"Just feed him what you eat"

[SpadesOfGlory]

Is it just me who's confused about how to actually do this?

7 month old DS (weaned from 5months due to reflux) has progressed brilliantly from purees to what I would call proper meals. He's confidently chewing and there isn't really anything he wont eat. The HV said to get him eating "family meals" as soon as possible, just give him what we're eating without adding salt.

This is where I get confused. If I make a homemade mild curry, the curry paste has loads of salt in! And if I do mince, carrots and onions there's a stock cube or gravy granules in it, same with cottage pie etc. Can DS eat these? Does it mean just not to add separate salt to your cooking? So far I've just been giving him pasta and tomato based sauces, bolognaise etc, fish and mash, scrambled egg and toast, but would love to know if I can give him our "normal" meals or if I have to alter it in any way?

INeedNewShoes

Ah, that makes more sense, thank you! Should have just ignored really but it's just difficult not to bite sometimes!

They just ate what we did, not necessarily at the same time though and I didn't add any extra salt to food

As babies they tended to eat much earlier than I did. Mine ate the majority of their food at nursery once I was back at work, don't think they'd have been happy to wait until 8 for dinner

Omg how could darling hubby possibly eat alone?!

Sometimes we eat with our 11 month old, sometimes it’s just me ( as currently not back at work ! and sometimes he will eat an early dinner then still share from my plate what he fancies if we eat later. / or he doesn’t if he has gone to bed.

I am still getting the feel for what he will eat with us chilli con carne was a fail but roast chicken, casserole and stews , salads, pasta dishes , fish 🐟 all go down well.

I would like to introduce spice but unsure what is a good place to start ... if anyone has any recipes would be great.

Sorry to hi jack op but great idea to start a forum on what others do to have a crack ourselves.

Prefer recipes that can be frozen as like to put a few Emergancy portions aside for him
Encase we are eating something unsuitable or we have a busy day and I just won’t have time to cook for him before he starts eating my leg while I try 😂

I don't think being 'salt free' has any affect upon a child's tastes in later life - either they like salty things or they don't

I grew up with the only salt in the house being for killing slugs in the garden. Everything was cooked from scratch without salt because our mother didn't like it.

I fucking love salt.

Bisto have a low salt gravy. We use that and i cant taste the difference anyway

With my ds1, I would no way follow this advice as my diet was rubbish. Now, because of ds1, my diet is brilliant so I feel confident following this advice!

Try chicken marinated in lemon/yoghurt with turmeric, @Newmumma83. If that goes down well, it's pretty much the start of introducing things like curries without chilli but the other spices, like Kormas.

I think that children are "more likely" to become poor eaters if they do not eat with their parents. But I don'T think it's to do with "mirroring" adults--children don't necessarily copy adult behavior (as Steven Pinker once said, if children always automatically copy what their parents do, why don't their copy their parents' habit of sitting quietly in airplanes?)

Rather, I think all kids have a tendency to fuss about food to a certain extent, but when you are eating together, there is a strong incentive to get them eating the same things (who wants to prep two meals at once?) so parents tend to be firmer and push "normal adult" food more strongly. If children are eating at separate times and you are going to have to prep things twice anyway, it just becomes really tempting to make life easier for yourself by serving things that you know they will eat without argument.

I always eat with the kids and my husband has his separately when he gets in. We can eat together at weekends and at breakfast.

Well, I made a chicken and veg curry last night that went down well with DS! Which was interesting because I gave him a Kiddilicious curry meal a few days ago and it's the one and only dinner he's ever refused! I'm taking it as a good sign he likes home cooking

I took a few portions out to freeze for him, and then added a bit more spice to ours. His was the flavour of curry but without the heat... I'll gradually add more spice to his as time goes on now I know he likes it!

What'sWith:
"I do think the 'eat what you eat' advice is lazy bollocks. There's so much they can't or shouldn't have. "

Really? I disagree. Or maybe I was just lazy many many years ago.

I very quickly got ds's onto our meals, with lower salt and a few ingredients missing, that I added later, for Dh and I.

Oblomov19

The poster already clarified that they didn't mean parents were lazy for doing this but that it is lazy advice from HVs. I agree, seems like an easy way to give as little advice as possible. Is alright for families who cook food from scratch and have some food knowledge, allergen knowledge etc but less helpful for those who have poor diets themselves or rarely cook for whatever reason. Would be far better if they could have a selection of easy, healthy recipes for children to give people some inspiration.

The poster already clarified that they didn't mean parents were lazy for doing this but that it is lazy advice from HVs.

Yes. And I agree.

On a FB group I am on, someone was posting in a panic, saying "Oh no, how do I make baby foods??! I am not a cook and I live on ready meals and deli foods" and straight away a whole bunch of people were all like "Oh, just do BLW and give them what you eat!" Err, the poster stated clearly that she was living on ready made foods which are almost certainly high in salt, NOT healthy low sodium home cooked meals. Very irresponsible advice.

Honestly? DS can cope with more spice than I can!

We've always eaten together at 6pm since he was 6 months, initially just a few bits cut suitably, and low salt stock cubes (which actually really are not worth buying, they don't add a lot).

We occasionally eat after he's gone to bed now as he's dropping his nap at 2.4 and can crash out very early and quickly and need something quick like hummus on toast.

Oh and cottage pie or whatever, I took out the mince/ mash before the sauce and oven stage. THen it was cool enough as well.

I think the eating what you eat is good advice in general. Like others have said, you can reduce salt in meals and add after for yourself if needed.

A simple alternative for nights when you grab a particularly unhealthy takeaway, or your eat on a different schedule for whatever reason is probably ideal.

I make my own stock by saving all my veggie offcuts (carrot and potato peelings, broccolli stalks, celery ends etc) in the freezer and then boiling it for half an hour when I have a bagful. Takes next to no effort and means you can have a salt free stock. For curries, I make my own pastes (Jamie Oliver has some good ones) and they're salt free. I leave out the chilli and add it at the end when I've taken DS's out (it doesn't taste as good, I'm working on getting DS accustomed to chilli). I've not figured out an easy to make gravy yet, apparently veggie stock with cornflour did NOT cut it for my husband.

I do sometimes use a stock cube though. DS generally eats 1/3 of an adult portion of food. If I use one low salt OXO stock cube to make 3 adult portions, then that contains 1/9g of salt in his portion. The RDA of salt is 1g under 1 and 2g under 2, so I think that's fine.

DS eats what we eat (and has done since about 9m) because it's definitely easiest. I generally save him 3 or 4 batches at each meal and freezer them. I like to eat together as a family at 5.30, with 1 or 2 meals a week alone with my husband after he goes to bed. If we want something that DS won't eat (e.g. steak and chips), then I take something out of the freezer.