. She doesn't like chicken nuggets.
It seems very odd for you to want him to eat them because of parties. There should be plenty of other food there. A lot of children don't eat at parties anyway.

its totally fine not to like chicken nuggets. My kids don’t like them (they do eat fish fingers, pizza and fries though!). Parties are never an issue, there is more than just nuggets, and sometimes they barely eat at parties anymore.

I really think this is a non-issue OP. my son is two and a half and has never eaten at parties bar a couple of crisps. He doesn't like things that seem to be standard kid far: pizza, sausage rolls, chopped fruit. Take a sandwich or something he likes for afterwards. It doesn't matter at all.

some kids don't eat at parties they are too overwhelmed with everything that's probably why he's "raging hungry:" when he gets back he doesn't have to eat chicken nuggets he's tried them doesn't like them its not a huge deal.

1 of mine didn't like pizza or sausage rolls , she would usually have some. crisps and a biscuit at a party.

This is really weird. Stop trying to push processed shit food onto your kid, especially as he doesn’t even like it. Just take a lunch box with food he does like with you to parties.

If you keep pushing processed food on him, are you then going to be frustrated when that’s all he’ll eat in a couple years and refuses real food?! The diet in the UK is bad enough. You don’t need to worsen your child’s food habits from the start.

Sounds like your husband is demonising certain foods which is never really helpful. It's fine for a kid to each chicken nuggets now and again at a birthday party - what does he think is going to happen?

It's important to give children a healthy diet but if you tell them that all processed food is wrong (including bread) you'll be are on the right road to encouraging an eating disorder when they're older.

Everything in moderation. I think it needs a conversation with your husband about your approaches to this.