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

[CaramelisedOnion]

I love fish and eat it regularly. I eat it raw, mainly salmon or tuna and I often cook bass or haddock for myself and my son. I make kedgeree which is a favourite in our house! I always buy undyed smoked haddock....what is the point in making it a horrid bright yellow colour?! Weird!

The health benefits of fish are obvious, omega 3s, protein, low.fat (unless it's battered and fried of course!) And it tastes delicious!

[Bubbles85]

I love all types of fish, but unfortunately my OH hates eating anything that looks like it once lived. So we tend to stick to fish in breadcrumbs. He is happy to eat a cartoon shaped fish as it doesn't seem like he is eating real fish. I hope his fussiness doesn't pass on to our LO when she is old enough to start eating properly.

[Nigglenaggle]

I really worry that the kids dont get enough fish, because its so important for brain developement. I worried all through pregnancy too!! It was easy with my first pregnancy because we had nothing else to worry about, but harder to keep up with nutrition generally second time round. I'm not a massive seafood fan myself, but love salmon and quite like prawns and scallops - alot of my dislike of eg mussels is psychological really. Fish pie always goes down well in our house, but salmon with a mustard or pesto crust is my favourite. DS quite likes tinned salmon (bleurgh! But useful that he eats it as makes it very easy to get him to eat fish). As well as worrying they dont get enough, also sometimes worry they may get too much oily fish and end up with mercury poisoning - I am just a worrier!!!

[MTBMummy]

Thankfully DD is like me and loves fish, her favorite being fish pie.

We tend to eat fish at least once a week, although if DP is out we'll eat it more often.

I was brought up believing the fish is an important part of diet and it used to be called "brain food" I've never queried this but have kept up the habit of eating it frequently

[over40andmumtoone]

Fish is something we have as standard here. I love fish of all sorts and shellfish so my little boy has eaten fish from early weaning. Whether it be a piece of cod, haddock or plaice, grilled or baked, of salmon fillets baked with soy sauce and cumin. My son will happily eat prawns and tuna and I keep trying to tempt him wih mussels! I know just how important a balanced diet is, and fish is so important as part of that.

[Uzma01]

Due to the kids' allergies we've avoided giving them white fish but try to have salmon twice a month. I normally put some soy sauce, black pepper, a drizzle of oil & a slice of lemon per fillet & wrap in foil. It's served with a variety of vegetables and homemade mash.

It's also good to have white fish (pollock/colley) made into a simple curry with peas.

[stiffstink]

You can buy MSC fish at Aldi at reasonable prices.

DS (19months) will eat thai fish cakes, fish fingers, chippy tea, salmon OAP but weirdly he isn't into tuna.

Salmon OAP is easy. O is for olive oil, A is for aioli (garlic) and P is for pepper. We use chilli peppers. I wazz in any veg that's knocking about too.

Onion/courgette/whatever chucked into olive oil, medium heat, then about 5 mins later wazz in crushed garlic and a sliced chilli. Shove in a frozen salmon fillet for each person then reduce to low. A few nuggets of frozen spinach can go in too.

Leave it to cook, do some pasta, throw it all in the same pan, bit of cheese grated on top. Bob's your edible unclel

[MrsClauswearsspanx]

My DP makes a lovely fish pie with salmon, haddock, and cod.

That being said I did not grow up on fish so I don't like it very much. I worry my own preferences will rub off on my kids.

My resolution in 2014 is to get us eating more fish!

[Anyexcuse]

Here's a v easy, impressive and tasty fish dish - toss gnocchi, peppers, mushrooms, courgette in some olive oil and place in baking tray, tuck wee pieces of lemon in and around, bake for 30m quite high then put salmon fillets on top and bake for a further 15. Delish!

[wheretoyougonow]

Big fish/seafood lovers in this household. The boys love scrambled egg and smoked salmon and will order mussels and frites in a restaurant.
They have grown up with having fish at least once a week so it is very normal for them.
Mmmmm now thinking about fish finger sandwiches...

[PMTIsMe]

I have got the children into eating salmon which they now love, and was keen to do so for the omega 3. I was veggie for 25 years but started craving fish recently so now eat it - took me a while to get into tuna since it is particularly meaty - but now we all eat salmon, tuna, haddock, any white fish really, several times a week...but I'm still a cautious fish eater so not hugely adventurous. OH will eat any type of sea food what so ever.

[ThePortlyPinUp]

Our dd's really like smoked fish, cod, and shellfish. They love to have a carton of whelks, cockles, prawns, mussels or shrimps every time we go to the coast. I don't like fishy fish so stick to cod! smoked fish! prawns or shrimps? Dp will eat any of it, he makes me gag when he eats roll mops and jellied eels.

[whattoWHO]

Me and DP love fish, have it at least weekly.
DD claims not to like it, having been put off when I used smoked haddock in a fish pie.
I'm not making a big deal of it, but slyly including it in her diet via fish fingers and tuna.
Will introduce fish in other ways from time to time in the form of fish cakes, home made goujons etc.

[Onefewernow]

We are having a whole salmon this week and also something with white fish.

[CheckpointCharlie]

We eat fish cakes, salmmash (oven baked salmon with mash surprisingly), tinned tuna, fishfingers and tinned salmon. If I was richer we would eat fresh fish more often.


Kids love it though and used to eat sardine bites, = sardines spread on mini toast pieces. They don't like that so much now though!

[Lovewhereilive]

I do give the kids fish and would like them to eat more if I had chance to get down the fish market more. We all like it although the kids only eat it if its in breadcrumbs or batter.

My eldest DS likes tuna but my other 2 DS don't.

[SuiGeneris]

We love fish as a family and tend to have it twice a week or more (3/4 lunches for me, plus twice at the weekend usually).

We tend just to bake tuna or salmon in the oven, or pan fry, with lemon, herbs and oil. Kids also love salmon with yaki-yaki (teriyaki) sauce, fishcakes and fish fingers (which I cannot stand). We also like smoked salmon sandwiches (a favourite of my 19-month old) and pasta with tuna, tomatoes, pine nuts, parsley etc. Octopus with potato and origano is a firm favorite with all of us. Not keen on fishpie, mussels and prawns, so the kids have not tried them either.

Sans children we also have fish with more scales in (seabass, orata, etc) but with the kids we stick to salmon, tuna, plaice, octopus and cod.

[MichelleMumsnet]

Congratulations, MadameDefarge for winning the prize draw for a £200 voucher for Wings of St Mawes. Thank you to everyone for adding your thoughts, this thread has now closed.