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doris
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| Posted: Nov 15 2007 at 5:10pm | IP Logged
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Interesting thread.
As children, we were *always* expected to 'clear our plates'. I'm grateful for that in a way as I now like almost everything and can force myself to eat most things if necessary. However, I can't leave food if I'm full and I suppose that might get to be an issue as I get older and have to worry about my weight.
My 7yo used to be an incredibly fussy eater as a toddler. There were days when she would literally only eat a bowl of cornflakes and a packet of hula hoops. (I blush!) I think that's pretty typical and now I'm a bit more experienced I wouldn't get as worried about it. She's now a good eater, willing to try new things and even willing to eat a bit of something she doesn't really like if she knows it's good for her.
I do what others have mentioned -- try to serve a variety of things so that everyone has something he or she likes. So if there's fish on the menu which ds doesn't like, I know he can eat the potatoes and veg, for example.
One thing that has worked really well is to tell them about the 'five a day' guidelines and get them to take responsibility themselves for counting up and maybe having a bit more veg at suppertime to get to 5.
As for snacks, I just don't let mine eat snacks outside set meal or snack times. They have breakfast, midmorning snack of fruit and hot chocolate, lunch, afternoon snack on the go and then supper. That's it. (And it seems like plenty to me!) If they're hungry at other times it means they haven't eaten the previous meal properly and they need to learn that there isn't a constant stream of food coming. Having said that, if anyone was desperately hungry I would let them help themselves to some fruit or easy snack like breadsticks.
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Angie Mc
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Something that has helped my family, I picked up from how I was raised: Take what you want and as much as you want (considering the whole family needs to eat) and eat what you take. The only time we were served was when there was a limited portion, like mom cooked 5 chicken legs so we each received one. Oh, and my dad was served, by my mom, first (because she knew exactly what and how much he wanted.)
My family didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up, but my dad loved (still does) to eat and my mother was (still is) a great cook. We had simple meals but somehow mom made each delicious and my dad always admired her food. Every Friday night we had pasta with homemade sauce. Every Friday night, my dad would announce that it was the best ever! Still does...it's very sweet. If a child didn't want to eat something it was "our loss" and the reply would be "Great, more for the rest of us!" My folks didn't fuss over us eating or not eating. There was an effective simplicity to their method...an interesting combination of freedom, limits, respect, and gratitude. Oh...and we always ended our Grace before meals with, "Bless the cook!" Still do  .
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Angie Mc
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kristina
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Angie - it sounds like you grew up in a very loving family. I enjoyed reading your post. You left me with an impression of your parents that seems like they have great love and devotion to one another. I aspire have our children grow up with good memories like yours.
Thank you for sharing this post.
Blessings,
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Tina P.
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Strange thing around here is that my kids don't like things that you would suppose kids would like: chicken parmegian (my kids LOVE spaghetti, so why not spaghetti with chicken and cheese in it?). But they love spinach casserole, chickpeas a la king, turkey (but one claims he hates chicken), cheese and bean tortillas, calamari, and pasta with shrimp and capers in white or scampi sauce. 
Do *you* get the correlation, here? Because I certainly don't!
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Angie Mc
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kristina wrote:
Angie - it sounds like you grew up in a very loving family. I enjoyed reading your post. You left me with an impression of your parents that seems like they have great love and devotion to one another. I aspire have our children grow up with good memories like yours.
Thank you for sharing this post.
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Thanks, kristina. Our family had its share of problems but pasta brought the best out of us  . To this day I LOVE the smell of garlic cooking in olive oil - the first step of our homemade pasta sauce (where's the YUM emoticon?)
Tina P. wrote:
Do *you* get the correlation, here? Because I certainly don't! |
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Love,
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SallyT
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Tina -- my kids like all kinds of weird "non-kid" foods, too. When we lived in England, we used to go out fairly frequently to a Cypriot restaurant where the only things my then-fairly-young older kids would eat, that we were willing to pay for, were a couple of appetizers, and one was calimari rings. For years my oldest daughter ate those and enthused over that yummy rubber noodle in the middle . . . it was a LONG time before we told her what it was!
To me, the issue overall isn't really as much about what they eat -- once it's on their plate, I honestly don't pay attention to how much of it they're eating. What I pay attention to is whether they're making a big fuss about not wanting it. I guess I just assume they're going to eat okay, because usually "okay" food is all that's available, but I worry about their manners, because it's become an obsessive pet peeve with me to have children dictate to adults "what they eat." I don't mind being told politely that somebody doesn't much like such-and-such; what I do mind is having a child say, "Well, where's the peanutbutter?" or "I don't eat that without ketchup," or "I don't eat that, period," in such a tone that makes it clear that the child expects me to jump up and do something about it, like maybe run to the grocery store. And I'm not making it up: alas, one or two of my kids' friends have done just that, and seemed really kind of surprised when I DIDN'T jump up and run to the grocery store.
I try not to make the dinner situation intolerable for anyone, but at family dinner, the customer is NOT always right!
(so I guess that's my way of saying that for me, it IS all about character and how we treat people who do things for us . . . )
Sally
PS What are some good things to have on hand to put on the table as choices, that don't involve a lot of prepping? That would make a good list. Mine would include:
baby carrots and ranch dressing
baked apples (just slice 'em and pop 'em in the oven)
applesauce (pref. the unsweetened kind -- I had to wean my kids onto that and off the high-fructose corn syrup kind)
dried fruit (mangoes, pineapple, apricots, etc) in a little bowl to pass
peanuts or other nuts for protein (we don't have allergies! or a baby or toddler!), again in a little bowl to pass
good-quality wheat or other whole-grain bread
You can use soup-sized bowls instead of regular serving bowls and set a number of these easy choices on the table, so that people can help themselves easily -- anything to save a lot of getting up and down!
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: Food issues
