Talk to Fish is the Dish about seafood and child nutrition - £200 voucher prize draw NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Fish is the Dish want to talk to Mumsnetters to see how they, if at all, they incorporate fish into their child's diet.

Here's what Fish is the Dish have to say, "Our latest research has revealed that future good health is what we want more for our children than anything else. One of the best things we can do to help our children achieve good health now is to provide them with, and encourage them to eat, a healthy, balanced diet. Fish of all sorts provides great nutritional value to the diet of children. For example, all types of fish including white, oily and shellfish, are excellent sources of protein and vitamin B12. Plus, many varieties such as cod, haddock, coley, crab and mussels are also rich in iodine, which contributes to the normal growth of children."

So, do you like fish? Is fish something you like eat with your children? Are you aware of the health benefits that incorporating seafood into your diet brings? If you're not a fan of seafood are there other foods you deliberately try to include into your and your DCs diets to make sure that they get all the nutrients they need? If you are a fan, what's your favourite fish or seafood recipe?

Everyone who adds their thoughts to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £200 seafood voucher which can be spent on seafood from Wings of St Mawes which will be delivered to you. To read more about Fish is the Dish and Mumsnet click here.

Thanks
MNHQ

[WowOoo]

I love fish and seafood. We all do.
I like the feeling that it's filling but not heavy. It feels healthy to me.
I'm amazed my kids will eat stinky kippers, sushi and more chewy things like octopus and squid. They love it when I buy a whole fish and grill it with the head on. (they like the teeth)
So many favourites - I love lobster, moules mariniere, sole, shrimps and crab. I sometimes get an urge for anchovies in vinegar. Very moreish.
I love fish soup - I've adapted some French and Italian recipes to make my own version.

We sometimes make sushi and sashimi - but far less often as it works out pricey (still cheaper than Yo Sushi!)

More usually I'll buy whatever is fresh and reasonable. I make a fish pie once a fortnight. I'll do some other fish dish twice a week.
I'm feeling hungry now...

[JollySantersSelectionBox]

I started giving DS fish at a very young age, his first proper meals were usually a fish and potato pie or poached fish in tomato sauce.

Since he could talk we always stop at the fresh or frozen fish counter and look at all the different types of fish. DS is fascinated by them, particularly crustaceans, and loves to try new types of fish when we see them.

Probably doesn't help that DH is a diver, and I spent nearly every childhood weekend fishing with my grandfather! This also means that I am quite confident around fresh fish. I know that sounds daft but I am happy to gut and fillet a sea bass for example, and am quite expert at deboning. I think this puts a lot of people off fish, and as a child finding a fish bone can be quite panicky and upsetting.

However, there is plenty of choice for filleted fish these days so I think it is easier than ever to incorporate fish in the diet, and if you buy frozen - cheaper than ever. Frozen fish also defrosts really quickly and easily, much better than meat. In our usual week we eat fish at least twice, sometimes up to four times:

Homemade fish cakes with potato and canned or poached salmon.
Frozen mussels with crusty French bread is one if DS8 fave meals
Tuna, pasta and pesto salad in lunch boxes
Cheesy fish bake (any white frozen fish on offer, poached and mixed with a white sauce, Sweetcorn, peas and topped with mash.
Salmon in tinfoil parcels with soya, chili sauce and ginger.
Prawn and mayo or fish finger sandwiches at the weekend.
Crab sticks with a cocktail sauce dip for Sat tv viewing.

DS and I are having a go at homemade sushi in the holidays as he finds the shapes and colours really appealing. We'll start with simple tuna mayo combinations at first and build up more fish if it's a success.

If not we'll keep going to our local sushi restaurant as the conveyor belt novelty hasn't worn off yet (and DS eats healthily without even thinking about it.)

[jonicomelately]

My fish pie is epic. I like fish and so do my kids but I have to admit we don't eat enough of it. I think the problem is it's very expensive.

[MakeTeaNotWar]

I'm pescetarian so eat plenty of fish. Luckily the DCs like it too. I do tuna pasta bake, baked salmon fillets, baked sea bass, fish pie and DS aged 1 loves smoked mackerel. DH is a butcher so we have a good balance between meat and fish days. We do sometimes have fish finger sandwiches for lunch. Most recent discovery was salmon fish fingers - lovely!

[ouryve]

We eat quite a lot of fish, but the boys aren't keen on shellfish. I also won't eat tiger prawns after watching a thing where their eyes were pulled off to make them lay eggs. I stick with the wild type of prawn if I'm making myself something for lunch, or perhaps in a curry. The small ones are so much tastier and nicer in texture, anyhow.

I made a rather nice and simple dish, last night, with some frozen cod fillets, a spoonful of jarred tomato and basil sauce on top of each one, then a layer of breadcrumbs, cheese and parsley all mixed together and dumped on top.

The boys are set up better for the morning by a high protein breakfast. They get bored of eggs and i don't like giving them bacon, that often, as it's salty and they already eat too much cured meat for my liking. So, they get fish finger sarnies for breakfast, a couple of times a week! I figured that it's no different to having kippers, but less smelly!

[wokeupwithasmile]

Love fish. My son is not even one but seems to have taken from me on this. He especially loves salmon, but likes prawns as well. I am aware of the heath benefits of eating fish, and given that I do not eat meat and I do not give it to him that often, I am also careful to add it to his meals to give him good proteins. In my family good fish is cooked very simply, with parsley and olive oil, or origano. Sometimes I cook it in the oven with black olives, capers and tomato sauce, but I'd rather taste the fish than all the other ingredients.

[NumNumChristmasPudInMyTum]

I like fish, my family are not so keen. The main problem is - it's often expensive, difficult to know if supermarket fish is really fresh and because of those reasons, it's not something I experiment with much. I tend to stick to white fish and make things like fish pie or fishcakes. My children will eat salmon or fishfingers or battered fish but I haven't really pushed them to try anything else. I find that at the moment, I am struggling to prepare a lot of meals from scratch and so anything that requires extra preparation is unattractive to me. I also have a horror of eating a bone after enthusiastically eating a fish curry once and swallowing a few - very uncomfortable. I'd like to experiment and try more but I think I am put off by cooking it myself - I'd rather try it at a restaurant first.

[manfalou]

We love fish! DS will eat fish pie... granted not home made ones but the kiddies ones that 'Little Dish' do. Im happy with that as I actually have no clue on how to make it! DF and I Love fish! Salmon is our favourite and we like it either grilled on the george forman or baked with 5 spice, soy sauce and honey glaze on top. Ds used to like eating grilled salmon but has decided he doesn't like it anymore. Typical 3 year old attitude of loving something one day and hating it the next.

I love tinned salmon so will have that on sandwiches and DS loves tuna sandwiches (favourite sandwich filling) so will have that twice a week.

[ladygoingGaga]

I enjoy fish and eat it at least twice a week, if not 3. I am aware of the health benefits in relation to it being high in essential fats like Omega 3 and good for brain development, and the fact it's a healthier option for me is a bonus!

My son loves fish finger sandwiches as a snack. He likes salmon too, and I often make some sort of pasta dish with it.

He won't try anything like cockles or mussels yet, but I'm working on it!

[tarantula]

We all like fish but can't afford to eat it very often as it is very expensive and seems to be going up in price hugely.
If my parents take us out for dinner then dd and I will often have sea bass or bream to share. For my birthday dinner dp will often cook trout with lemon and herbs and serve it with new pots and asparagus cooked in oliveoil, chilli, garlic and parmesan...heaven in a dish and a serious treat.
On a more everyday level we eat tuna 2-3 times a month and have fish pie about the same. dd often has salmon when we eat chilli or curry. We also love smoked mackerel, plain or in fishcakes.
We all love kippers for breakfast too and this a extra special once in a while weekend treat as the price has shot up in recent years.
When we go on hols (camping) we always try to get freshly caught mackerel to cook over the fire, can't get better tbh.
We like most people are operating on a small budget and tbh fish is too expensive esp as most needs to be bought fresh and cooked asap and thus doesn't really lend itself to meal planning.

[JacqueslePeacock]

I'm allergic to fish and we are bringing up DC vegetarian, so no! no fish at all here. I would love to know of some vegetarian alternatives (esp for things like iodine) but can't really think of any.

[AndHarry]

I love fish and seafood and we eat it at least twice a week. I try to include at least one portion of white fish and one of oily fish into our weekly meal plans. DS would live on fish fingers if he could, which I don't think really counts! My favourite recipe is steaming plaice together with chopped chilies, garlic, ginger and soy sauce all wrapped in foil, served with rice and green vegetables.

[custardo]

worried about the ethical side of it - went on a clean the ocean thing a while back

anyhow, fish in diet, when kids were little consisted of fish fingers or similar

the barriers for me cooking fish were
a)i'm not a fan
b) i dont know how to prepare and cook it
d) its expensive for fresh stuff for family meals
c) practically everything else is easier

the downsides for me
i wish i liked a lot of seafood - it is low carb heaven

grrrr

[CalamitouslyWrong]

My reflex reaction is it say that we eat very little fish because DH and I don't like it much. But that's not really the full picture.

I don't much care for cooked fish. I can generally eat white fish but I would really struggle to choke down most oily fish. I loathe tinned salmon and tuna. The texture alone makes me feel queasy. Not at all keen on smoked fish either. I will not have kippers in the house because they stink. I do like raw fish though. It's lovely. I really, really like other types of seafood though: squid, mussels, clams, crab, lobster, scallops, prawns, etc, etc. I don't tend to cook with them (because DH won't eat them) but I will order them in restaurants. As I have so little seafood cooking practice, I'm much less confident with it than with other food types.

DH is much fussier than me about fish. He would never order fish anywhere, and objects if I cook it. He used to eat tinned tuna and fish cakes when we first met but won't do it now.

The children are much keener on fish. DS1 will eat just about anything. He loves seafood and his favourite treat with his dad is sushi/sashimi. DS2 loves white fish. He gets very excited about getting cod from the chip shop, and very regularly picks fish when it's on offer with school dinners.

I don't tend to worry about the lack of fish on our home menu or do anything special to make up for it.

[OhYouMerryLittleKitten]

We like fish but its expensive and hard to stretch iyswim. We eat smoked mackerel fairly regularly and tuna and tinned salmon. Sometimes I will cook whole mackerel. I seem to only be able to get it from the supermarket and it looks unappetising vac packed but I'm never sure how fresh the supermarket fish counter is.

[sealight123]

Truthfully, I really dislike fish. I am ok with very mild fish like cod but anything fishier and I can't have it...especially fish pies. It makes it hard to get fish into my daughters diet but we do. My partner loves fish too, so they have seafood whilst I have chicken :)

I can handle a prawn cocktail at christmas...it does have to have sauce on though lol

Maybe I should start to explore food a bit more..I'm always telling my daughter to try new things...perhaps I should do the same!

[AnnaConda]

We all love seafood. I see it as a healthy protein as we are trying to cut down our red meat consumption.

I do a 'cheat's' fish pie, buying a ready-made cheese sauce and frozen mash, then poach some white fish in milk, onion and herbs, then construct a pie for the oven.

A treat is a large bag of frozen scallops which we eat with a simple garlic butter and fresh parsley sauce.

I do get concerned about the pollution in the oceans and how that might affect the quality of the fish, mercury in tuna and more general contamination, but hey what can you do about that?!

[MimsyBorogroves]

I like seafood within reason.

Fish and chips (decent fish and chips ) is my number one treat, and both the children like it too. We also love toasted sardine sandwiches and tuna and pasta.

DH, however, loathes fish. This makes it really difficult to integrate it into our main meal planning - because he'd have to have something different. So it's usually just lunches, as above, and the odd trip out to the fish and chip restaurant where DH can have a beef burger.

I miss it. My Dad makes a cracking fish pie, my Mum and I love a bowl of garlicky mussels and chips, but I'm just too restricted at home. I love smoked fish too - but apparently it makes the house smell My dad once did a recipe where he made a kind of homemade fried fish nugget - I'd have eaten those forever. He's never managed to do it again since though.

[Rockinhippy]

We are a none meat household & as such we do eat a lot of fish.

So, do you like fish? yes we all love it

Is fish something you like eat with your children? yes very much so

Are you aware of the health benefits that incorporating seafood into your diet brings? Yes, definitely, but I am also aware of the mercury dangers of eating too much of certain fish and seafoods during the course of a week, so I am careful to vary the types we eat

If you're not a fan of seafood are there other foods you deliberately try to include into your and your DCs diets to make sure that they get all the nutrients they need? we are all big fans if fish, but still deliberately include other foods, such as various pulses, nuts, various veg etc & take Spirulina to makes sure we all get a good balanced diet, with plenty of vitamins, minerals, trace minerals & othe phytonutrients

If you are a fan, what's your favourite fish or seafood recipe? a good fish curry, Mediterranean baked Basa, Salmon baked with lemon & dill, crab risotto, too many to mention really, we just love fish

[Rockinhippy]

I'm salivating having just looked on your link, it looks fabulous, but you are missing smoked halibut, which is a wonderful luxury around here :)

[ouryve]

Samphire, Jacques

[breatheslowly]

My daughter is 3 and loves fish. She has done since she was weaned. I remember ordering a whole rainbow trout for her in a restaurant when she had just turned 2, rather than something from the children's menu. The waitress was surprised, but my daughter did eat pretty much the whole fish.

We tend to buy salmon, trout and haddock. I microwave, bake or fry the salmon & trout. I particularly like to bake it with some soy, ginger and garlic. I enjoy making home made fish fingers with the haddock with my daughter with flour, eggs and breadcrumbs - she likes getting a bit mucky. We also buy fresh tuna and have it fried to medium, however it is quite expensive so we don't get it all that often.

We also buy haddock fish fingers and tinned tuna (mostly for jacket potatoes).

My daughter also likes smoked salmon (eaten on its own) and salmon sushi/sashimi - particularly if she can pick it off a Yo Sushi conveyor belt herself.

My daughter likes to go to the fish counter at the supermarket and look at the fish (and discuss how dead they are). She likes to pick her own fish for dinner, though it can be a challenge to dissuade her from selecting a whole salmon.

We did enjoy eating Mahi Mahi, but don't seem to be able to get it from Ocado any more.

My daughter also has multivitamins with Omega-3, which I assume can replace some fish in her diet if necessary.

[justmuddlingalong]

A quick supper in our house is pasta, frozen peas and sweetcorn and a flaked fillet or two of grilled fish, served cold. I add a dollop of mayo and serve it with crusty bread. It's quick, tasty and less expensive than buying fish fillets for everyone. When there's more time and money, we love a home made fish and prawn pie, topped with cheesy mash. Nom, nom, nom!

[Mominatrix]

I love seafood, and growing up I ate more fish than meat. In my household, we eat as much seafood as meat. The first animal protein my children were weaned on was salmon, so fish was introduced very early into diet (earlier if you include all the sashimi I ate breastfeeding!).

Eating sushi/sashimi is something I grew up doing, and my children also have grown up eating it once a week. Favourites are salmon, yellowtail, medium fatty tuna, and mackerel. I am lucky to live close to a Japanese grocery store which sells sashimi grade fish (it supplies Nobu), and will slice it to my needs (sashimi, maki, or nigiri).

Additionally, we will have another evening of fish: salmon (sous vide, grilled with a ginger/orange/soy, with a miso glaze, ceviche), grilled mackerel, a white fish (chorizo fish stew, steamed whole with ginger, soy, garlic, and sesame oil, marinated in lime for fish tacos), or a smoked fish (kedgeree, smoked haddock chowder). We also have smoked salmon for breakfast at least once a week (on bagels with cream cheese, in Eggs Royale, or torn with scrambled eggs).

Other seafoods are tricky. I adore oysters and raw sea urchin, but it has been a hard sell to my children and husband. Prawns and mussels are loved by me, my husband, and my younger son, but my elder son does not like them. They do like crabmeat, so I make crab cakes and crab spaghetti.

[PetiteRaleuse]

I eat fish but not shellfish. We have fish (normally salmon or cod, but sometimes trout) as a main meal two to three times a week and the DC also have a fish meal at nursery at least once a week. DD1 is 2.9 and loves all seafood including shellfish, even those horrible sea snail things. This comes from DH who buys himself shellfish occasionally on the weekend and they share it. I think we'd have more shellfish if we lived nearer the sea - we are four hours away here so really good shellfish is expensive and quite hard to find.
DD2 is just one and a bit so hasn't had shellfish other than prawns I think at nursery but loves eating fish more than meat, I guess it is easier for her to chew.
Tbh nutrition isn't my first priority when planning meals, but I do like meals to be varied tastewise, and meals are healthy except for the butter .