You let your kids eat what??

We ate my parent's meals or we had the option of making our own peanut butter and jelly sandwich. We could then clean up after ourselves. This option was generally way less appealling then whatever my parent's made.

^This

My mom would let me make a pb & j if I didn't want to eat what she made, or else I had to wait until the next meal. After making my own pb & j a few times, I stopped being so picky and ate what she made. She also insisted on me eating a "no thank you helping" of foods I didn't like.

We didn't eat healthy foods all the time, and it wasn't a matter of cost most of the time, my mom just knew better than to make 3 different meals for the family. (My dad is and was a vegetarian, while my mother and I weren't so she already had to substitute some things for him on occasion. And yes I have quite a few favorite vegetarian dishes that I grew up with and that I would take over certain meat items given my mood, etc.)

Once I got older, if I wanted something else I had to make it myself and clean up after cooking. In return I do the same back to them since I'm cooking for my parents most of the time now-a-days. They grumble with my food choices at times, but since I contribute to groceries for my dishes (and at times theirs) and because they don't have to cook they don't complain as much now.

Now I'm not a picky eater (in my mind at least). I try new things often and there are very few things I dislike enough to pick out and/or request (at a restuarant) not to be included in my meal.

*Edit: I'm not a parent either, just adding my two cent because I do cook for other people often and can relate.

**Edit 2: Because of the pb & j sandwich rule I won't eat them for 6 or 7 years. I only got back into it about 5 years ago when I needed to make a quick lunch. (I still liked the peanut butter and bread, just not together with/ or without jelly/jam.)

Eat it or leave it, those are the choices.
Plus I think it's hilarious to see my kids order menudo, or lengua, or squid salad when we go out, so I serve wierd stuff like that at home. I make everybody's plates, restaraunt-style, and the rule is if you want seconds of anything, you have to clean the plate to prove you're actually hungry for it, and not just wanting to munch. Sometimes it's worth it, sometimes it's not.

It's worked well so far; I have five stringy kids who know what they like, and know how much they have to eat to last until breakfast.I don't force them to eat anything unless they start whining about how gross it is; If that happens they have to eat one bite...But now that I think about it, it's been years since any of them has said anything rude about my cooking,

My one son will eat anything and my other son eats like five foods total. And you can't make him eat it, he'd rather starve. It's a mental block for him, he starts sweating, heart pounds, anxiety, if he even THINKS he has to try a new food. And not just healthy food, he won't try new "junk" or yummy food, either. He threw up a piece of cinnamon roll that I made him try. He never eats dinner, because I don't cook him special meals anymore (did until 5, after 5 I told him he was a big boy and had to eat what was ont he table), but I usually have fruit with dinner so he will eat that and he's not going to bed with a totally empty stomach.

But if there was no fruit, he still wouldn't eat - no amount of threats, bribes or consequences will move him to eat. Eventually he will get over the mental aspect of it, I think - hoping when he has friends who try things or eat things and there's no pressure, he'll be willing to try it.

I cook all of our meals and I always have so my kids don't really know to beg for processed stuff. They have sweets on occasion but almost all the sweets are home baked treats. My four year old's favorite food is marinated roasted tofu, my 2.5 year old will pick a clementine over any other snack available and my 14 month old cries bitter tears if I don't spoon feed him at least 1/5 of my kale smoothie in the morning! I've also realized that they are way more likely to eat well seasoned foods like roasted cauliflower with paprika and sea salt instead of steamed plain cauliflower- I think kids actually love good flavor and the salt in processed food mimics what they don't always find in "health food"

Now if they go to a birthday party and there are cheetoes and kool-aid there do they turn their noses up at them? No way! But they also never ask me for chips or anything other than milk or water because they know we don't keep that kind of stuff in the house.

Dinner at our house is eat or don't eat. If you have a complaint, you are welcome to take over cooking duties from me.
My son is 2 and eats pretty much anything, unless its super spicy. We love ice cream and cookies, but don't have them often and even if we do he doesn't always want them. Sometimes dinner is mac and cheese- homemade cause I can't stand the stuff out of the box. Sometimes its fast food. Usually its something healthy. He loves fish and turkey, chicken is hit or miss, we don't eat much beef and little to no pork, beans are always a win. Sometimes he just eats ketchup off a spoon :laugh: but I had to have ketchup drowning everything until I was 15 so I'm not going to harp on that. I can't think of any veggies he won't eat, especially if they are raw. I'm not willing to force him to eat anything. My husband and I aren't big fruit eaters but I always make sure he gets some on his plate because typically he will eat it even if he decides he doesn't want the other food.
For lunch and breakfast he has more control and can choose what he wants. I don't have anything in the house he shouldn't be eating (just things he shouldn't drink lol) He helps me pick out foods at the store; I've had many times where I have to buy extra fruit and veggies because he'll pull it off the rack and take a bite out of it! His current daily demand is bell pepper strips and clemintine oranges.

I have one picky one and one who will eat just about anything put in front of her. Go figure, I raised and fed them the same way.

I try to get them to help meal plan with me so that they are choosing the foods they like to put on our menu. If it is something I choose not to eat, then I try to keep my meal as close as possible. (examples: sheppard's pie for them, sheppard's pie made with lentils and mushrooms for me, pizza for them, vegetarian tortilla pizza for me).

On their activity nights, they will eat something more kid like such as grilled cheese sandwiches and my husband and I eat later, something more to our palate. I always make a veggie tray to put out while everyone is waiting for supper. That way, at least I know they got their veggies.

I always try to make one thing every night that my little guy will eat, but then he also has to eat one or two bites of a veggie and one or two bites of meat. We only make him a completely special meal if we're having something he can't eat (spicy grilled chicken with general tso's sauce) or most kids won't eat (brats and sauerkraut).

We made him a chart of his daily chores. He's only 3 so his chart is pretty basic - eat dinner, feed cat, brush teeth, clean room, no time outs, etc. Now he eats his dinner much easier, because he doesn't get a sticker if he doesn't. He also can't have any treats after dinner (sugar free pudding, a pouch of fruit snacks, etc). He's pretty reward motivated (he loves his new monster truck when he fills out the chart at the end of the week), so that works for us. Not every little kid cares about that stuff, though.

I think you have to try to get them to eat the good things, but you also don't want to make meal times something they start to dread. If your little one eats good the rest of the day (our guy eats like champ at daycare, fruit, veggies, meat, milk), then you can be a little more relaxed at home. They can be kind of tired and cranky by the time dinner is served and that can make it worse. (My son ate stuff for lunch at a local buffet Saturday that he won't touch at home for dinner during the week, go figure).

This reminds me of a video that a dad posted on youtube they played it on Tosh.0 on comedy central (which I avoid watching due to my weird fear of vomit and he plays A LOT of it.. just gross.), of his child eating a few green beans just to get him to try it... This kid SPEWED all over the table and in his bowl.. It was sick.
Not in a good way. Blech. I'd rather my child not eat it than vomit all over my table. :sick:

My daughter eats if I tell her to eat. Doesn't matter what it is. She likes pretty much everything but babybell cheese and processed crap. She is the only two year old I know that will eat onions. She likes healthy, clean food thank goodness. I've never kept junk food in the house, so she was born into healthy eating which helps, i'm assuming. When i was little if you didn't eat your food, you had it for the next meal, I was also raised with clean eating due to lack of money and an awesome grandmother who home made everything and taught me how to as well. (Eight people lived in our house)

Ok I'm a mean mum but my oldest used to eat anything until she hit four then she got really fussy and would eat nothing but plain bread/pasta and chicken nuggets. I always put other food infront of her but she just made such a fuss she put my younger two off their dinner. So finally I got to breaking point (this January) as I found out she ate anything round her friends and told her if she wouldn't eat my food she could have school lunches instead (her biggest nightmare). So I went into school the next day put her name down for them. Now she's eating roast dinners, vegetable noodles, salads, lamb curries and loads of other things and she absolutely loves them.

So now I give the boys cooked food for lunch and they all have a sandwich or some other type of cold meal for dinner and the best part is she now eats what I cook at the weekends aswell.

If I didn't eat what my mother gave me she would serve it up to me for my next meal. I'm not a parent, so I'm probably going to get flamed here, but when did parents start pandering to kids like this? I'm just curious, did the parents of this generation do that? Mine didn't and certainly the previous generation couldn't afford to.

This. I had to break my wife of the habbit of making our 2 year old (who was pretty picky) special dinners. He eats what we eat or gets nothing. I will not pander to a child and go through extra effort to make something else. This is what's for dinner/breakfast/lunch. Guess what, after about a week of picking at his food, crying, whining and being a PITA he now eats pretty much anything I put in front of him without issues. Kids that get to pick and choose what they will or will not eat are just spoiled IMO.

Also anyone that thinks that their child HAS to eat, and will starve before they will eat because they are stubborn has obviously never actually been hungry themselves.

my parents made me eat soap.

That's because you were bad

My parents made us finish whatever was on our frickin plate, if you didn't, you sat there until you did....after a few cold meals we learned to finish quickly whether we liked it or not

I had to get my kid off chicken nuggets. You know, the frozen kind? I don't know if its Autism related, or what, but he wouldn't eat anything else. Ever. He would simply NOT EAT. For days.

Eventually, I just stopped buying them. We had a rough week, but he finally got off the nugget kick.

He's still beyond picky. There are plenty of night where he doesn't eat dinner. Gotta pick your battles!

I'm commenting just to quote this, because my youngest brother is the same way.. ONLY chicken nuggets for YEARS. h is also a giant fan of different kinds of fried potatoes (fried, hashbrowns, tater tots). My mom is trying to break him of the habit, but she's too busy breaking the habit of getting 'snacks' (soda, chocolate, cheetos, at once) everytime he wants them. His father doesn't like dealing with his meltdowns (they are divorcing), ever, so he just gives him piles of sweets instead. It's sad.