So what do the kids eat...?

zombiemomjo

i do fix something a little different for my kids, not crap, just different. They eat pretty healthy food, but their repetoire is a bit limited. They love carrots, broccoli, peas, corn etc but i like to try different veggies. So i will fix two veg, but make them try mine as well. if i make mashed potatoes which they love, i will just have a very little bit....and then there are some meals that we all eat the exact same.....works differently every day....

Yeah, this! Our five year old can puke on command, so making him eat something he doesn't like doesn't end well for mama. And our 6 year old has a very scientific mind, so he will eat nutritious stuff when we explain it, but he has some texture issues. Neither kid will eat peanut butter, for pete's sake! They don't like many condiments or sauces, so they get a plain version of the meat for the meal, plain steamed veggies and some sort of carb. I often make them some sort of frozen taters, because who doesn't love a tater tot? I just skip 'em. We do have a "eat your age" rule, though. Five year old has to take five bites of whatever I put on his plate. Six year old has to take six. And if they don't eat at least that, dinner comes back out as their bedtime snack. They do like ice cream, popcorn, Little Debbie cakes, but they don't get those as a snack unless I've seen healthy stuff eaten first. If they have a banana or some Wheat Thins with cheese and are STILL hungry, I let them have a cookie. I didn't get fat from a cookie for snack. I got fat from lack of exercise and too much fast food. I won't deprive them of the fun stuff from youth. But I won't let them eat Hardee's six times a week like I did growing up!

lisamarie1780

My children eat the same as me 9 times out of ten. They eat brown rice, wholewheat pasta, they love fish and veggies. They don't like quinoa but that's not a big deal.... it's not hard to boil them some rice or cous cous in another pan/bowl. If you're eating proper food and having a balanced diet then surely the kids should be eating it as well? It's only going to benefit them. If however, you're one of these crazy juicing chicks who lives on juice and protein shakes... I'd say NO, feed them chips!

MyPsalm63

I'm pretty blessed. My kids LOVE all of that. I don't have a hard time getting them to try new things or liking new things. If they do however dislike something...I compromise. My daughter dislikes asparagus so she will get homemade applesauce instead. Still good and healthy.

Cp731

I don't make my kid eat what I eat.
She is 8, making her eat what I eat would be cruel.
She's so young and strong and happy...and she eats steak, mac and cheese, veggies..almost everyday
I prepare separate meals for us, and Its fine with me..She's an easy kid.

CottonCandyKisses

My son has Aspergers and is a very picky eater. single ingredient foods, no veggies, very limited. His diet consists of chicken nuggets, fries, fish sticks, vienna sausages, flour tortillas with cheese melted in them, pepperoni pizza, plain hot dogs, chips, and grapes or oranges, or watermelon. And scrambled eggs, ham and cheese , or peanut butter sandwiches. All very easy to fix meals. So yeah, most of the time I fix him a separate dinner from my husband and I. But it has been this way for most of his life, so no difference there.

We do supplement his diet with multivitamins, and he is extremely healthy.

We have a son with Autism, so I do something similar. However my son won't eat half of the things she listed! I try to get him to try things, but honestly his sensory issues just are too much. So I will make him and PB&J and our youngest will eat what I make, parts of it anyways....most of the time.

WinoGelato

My kids are 4 and almost 2 years old. My 4 year old eats like a bird and is so stubborn and every meal is a freaking struggle. I always serve dinner as whatever I have made for the meal. Often my 2 year old will eat parts of it, but some nights she tries it and wants nothing to do with it. My 4 year old just looks at it and declares "I am only eating the carrots" or something like that. She's so annoying and when we make her try one bite she often literally gags, like a reflex but she must be acting right?
I really have tried to be a hard-*kitten* and have sent her to bed when she's eaten nothing several times but it's often a nightmare because she turns into a monster (from hunger I am guessing:)) .

A lot of times I give in because it really does ruin the whole night for everyone. If she is complaining that she is hungry she gets yogurt, peanut butter toast or a banana. Sometimes I give her cereal with milk which I know is not good because it what she wants but I guess I feel like I have to pick my battles. Sometimes if I am making something I know either of them will eat I make them chicken nuggets.

I wish every night could be taco night. Always such a happy dinner time!

I am hoping once they are a bit older, like school age I can be more firm and then they'll be eating what is served.

We have a very similar situation with 4 and almost 2 year old boys. My 2 year old eats everything in sight, whether it is our food or "kid food". 4 year eats like a bird. He eats a decent variety of food, plenty of fruit, yogurt, cheese, raw carrots, raw broccoli, frozen peas (still frozen - my kids always love those we call them pea popsicles), lima beans (still figuring out where that came from but he loves them). Protein wise - grilled chicken, sometimes pork tenderloin, hamburger, occaisionally salmon or tilapia. Kid food - all the usuals: mac and cheese, grilled cheese, pizza, chicken nuggets, PB&J, fish sticks. My issue is that he doesn't eat more than a few bites of anything, even the stuff he loves. He will take a bite of a cookie and ask if he can save the rest for later. So I stress more about the quantity of food that he eats, and figure if it is 5 bites of macaroni and cheese, or 2 bites of stir fry, I'd rather give him the mac and cheese, even though it may be the less healthy choice. That may not be the best answer, but it is what we struggle with. We are trying to give up on the "just one more bite" or "stop talking and start eating" nagging at dinner time because it makes the whole meal so unpleasant for all at the table. Trying to make it so that he just gets what is in front of him, and when everyone else is done eating, he has to get up too, even if he only took one bite of something. It is hard though!

WinoGelato

My son is a preteen. He has always been super picky. REALLY picky. He will eat quinoa though. lol So you never know. He fixes his own breakfast and lunch, but everyone has the same (generally) healthy dinner. When we have pasta, I do shirataki or spaghetti squash, and the guys have real pasta. Or when we have tacos, I make myself a taco salad instead. But aside from those easy sort of substitutions, dinner is take it or leave it. We do require that he eats at least a couple bites of the protein in his dinner.

My son does Lucky Charms or other crappy sugar-laden cereal for breakfast, and mac and cheese or mini pizzas for lunch most days. We've required recently that he at least includes some fruit in there for fiber. When I try to get him to eat salads, etc with me, he generally does not eat at all. I can get him to drink protein shakes with me. I've reached a point where I've tried pretty much all the advice from ppl over the years (making cute lunches, calling the food cool names, only giving the kid whatever we eat, mixing the brown and white rice together, whatever). I swear most of the ppl who give this advice have never had a *truly* picky eater. (But I'm sure it is fun to judge if you are not dealing with this personally, or if you were blessed to have children who grew out of it.) My kid is almost 10, he barely weighs 55 lbs soaking wet. He has always been very low on his growth curve (bobbing between the third to tenth percentile). Husband and I mutually decided we'd rather have him eat some calories, any calories than continually have him skip meals and fall off his growth curve. Son says he plans on being the smart and funny guy to get girls to like him, not the big and strong guy, so he feels that he is all set. lol

His pediatrician says that he will eventually make better food choices because he always sees his parents making good choices. I'm not so sure about that, I feel that that should have happened by now. I don't anticipate this getting better when he enters his teen years. Either way, this does not affect my weight loss (and now maintenance). At least I am setting a good example.

This is my son almost to a T (minus quinoa and he does love meat). He's 13 and 85 lbs...tall and a skinny minny. He was always in the lowest weight % and when he was a baby docs always told me he was too skinny and too fatten him up (one said give him all the Haagen Daaz he wants). He's in the 40% now for weight and 95% height - bones, skin and a little muscle. My son only eats one veggie - baked sweet potato fries. Believe me I've tried hiding veggies in other foods, etc. He can smell pretty much any kind of veggie a mile away. For him, smell and texture are HUGE turnoffs and always have been. I still vividly remember when he was 2 yrs old and Grandpa offered him 6 peas with his roast beef. He ate the beef first and then the peas and immediately vomited them and the beef up. My poor dad felt awful and said "well won't try that one for a while!" Another time at 4 yrs old, a bean made it into his taco and same thing - took a bite and vomited everything up...he told me later "that bean was stuck on my tongue." It was like an automatic gag reflex.

Yes sometimes I want to pull my hair out or cry. I've tried to balance out our dinners during the week so that we eat pretty much the same main dish about 4 nights/week with different side dishes, but there are times where I'm craving a HUGE salad or big bowl of sweet potato carrot ginger soup and hell would freeze over before he would eat either of those. Most of our main dishes are just grilled beef, chicken pork, or fish and side dishes are grilled or roasted veggies and some kind of pasta. I usually skip the pasta.

My accomplishment this past couple of months is that he is eating a ton more fruit than he used to. I've been better at putting fresh RIPE fruit all over the place - in snacks, huge fruit plates while we're waiting for dinner to be served, etc. We both learned that we love fresh pears. I'm not going to lie - I do buy some processed snacks for his school lunch sides, but I'm picky about those snacks; I try to buy stuff with the fewest ingredients, additives, and no hydrogenated oils. Snacks at home usually are leftovers that have to be reheated.

Thank you for sharing this because I've read all the other posts and was thinking "jeez it's just me with a kid who won't eat ANYTHING." And thanks to the other posters because even after 12 years of living with someone I thought was the pickiest eater on earth, I'm going to try some of your tips, some of which I've tried before with no success but hey today is a new day.

YES! My 4 year old is on the small side too, and as I said, he does eat some variety, but because he has always been under twentieth percentile for weight, I am more inclined to let him eat grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner because he likes it, even if it means I am making two dinners. I do try to always put some of what we are eating on his plate too, and I ask him to please try everything but I don't force him to eat bites because I want dinner to be enjoyable for everyone and fighting with him to try something, then watching him get all worked up about it, then ask to spit it back out when he puts it in his mouth is no fun for anyone! It is so stressful and I do like reading the suggestions but I do think that just saying, "only give them what you are eating" is not feasible in every situation.

1brokegal44

My kids are 14 and 18. If they don't want to eat what we make (both my husband and I cook), then they can make what they want (and clean up after themselves as well). I don't run a restaurant.

CorvusCorax77

I don't make my son go on a diet just because I have. I think that's wrong. However, my son eats quinoa and veggies and your meal would not be one I would consider a "diet" meal. However, i'm eating high protein and low carb and that's not right for my child. So what do I do? I make us different meals.

I think this is something everyone has to figure out for themselves.

TriedEverything

Finding this interesting. I haven't read through every single reply, but a lot of you seem to be quite fortunate that the family will happily eat the same as you.

My kids are now older, but I must say that I have generally made separate stuff for them. To be honest, I would have thought that some of the very low calorie stuff is not neccessarily the best for growing children. Or it should at least be supplemented with a bit of something extra.

And as for hubby, he would not touch most of my diet-friendly meals! He's definitely more fussy than the kids. Having said that, he's quite happy to prepare his own food, so there isn't really any extra hassle involved for me. We both work un-typical hours, so family mealtimes don't happen every day anyway.

The main problem with eating differently from each other is the expense! :frown:

Lyerin

I agree with the folks talking about kids' nutritional needs. I have a 9 year old DD who is a competitive cheerleader, meaning she does a ton of gymnastics, dance, etc. She needs to eat a variety of healthy foods. I may limit my cheese, but I'm not going to tell her she can't have a snack involving cheese, as long as it's good cheese. Same for my 4 year old son who is consistently at the bottom of the growth chart for weight. Last night he wanted yogurt as a side with dinner. Okay by me. He had cheese as a snack afterwards. Okay. Then an apple. Okay too.

pkinblue

While I do buy things I won't eat for the kids (Goldfish, chips, juice, frozen waffles) in general the kids are expected to eat what I make--only I don't worry too much about their portions--except for the chips. We only have ice cream on a special occasion and if they are jonesing for sweets I make cake in a cup so there is none for me to eat. Or they eat a banana with choc. syrup on it. We talk a lot about how to eat balanced meals--and how to eat to prepare for a long day of sports and they help me make their lunches so we talk about balance there too. As they are both lean and growing (10 and 12) if they are still hungry I help them find healthy, filling snacks between meals. If there ever is a meal they just hate they can make a meat & Cheese sandwich as an alternative so they don't do a midnight raid on the potato chips.

laele75

i have never understood the "my kid will only eat __insert bad food here__". you are the parent. you make the rules. when i was growing up you ate what was served or you didn't eat. my mom very rarely cooked but a couple of times a year she would make bean soup. i hated it! hated! we ate it for a week. that means for a solid week i ate cornbread because there was cornbread to go with the bean soup. that said, i would kill for a bowl of my mom's bean soup now! not to mention, why would you let you child eat things that you deem unhealthy for you to eat.

also, i would wager the children of south america probably would disagree that children won't eat quinoa ;-)

For most children, this is true. For mine, it is not. My son will refuse to eat period if I try to force him to eat anything. For days. His appetite is abnormal and has been all of his life. While he is an exception, you are being extremely harsh and judgmental of others. I can tell you from experience most children will react the way you did, which is very hard for a parent. When you're child will not eat, refuses to eat, it is extremely hard on a parent. You feel terrible, especially when the behavior persists when you know the child is hungry.

Children's palate is different than adults. It hasn't matured yet. That means you have to make things towards their palate as the child who will eat anything is pretty rare. (In my family, out of five grandkids, only one will eat everything you put in front of her). Calling people who have decided to not push food on their children bad parents is unfair and wrong. Pushing food on your children is the fastest way to make them not eat. It is much better for everyone to introduce new food slowly. That is responsible parenting. Not "You will eat this or go hungry." That's just setting up your child to be a poor eater in the future, because now they have total control when you never gave them any input. The way your parents did things was not always right.

samcat2000

i have never understood the "my kid will only eat __insert bad food here__". you are the parent. you make the rules. when i was growing up you ate what was served or you didn't eat. my mom very rarely cooked but a couple of times a year she would make bean soup. i hated it! hated! we ate it for a week. that means for a solid week i ate cornbread because there was cornbread to go with the bean soup. that said, i would kill for a bowl of my mom's bean soup now! not to mention, why would you let you child eat things that you deem unhealthy for you to eat.

also, i would wager the children of south america probably would disagree that children won't eat quinoa ;-)

For most children, this is true. For mine, it is not. My son will refuse to eat period if I try to force him to eat anything. For days. His appetite is abnormal and has been all of his life. While he is an exception, you are being extremely harsh and judgmental of others. I can tell you from experience most children will react the way you did, which is very hard for a parent. When you're child will not eat, refuses to eat, it is extremely hard on a parent. You feel terrible, especially when the behavior persists when you know the child is hungry.

Children's palate is different than adults. It hasn't matured yet. That means you have to make things towards their palate as the child who will eat anything is pretty rare. (In my family, out of five grandkids, only one will eat everything you put in front of her). Calling people who have decided to not push food on their children bad parents is unfair and wrong. Pushing food on your children is the fastest way to make them not eat. It is much better for everyone to introduce new food slowly. That is responsible parenting. Not "You will eat this or go hungry." That's just setting up your child to be a poor eater in the future, because now they have total control when you never gave them any input. The way your parents did things was not always right.

TOTALLY AGREE!! Thank you!

And speaking to other posters comments about portion size for kids, I don't control that at all. I let him eat how much he wants to eat (as long as there is some left and if there's not we find something else)...the kid is sprouting like a bean and I would not put any limitation on his portion sizes.

ktully93

Bump to follow.

aeg176

I have been stuggling with this. I have a picky 2yr old and for awhile I was making an alternative to what I ate so he would eat. This child hasn't cooperatively eaten a vegatable for me since he started feeding himself. I have stopped with the variations and if he doesn't like what cook for dinner the most he will get is a cup of milk so his stomach isn't empty. Still experimenting with hiding the veggies and I have been a little more successful but I am very happy for vitamins and pediasure sidekicks otherwise I don't know where my son would be nutritionally. Sidenote: a few weeks back I made turkey meatballs and spaghetti(veggie pasta) and he ate it up like it was going to be taken away from him so I am trying to be patient and hope he will be out if this phase sooner than later.

MommaChocoLatte

My kids will pretty much eat anything I make. I don't make separate meals. We do ask that they at least try something a few times before they decide they dont like it and if after that they still dont like it, then we dont push.

I also have a child with Aspergers and the medication he takes promotes weight gain (its an anti-depressant) and the other night he told us he wanted to eat healthier because he was tired of being fat. He's nine. So I do try to monitor his intake as much as I can when he eats at home.

suzieqsmart

My daughter is almost 2 and she eats everything I eat. So does my husband. They both love quinoa and all the veggies and fruits. One of her favorite snacks is chunks of avocado.

I don't prepare seperate meals, however, sometimes if there is leftovers, I will let them eat that and I'll opt for a salad or something light. I do still buy the snacks but I've noticed that they disappear a LOT slower now that the snacking isn't a "family ritual".

run_way

If your making the decision to eat for your health, why would you not feed your children healthy as well??? My kids eat what I eat if I eat salad so do they, they may have some snacks that I dont eat but as for their main meals we all eat the same. Why make myself a healthy meal and then make them a meal thats less healthy???

x2

I make my morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack at the same time I'm preparing my daughter's and she basically gets a mini version of what I am eating with some exceptions such as whole milk instead of 1% or almond milk, classic yogurt instead of nonfat greek, etc.

ETA: I don't feed her "diet" food, I feed her things that are nutritionally dense. Also, since I tend to lean toward a higher protein/lower carb diet I usually add extra things to hers to add more carbs and supplement what she needs that my meal might be missing.

manda1978

I have a very fussy 3yo so I might make some minor adjustments. Sure I serve her salad etc but I know she will not eat it. A typical meal would be steak and salad, she'll eat the steak. Grilled chicken and veg is another one, I will crumb her chicken so its like nuggets and oven bake them. I'll sometimes add a small roll or slice of bread to her meal.