So what do the kids eat...?

My kids eat what we eat, for the most part. One is 3.5 and the other is 1.5. The only time I make them anything separate is if I make something I know they won't eat or is spicy (chili, curry). If they don't eat their meal they don't get anything else. The exception to that rule is vegetables. They always get veggies when they ask. I usually have things like cucumbers, broccoli and carrots on hand.
They love fruit and veggies, the youngest especially fruit and the oldest especially veggies. The 3 year old will actually steal green beans and stuff from the produce section if I don't watch him close enough.

I still buy my kids what they want for their lunches. They need things that are easy to microwave or straight from the fridge, so I let them pick what they want to take for lunch. For snacks, I do occasionally buy them snack cakes or chips, I just don't eat them unless I have the calories available. I have noticed that the longer I have been buying the healthy snacks, the more often they choose the healthy snacks before the junk. I am succeeding with my kids, but my hubby still has that sweet tooth!

For dinner, they eat what I cook, no exceptions. But I try to fix a healthy but tasty meal that the whole family can eat.

My 2 and 3 year old love quinoa! And asparagus, broccoli, carrots, beets, peas, mashed potatoes, mashed cauliflower, chicken breast, applesauce, pork chops, rice, hamburgers, meatloaf, pasta, etc. They eat what we eat. I make "normal" meals, but I always count the calories and portion control. I can't live without spaghetti night, burger night or pizza night every once in a while!

Reading thru this thread I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong? I basically still cook the same as always only now I'm cooking a bit lighter version, watching my portions, and cutting down on my carbs (I was a severe addict!). So my family enjoys dinnertime same as usual.

Have others seriously changed their menus? If so, how? (btw I'm obviously new around here!).

While growing up I the only options I was presented at meal time was "take it or leave it"
My husband and I plan on sticking to that with our family.

If the kids see you making good choices, they will make good choices. You are their first teacher and leader just through your actions.

My kids eat whatever i fix them no choice, or go hungry. Meals at my house are all gluten free. However i don't always eat what they eat because i don't eat grain or much fruit to keep my blood sugar down. Like if i make a brown rice or pasta dish i just make my self a dish with more veggies. Or if i make them gluten free wraps, i have mine on lettuce wraps. They like lettuce wraps too, but i like them to have a grain. They have issues with grain or fruit so it wouldn't be fair to them not to get that stuff just because i can't eat it.

Snacks at my house are free, fruit or veggie anytime except and hour before a meal.

I really think its about finding what works for you family.

I love seeing so many people saying that they feed their children healthy meals.

I don't have children yet but definitely planning it and I want to raise them in a more healthy way than I was raised. I don't understand why so many parents feel like children SHOULD be eating candy every day, or that they SHOULD eat fries every week. If you are eating healthy with the occassional indulgence, why not raise them that way?

I am going to teach my children from a young age the benefits of healthy nutrition, as well as the benefits of exercise.

hummis and pita chips,and pretzels and nutella with silk mik is what my daughter loves to eat everyday thank god for sams club and good earth market .AND I MEAN EVERYDAY :laugh:

Well, the kids need to learn to eat healthy too, but it is also true that they have slightly different nutritional needs than you do.

This is a really good point -- "Healthy" for kids might be somewhat different than "healthy" for a grownup.

Or at least -- good nutritious food is a constant, but parents should be aware that kids may need different macros than adults. Remember, they're growing fast, and not "Growing" like an adult -- straight out. They're making new cells, new bones, growing teeth. They NEED good fat and cholesterol. I hear people say they're putting their babies on skim milk and throwing out the egg yolks for them and I just want to yell "NO! Your kid is NOT YOU!" (Well, I tend to want to yell "NO! Don't!" when I hear about people throwing out good egg yolks no matter what).

Breakfast & lunch varies & the kids don't always eat as healthy at lunch. However, at suppertime, we all eat the same meal. My kitchen is not a restaurant & I refuse to fix a specific meal for each person. I never purposedly fix things I know my kids dislike but I have tried my best to not raise my kids to be overly picky eaters. Every person dislikes certain foods so I don't expect them to like everything but I do expect them to be open to trying different foods. I don't see why I'd fix a decently healthy dinner & then ever fix them a different meal that wasn't healthy. That just boggles my mind & I honestly don't have the time in the kitchen to mess with making 2 seperate dinners in the evenings.

I have to say I realized pretty early on that if I didn't make a big deal of what we were eating was different from before my son didn't say anything. Granted he is 2 but we eat together most nights at the table, he usually cleans his plate and for the most part stays away from carbs and junk...he had treats but it's usually away from the house. Like yesterday he was at my sister's so he got pizza and soda, I don't give him either when we are home or even if we are out but he knows that once in a while he gets a treat. Feeding kids different then you eat isn't always best for them.

Most of the time, my son eats what I eat for dinner. He has his own lunches for school, and his own cereal for breakfast. On the weekends, we usually go out at least one night.

I try to get him healthy food for his lunches / breakfast. I don't allow nutrient deficient, sugar loaded foods into the house, but I do allow him cookies and ice cream if he wants them - provided his behavior is good! lol

We buy chips, but I don't consider them bad. They've got good fats in them. He's allowed 1 frozen dinner a week, if that, because he likes them, and spaghettios or Chef Boyardee in a can once a week if he wants, because he likes it and it's convenient.

I don't think I should force every aspect of my diet and health on my family - but if I'm cooking, I'm doing it for me as well. I take into consideration what they like too, but I've made them cut down on salt a bit since I've also done that, and just cooking dinner most nights has helped with eating healthier all around. You can still cook what they like, just make healthy substitutes where you can without sacrificing flavor, and eat smaller portions if you have to so everyone is happy. It's not a big deal.

We still eat meatloaf, burgers, spaghetti, pan fried chicken (boneless, skinless, breaded, delicious) and I incorporate fresh veggies and fruits into everything when I can. There is the occasional night of canned soup and grilled cheese or tuna salad, frozen pizza or delivered pizza - but like I said, for the most part, we eat healthy dinners together, and that is what I'm most concerned with. The biggest improvement is not eating fast food every week, multiple times a week. lol

I'm doing well with the healthy eating. Went shopping yesteday loaded up with fresh veggies, beans, quinoa. prepped a bunch of healthy recipes and then thought... And now what are the kids going to eat?! (and my husband remarked-where are the chips?) Sure they'll eat fresh veggies and fruit, but probably not Quinoa or Niciose Salad. So how do you integrate the family eating with your own?
2 seperate meals? And keep buying those snacks?

How old are your kids? It's never too early to introduce foods to kids and I'm a little saddened by the fact that you would think you need to not feed them the same way. My kids both have celiac disease and quinoa is one of their favorite foods, breakfast or lunch, or dinner, doesn't matter. Don't sell your kids short, encourage them to eat it.

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.

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....