Parents of young-ish kids: Do you fix different foods for yo

momocurti

I'm a mom to four: 10, 8 and 5 yo twins. I do cook pretty healthy for my family, but sometimes a bit more caloric and saucy than I want to take in for my calorie count...

So my questions are:
Do you eat different meals from what you cook your family?
What's your favorite thing that your kids eat that you can eat too?
What kid-friendly meals do you cook that are easily adapted to someone who's watching calories?

Just curious to see how other families deal! My oldest is a "healthy food" anarchist and won't touch anything if she thinks it's at all healthy for her (ie if I try to sneak whole grains into pancakes, etc.) so I sometimes have to be sneaky and creative

TIA for any thoughts!

momma3sweetgirls

My kids are 6, 5, 3, and 10 months. I don't eat what they eat for breakfast or lunch, but we all eat the same thing at suppertime. I usually cook meat, starch, veggie. I go easy on the starch on load up on meat and veggie. I try to avoid casseroles and very saucy things. When I do cook something like that, I take a small portion and eat a big salad with it.

jrich1

Nope they eat what we eat, but we try some new recipes and maybe if we are doing like a pork with a marinade, we will leave it off their portion.

sharidiane

My kids love veggies, so I don't have an issue there. BUT - one of their favorite dishes is something I make with red potatoes. You could easily adapt this for broccoli and cauliflower, and i'm sure it would be delish.

Microwave cubed red potatoes for about 5 minutes. (I would blanch veggies). Toss with just enough Italian dressing to coat (I use evoo and half the oil the recipe calls for). Top with 2% cheddar, just enough to cover. Bake with dinner. (I would just microwave veggies).

This is a really yummy dish!

SydandPaigesMom

I am the same as the previous poster. I do not eat the same breakfast or lunch (they usually have cereal, waffles or pancakes for breakfast and sandwiches or something else quick for lunch). We do however eat the same dinner. They used to refuse to try much, but in the last few months their palates have definitely expanded! They are 8 and 5 year old girls by the way They love everything I have been cooking and my 8 year old repeatedly asks me to make the skinny taste baked ziti with spinach.

upthegrm

Hi. I don't cook separate for my family. I tend to cook from cookbooks though. I love the Cooking Light Fresh Food Fast series. I do ask the kids what looks good to them sometimes and then I add that to the menu plan. My husband and my oldest (15) aren't too picky. My youngest who is 9 is a little pickier but I tell her that she has to try it. If she doesn't like it sometimes I'll feed her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Sometimes I convince her to eat 1/2 of it especially if she wants dessert. Also I remember what my dad told me once when I was trying to get the youngest to eat "It doesn't hurt to miss a meal sometimes- Let her be hungry for a little bit, she'll eat"

MzMiller1215

I have four boys and they eat whatever I eat besides greek yogurt and egg beaters. My 2 year old actually prefers a lot of fruit and any vegetable you place in front of him. If I am eating something, he wants whatever I'm eating including peas! Weird child. :laugh: I made it abundantly clear that we were going to start eating much healthier than before, not that I fed them all junk food but, it was still too much junk food in between meals. They have adapted quite well to the change.

My favorite food to eat that my kids enjoy too is apples and oranges all day.
Spaghetti is an easy dish to make healthier changes to i.e. ground turkey instead of ground beef and organic spaghetti sauces and noodles (the kids can't tell a difference). They also prefer turkey burgers and bacon now instead of beef.

RedheadHen

My kids are 3 and 5. I usually eat something different than them for breakfast and sometimes lunch. We all eat cereal, but I eat Special K and they eat something more interesting to young palates ... like honey nut Cheerios! Lunch is usually PB&J for them or Cheese sammys, but I have to opt for something a bit lower in the calorie dept! We all eat the same thing for dinner though!

Dtho5159

I have 2 fairly picky kids (ages 3 and 6)

For breakfast my daughter (3y/o) eats cereal or a cereal bar. My son (6y/o) eats cereal bars or pinwheels.

For lunch, my son is at school M thru F so he eats whatever hot meal they have. My daughter for a long time wants the same lunch: a banana, piece of cheese, 4 slices pepperoni, container of yogurt and animal crackers or pretzels.

For supper, they like pasta a lot. I make up batches of homemade mac n cheese and it lasts 2-3 nights. They love spaghetti with lots of cheese. One night they have chicken nuggets and homemade fries. Stuff I don't want the calories for.

I don't eat the same things at all. I eat pasta maybe once a week. I like salads and my kids don't. I like soups (homemade) and they don't. I don't want to feed them tons of stuff they hate so I try to reason with them.

karenx30

Hey! I have a 9 year old son and have heard many complaints when it comes to eating healthy foods. I use to not care what he ate really because he's active and muscular (for a kid). Then I thought about it. Why let him eat crap just because he likes it and isn't overweight? His insides are still suffering. When I changed my eating habits, the whole family changed. My husband is a huge red-meat fan, but has gotten used to more chicken and ground turkey and fish. We still have red meat, just not as much as he would prefer. The kid is finally coming around to liking veggies and will actually ask for them. At first, I had to insist on him at least trying them. Then worked up to "eat 5 bites" and now he digs them for the most part. We still eat pizza or have burgers on occasion but not like we used to. Drinks were the big deal with my son. He HATED water and thought of it as a punishment. I don't care. I don't buy sodas. If we go out, water for the most part, but every now and then, he can order a soda. I don't mean to sound like a nazi, but its just as important for him to eat right and still enjoy being a kid too.
Many of the recipes on this site can be tweaked to be low fat, or better options, but these have been huge hits with my family as well as my sister's family of 10 (she has the pickiest eaters and she showed me the site)
http://www.ourbestbites.com/

ennaejay

I'm a mom to four: 10, 8 and 5 yo twins. I do cook pretty healthy for my family, but sometimes a bit more caloric and saucy than I want to take in for my calorie count...

So my questions are:
Do you eat different meals from what you cook your family?
What's your favorite thing that your kids eat that you can eat too?
What kid-friendly meals do you cook that are easily adapted to someone who's watching calories?

Just curious to see how other families deal! My oldest is a "healthy food" anarchist and won't touch anything if she thinks it's at all healthy for her (ie if I try to sneak whole grains into pancakes, etc.) so I sometimes have to be sneaky and creative

TIA for any thoughts!

My kids are 2.5 and 1.5 yo, respectively.

I do not make anything different for them. We all eat well and they nearly always have healthy appetites (it varies, just like ours . Make the food YOU want and let them adapt. Keep sneaking those whole grains into your pancakes, eventually she'll eat them. They won't starve themselves. Remember that these crazy kids change their appetite frequently, they have "graze" days where you can't get anything green into them, and other days where they eat like a horse. If all you offer is good food, they will adapt to it and accept it.

We love chili and cornbread, very nutritious and delicious! I make it mild for the kids and DH and I add hot pepper flakes.

We love macaroni and cheese, you can use whole-wheat pasta and slice up nitrate-free hot dogs in it, make your own cheese sauce from scratch with lowfat milk and cornstarch and some dried mustard and pepper.

Cooking from scratch is a PITA sometimes but well worth the effort - especially if you're taking the time to cook, make a double-batch so you can skip cooking another night in the week

Pureed soups are another favorite here, Roast veggies (think sweet potatoes, carrots, onion) and simmer in some vegetable broth with ginger, puree and serve with a dollop of nonfat sour cream alongside a grilled cheese on whole-grain bread.

Keep doing your research and hit up allrecipes.com and cookinglight.com for ideas. Tear out pages in cookbooks and make a list in Excel of all the new things you want to try.

caterpillardreams

Hi
My daughter is 3 yrs old. And she eats what I eat most of the time. she might have different snacks then I. But I really try and make her try new things. I am always surprised at what she ends up liking, she just had a pita and hummus snacks, and she loves veggies. she would hesitate to try but then she usually likes it. with all of our food she looks at it like it's weird, if she see it for the first time, but I see her opening up to try things quicker because we never cooked different things for her. But that is not to say she always eats it, more like 90% of the time she does.
But my philosophy is kids will eat what you give them, especially if thats the only thing they can eat, since there are no other options like junkfood. They will eventually get hungry
Good luck

missmelinda

My kids are 8, 7, 4 and 3 and they actually prefer to eat healthy stuff most of the time. We typically don't buy "junk food" or we'll all scarf it down. We don't buy potato chips, snack cakes, donuts, candy, etc. Instead, we get snacks like popcorn, fruit, low sugar yogurt (mixed with chopped fruit), cottage cheese and low sugar/low calorie popsicles. The entire family eats the same thing for dinner, sometimes lunch and breakfast too (they love eggs and whole wheat pancakes!). They'll eat just about every kind of meat we prepare (grilled or baked chicken, tuna, pork, etc.) The biggest thing they don't like are cooked vegetables. They'll eat most raw veggies so we go with those a lot of times. They still eat things like Mac and cheese and frozen pizzas from time to time too but not real often.

They always complain when dinner consists of chicken or pork because we do eat a lot of it, but it's also one of the only meals that they devour quickly and want seconds of. They eat meat and veggies much better than they've ever eaten Happy Meals from McDonald's!

ennaejay

Another thought, if you serve something that they ROUTINELY turn up their nose at, you can "adapt" it for them while still serving it to them. DS1 hates quiche, really hates it, every single time, so I make him a scrambled egg with cheese in the microwave when we're having quiche.

I also make enchiladas (filled with black beans, zucchini, corn, and cheddar), but he doesn't like the taste of the cooked wrap (mushy? I dunno). So I give him a bowl of just the veggies with some cheese on top and rice on the side, and he eats it like a champ. Still the same thing, but I just tweaked it a bit to leave out the one thing he consistently does NOT LIKE. They do have their own tastes, just like we do, and we do need to account for their preferences.

I can be a bit of a dictator :-D Eat this or STARVE! haha

suzycreamcheese

my kids eat at 5.30ish, whereas me and dp dont eat till 8 or 9pm, so we dont eat the same stuff normally

MinnieInMaine

I actually don't have kids but can relate somewhat with a hubby who's not too keen on healthy foods. As with most of the posters above, we don't eat breakfast or lunch together but always eat dinner together.

I've slowly incorporated some changes into our favories like using more healthy pasta that doesn't look like whole grain (Ronzini Smart Taste brand) and upping the vegetables while lowing the amount of potato/pasta/meat in a recipe. I also have shopped labels to get the lowest calorie spaghetti sauce, turkey meatballs (to keep with the spaghetti theme - LOL), etc. The only thing he noticed was the night I tried using fat free mozzarella in a casserole - and we both hated that one. Ick - it's like plastic when melted...

Also, as someone else above noted, if it's your usual meat and potatoes type meal, I'll stick with one portion of meat, just a 1/2 cup of potato or rice pilaf and mostly vegetables. I also have learned to not add butter to my veggies or potatoes - it took some getting used to but I actually prefer them that way now.

I also exercise regularly to earn a some extra calories so I don't have to worry so much. All in all, I've been able to get used to normal portions and have really enjoyed not limiting myself to "diet" food.

baisleac

My daughter just turned two. The only thing different between what my husband eats, what I eat, and what she eats is portion size... and she eats a lot more mandarin oranges and strawberries ("stars") than we do. (but to be fair we drink coffee and she doesn't get any, yet. :laugh:)

PlunderBunneh

I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old, both girls.
We very rarely have the same breakfast and lunch, and dinner is about a 50/50 thing. I don't think this is even a just dieting condition, getting my kids to eat something I cooked, instead of PBJ or mac and cheese, is a pretty challenging feat. We regularly end up practicing the "You eat what I made or you don't eat at all" method.
They do eat pretty healthy though, so I guess I can't complain. As they get older I'm figuring out their favorites and learning how to get in all those fruits and veggies.

MrsCon40

Definitely not. What better way to encourage healthy eating than by feeding the whole family healthy food.

My daughter eats anything I put in front of her - probably because she knows that if she were "picky" then she'd be "hungry".

veganbaum

Definitely not. What better way to encourage healthy eating than by feeding the whole family healthy food.

My daughter eats anything I put in front of her - probably because she knows that if she were "picky" then she'd be "hungry".

When I was a kid, we ate what we were given and were grateful for it or we ate nothing at all.

poustotah

When I was a kid, we ate what we were given and were grateful for it or we ate nothing at all.

This is how my house operates. If you want to eat something in my house, you eat what I make or you go hungry. I cook healthy, I have healthy snacks around and there is plenty of food to keep everyone from starving.

CakeFit21

Definitely not. What better way to encourage healthy eating than by feeding the whole family healthy food.

My daughter eats anything I put in front of her - probably because she knows that if she were "picky" then she'd be "hungry".

Exactly. And I have absolutely no problem with my son eating nothing for dinner if that's what he chooses. He's almost four and knows that if he doesn't eat with us he doesn't eat. Because of this his favorite foods are homemade Thai and Indian curries. (the spicy ones)

tomomatic

I have two kids: 6 and 3 years old. My oldest is uber-skinny and kind of thin so I try to give her foods that I know she'll eat. I sometimes worry about if she's eaten enough. I try to add more calories into her day by giving her a cheese-stick for a snack or whole milk instead of 2%. I know for a fact that she only eats about 1/3 of her school lunch (she spends most of her lunch time standing in line) so we're going to start packing her lunches this year.

There are some healthy foods that we all like to make together. This past weekend, we made wontons at home and I packed in plenty of veggies into the filling. Also, we dice up veggies and add it to rice porrige. And the kids like fried rice. For some reason, my oldest LOVES broccoli so we always try to have some of that. I mix in peas, carrots, and string beans into their mac and cheese. We really try to put veggies into everything.

My 3 year old is a different story. She eats plenty but at some point during the meal, she'll become aware that I've mixed veggies into her food, even if it's been there the whole time. She'll start taking it out of her mouth (especially if it's squash or eggplant) and that's when I tell her that it's good for her and she's gonna forfeit her candy incentives -- which is something like 2 M&M's. I can make a fun size bag last a couple weeks.

Oh yeah...the kids also enjoy fresh fruit smoothies with no sugar added... with some veggies mixed.

TheRoadDog

I love to cook. I will make anything for anyone that asks. Don't mind at all.

Wife already has made special requests for a Wine Tasting on 9/08, 9/09 and a BBQ on 9/10.

My daughter has made a request for Dinner on 9/17.

Afriend of mine blows into town on Thursday and requested a special menu for both our families.

On a daily basis I usually am only cooking for my wife and I.

ArlVAMom

I have a 6 year old who is very picky to the point of having pretty severe anxiety over new foods, and a 2.5 year old who is just plain stubborn. I have always been pretty obsessed with eating healthy and loved vegetables so I think this is my challenge in life, to have picky kids!

For breakfast, we all eat different stuff. They eat cereal (cheerios and/or kix), waffles, yogurt, and/or fruit. I got tired of feeding them crappy Eggo waffles so I started making my own that are much healthier made with oatmeal, milk, and almond butter. they gobble those up. No sugar! Except for the teeny bit of maple syrup. My husband eats Kashi cereal and I eat eggs, nuts, veggies, or a smoothie if I eat breakfast at home at all. Sometimes I am not hungry and wait till I get to work.

For lunch, they are either at home with the babysitter or at school. I make carrot-pumpkin muffins and homemade granola bars to supplement their usual mix of PB&J, goldfish crackers, applesauce (no sugar added), chicken nuggets, taquitos, quesadillas (made with black beans), and pasta with tomato sauce and chicken meatballs (I like the garden veggie or whatever it is brand of pasta that claims to have a serving of veggies. I need to get better about making my own sauce so I can hide more veggies in it as well.)

For snacks, I don't keep "junk" in the house - no chips, cookies (other than animal crackers), ice cream, candy, etc. I am helpless around that stuff! They have crackers, applesauce, fruit, granola bars (homemade) or homemade muffins. I do keep dark chocolate in the house for ME and use that to bribe them sometimes or as a special treat.

For dinner, they eat what we eat, but usually modified. The 6 year old will fortunately eat most kinds of plain cooked/grilled meat like chicken, fish, steak, pork chops. They get whatever veggies I am making on their plates, but they almost never eat it. Sigh. I usually make a starch but then don't eat it myself because I do better when I limit carbs. Rice, couscous, quinoa, or pasta all go well with them. The 2.5 year old gets what we get, usually cut into little pieces. Sometimes she eats it all, sometimes she eats nothing, and then I assume she isn't hungry. I try really hard to not let her fill up on starches and applesauce. Usually once a week I make a big pasta dinner and just serve my portion over veggies. They looooove spaghetti and meatballs! Oh and they both love sweet potato fries so I usually make a big batch of those or buy a big bag at Costco and make that to have on hand as a side dish for them. About once a week I make a big salad for me and my hubby and they get something "easy" and kid focused like english muffin pizzas or chicken nuggets.

They do not like "casserole" type meals, which is a bummer because I love making those. I'm slowly working on making more "saucy" or mixed foods and getting the kids to at least tolerate it on their plate.

For drinks, we generally don't keep juice in the house as the 6 year old doesn't like it and really they don't need it. They drink water, mostly. The 6 year old doesn't like milk much either, but she is in the 95%ile for height so I don't worry about that too much.

When we go out of course it is a free for all. They both love chocolate milkshakes, chips at Mexican restaurants, burgers and french fries. That's when I figure let them be kids.

maidentl

I don't usually eat what they eat but only because I am the only vegetarian in the family. I do occasionally make something meatless that everyone enjoys.

NeuroticVirgo

I usually have a different breakfast and lunch, but that's just because everyone is eating at different times places (for instance on the weekends we'll usually all eat the same thing for all 3 meals).

This is one of my favs to make. I'm still forever tweaking it (for a better meat loaf recipe), but I've worked it down to about 130 cal per cupcake (including potato frosting). But my daughter and her friends really like it. And a little bit of food coloring goes a long way for making it fun.

ladyhawk00

Definitely not. What better way to encourage healthy eating than by feeding the whole family healthy food.

My daughter eats anything I put in front of her - probably because she knows that if she were "picky" then she'd be "hungry".

This. My 7 yo son eats what I eat with very few exceptions. He knows it is a rule that he TRY everything. If he truly doesn't like something, he doesn't have to eat it. But I better be convinced. So far the only things he reeeeeally doesn't like are mushrooms and olives (understandable as they're pretty strong flavors.)

I don't believe in making "kid foods" per se - aside from avoiding things that may upset young stomachs like spicy foods when they're very little. It just teaches them bad habits, in general, and encourages pickiness; and most of all, it doesn't develop their palates for different flavors.

ChantalGG

My 6 year old eats the same foods as i do, if he wants salt, butter, or sauce he can eat add it. He does always get a better dessert than i do though.

healthyjen342

Sometimes, yes...I have a 5 year old and a 1 year old and I can't feed both of them tuna fish every day or rice or something...if there is something I think they will waste or not eat, I will fix them something different. Usually we always eat the same things for breakfast, so I dont have to fix anything different there.

TS65

My son is 7. He eats a different breakfast and lunch than I do (breakfast is waffles, toast or cereal), lunch is packed or hot from school). Dinner really depends on what I'm making. Most nights he'll eat what I make, but if it's too spicy or something I know he won't like, I'll toss in a pizza (which sometimes my hubby chooses over what I've cooked. :laugh: ) I let him choose his own desert.

On a good note, he's started choosing better - I try to offer him healthier snacks - string cheese, yogurt, carrots with ranch dressing (he calls it "ranching"), cashews (he's even starting to measure the nuts... "mommy, can I have a pound of nuts?" Of course he means ounce, but I'll take it for now! )