I really struggle to come up with ideas for family meals that my 18 month old ds can share with us. He is a bit fussy and likes what he likes but is gradually starting to be a bit more adventurous so I would like to try some different things with him.
How about you let me know what you're cooking for lunch and tea today to give me some ideas.
Posts: 650 | Location: New Zealand | Registered: 04 January 2006
I find it hard coming up with new things, so this thread will be good for me too!
Yesterday lunchtime isabelle and i both had eggy bread (or french toast - whatever you want to call it!), then for tea we all had quiche, jacket potato and salad with some french stick. Im not sure yet what we are having for lunch, isabelle isnt that fussed on bread, so she will probably have crackerbread with some cheese, cucumber and a few crisps. For tea tonight we have lamb steaks, roasties, carrots and sprouts with gravy!
I hope this thread will help others as I'm sure I'm not the only one who struggles for ideas.
Tyler wouldn't eat much from your menu at the moment but hopefully he will soon.
Quiche, JP and salad used to be one of our favourite meals but I must admit I wouldn't have tried to serve it to Tyler. He seems so far off from eating this sort of thing.
Posts: 650 | Location: New Zealand | Registered: 04 January 2006
Emiy isn't 100% at the mo, so only eating little bits but heres some ideas of things she likes
jacket potato with cheese and beans cod in parsley sauce (boil in bag) with veg roast dinners shepherds pie casseroles ffish fingers occasionally likes peas as a finger food she loves banana as a snack - wont eat if you give her a piece - but if you offer a bite of yours she will eat the lot - piggy! Can't think now!
ooh she loves pasta bakes - with any meat cut up tiny can't think of anything else!
Posts: 4535 | Location: United Kingdom | Registered: 16 March 2006
Tyler is great with fruit - his favourite things are bananas and blueberries, but he will eat apples, nectarines, plums, pears, mandarins - he loves to hold the whole fruit and munch away at it.
The only veg he will eat is peas and cucumber.
He will have a few bites of a piece of toast but won't eat bread in general - I don't think he likes "squishy" things although he did love hot cross buns when they were around.
He loves any sort of crackers but will only eat them plain or with marmite.
The only meals I can be sure he will eat are spaghetti bolognaise with garlic bread, fruity chicken curry and rice (Annable Karmel recipe), sausages, chicken bites like kebab chunks or frozen burgers cut up and chips.
He won't eat cheese, eggs, baked beans, tinned spaghetti, plain pasta, sandwiches, creamy based sauces, fish fingers, potato other than chips or wedges.
I used to cook lots of casseroles as he would eat these but he is more interested in finger food meals now. He will use a spoon and be fed from one but also likes to use his fingers for the curry and spag bol etc.
He has been very reluctant to try new things but in the last month or so he has tried the sausages, chicken etc. I do keep offering him things but I know that I am getting stuck in the rut of giving him what I know he will eat. That's fine until he refuses something he normally eats and then I am stuck for something else to try.
Thanks for your list Peanut - sounds like the sort of things I have been trying too. Sorry to hear Emily is not too good at the moment, hope she's better soon.
Posts: 650 | Location: New Zealand | Registered: 04 January 2006
oh emily hates egg normally - but liked it when I did it scrambled! with a splash of milk and a teeny bit of cheese for flavour - she can feed herself that too - off the fork or if I am not watching with her hands!
Have you tried putting things he doesn't like into things he does, in small quantitites which you can then increase so he gets used to the texture / taste...thats why I have always done with Emily - for example she used to hate baked beans so I put some mushed up in a jacket which she ate, kept doing that until we got to the point where I could make a jacket and beans as normal and she would eat it - then I did just beans but put a bit of potato in it and cheese
now she will happily eat beans with cheese and corned beef / chicken
Posts: 4535 | Location: United Kingdom | Registered: 16 March 2006
I do think that they all go through this, its so hard though isnt it! You want them to eat so you give them things that you know they like, but then they dont eat other things cus they dont know what they are! I think it says in the AK book that it can take up to 15 trys of a new food for a baby to work out whether they like it or not - so keep trying!
Tyler sounds just like my 18 month old son. He doesnt like cheese, eggs, will only have a bite of toast, though Tyker is doing much better by having fruit and veg, my son wont touch any of it as finger food. Obviously I try every day but not a chance at the moment! I am sure it is just a stage as my 4 year old was the same and now eats anything. My sons favourite meal at the minute is butternut squash soup (he doesnt know what's in it ) 1 butternut sqaush (cut into pieces and roasted in hot oven for 20 minutes) 1 onion chopped 1 red pepper chopped 1 potato chopped 1 carrot chopped 1 bayleaf 1/2 cup red lentils 500 mls veg stock salt and pepper to taste if wanted
Put olive oil into pan and sweat all vegetables until slightly translucent, then add lentils, stock, bayleaf and salt and pepper, simmer for 30 minutes or so, cool and then blend.
This is a really sweet soup, we all love it in this house. Good luck, it may help to know that most are in the same boat I would love any ideas that anyones got to help my very fussy eater. Take care.
Just wanted to say that it sounds to me like you're all doing brilliantly!! Kathryn is right - they say it takes on average 10 goes before a baby or child will accept a new taste so don't give up on the first go. Also, babies and children generally require much less of a varied diet (as in different things every day, not as in food groups) than adults do. If we had fish fingers every day for a week we would be heartily fed up with them, but young children don't have the same problem (it's the same as they want the same book read over and over again until you are reach screaming point - something to do with fimiliarity I think).
So, what I am trying to say is you are all doing fab - don't try to make your little 'un "join in" with the same meals as you if they don't want to. When you make them a meal, make more of it and freeze in portion sizes. Then, if you decide to have something that you know they won't eat, you can whip a portion of something you know they like out of the freezer and everyone is happy (also they will probably see you have something different and want to try it, opening the door to something new in the repertoire (sp??)).
Sorry if that's not particularly helpful (and if it's any consolation, when they are teenagers they will probably eat you out of house and home anyway).
Ali xxx
PS - for what it's worth, Darcey loves the filled fresh pasta with sauce - she eats it by hand and then trys to blag some from her brother and sister if they haven't finished!!
Posts: 342 | Location: United Kingdom | Registered: 07 May 2006
HI, Its funny how they are all different, i often say 'what am i a cafe?' I really dont mind cooking for 4 as long as they enjoy their food. There are ways and means with everything, i blend anything to a puree that they dont eat, mainly so it cant be picked out but also cant be identified, so pasta sauces blended up get eaten!(but you can add any veg to a sauce if its blended its concealed) Fruit i chop up and serve with a blob of chocolate spread to dip in, the kids eat lots more fruit that way. I have also allowed them to make a right mess and feed themselves, and have never had a really faddy eater, i make everything available so nothing is eaten in a frenzy, chocolate biscuits are freely available and to be honest the kids walk past them! I am looking forward to my daughter weaning, i will be steaming blending and freezing in ice cube trays like a nutter! I bagged the cubes up last time and just mix and match so one cube potato, one carrot one day and different combination the next. My fav though was baby porridge, that always smells lovely.
Prob got nothing to do with what you have all been talking about but saw the subject and thought i would say!
All sounds good to me! I'm unbelievably lucky - Erin will eat anything apart from tartare sauce. I dread to think what the next one will be like!!! Erin likes things like spag bol, chilli, curry, beans on toast, fishfingers,chips and beans, mackerel risotto, meatballs with mash and red wine sauce (a bit naughty i know), and most of my WW recipes I do. So she's a star. If you want any of the recipes, let me know! Kepp going though, a lot of the kids in my family are fussy eaters, as was I, so I think they may have swapped Erin when I was asleep in the hospital (!) but you all sound like ur doing ok, just try sneaking a new thing in with the old, apparently it helps if there are familiar flavours around the new one!
Posts: 339 | Location: Nottingham | Registered: 01 November 2006
Just wanted to add that i end up giving ds1 the same things a lot of the time so i feel guilty about his lack of variety, then dh will give him totally different things that i wouldn't even have thought of. then nursery will give him something else again - this means he has 3 sets of 'similar' stuff, so i figure that's a rounded diet
Posts: 277 | Location: Essex, UK | Registered: 28 July 2006
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