posted
In my family growing up there were two "rules" about eating:
1. You had to taste everything on your plate. You didn't have to eat all of anything, but you had to taste everything before you decided to leave the table.
2. If you didn't like what was served for the meal, then you didn't have a meal, no second options were served. However, there were often leftover meals where you could choose from like- five different leftovers what you wanted. I liked that!
We were also allowed to choose a food to hate. My mom hates peas, my dad hates oysters and I detest cooked celery.
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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posted
In my family, we were forced to eat what was on our plate. There were no leftovers, and there were no options.
However. We also ate the same dang thing every day, six days a week until I moved away from the parents when I was 16. I can no longer look at a boiled to glue potatoe, hockey puck hamburger patties, or mushy peas or carrots. It took me until five years ago before I could eat hamburger again, and until this last year until I could eat potatoes, carrots, or peas. Well, I still have a hard time with peas.
Yep, emotional scarring can result from food choices. . .
But remember, I had *that* family.
Now curries. That's a whole other ballgame. I LOVE curries.
posted
If he'll eat fruits, perhaps he might like baked apples, chopped and mixed with baked sweet potatoes and walnuts, flavored with maple syrup and brown sugar and with a little dollop ofvanilla yogurt on top.
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posted
We could change it, but celery has always been my least favorite. I've started to enjoy it raw in the past few years, but that is one food that isn't meant to be cooked.
Thinking about it, it was pretty smart on my parent's part. We had to try everything in order to know which one food we hated the most.
Posts: 862 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote: I've never had a child that would eat normal food. We only have the one and he's a freak about food. He refused baby cereal after the first time he ate it and refused baby food altogether.
Yeah, that stuff's nasty. I have never asked my kids to eat something I wouldn't eat.
(Stuff they ask to eat, now that's a different matter. They adore shrimp, and I would have to be weak from starvation before I ate seafood.
I do think fresh veggies will tend to be tastier than cooked. I basically never serve cooked veggies, except in stews or soups ( or mashed potatos). I just make crudite plates for the table and the kids serve themselves.
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
I'm curious. Out of the parents that had picky eaters, were either of the parents picky?
My nieces don't like to eat food in general if it isn't dripping with high fructose corn syrup, processed sugars, and trans fats. But then, their mom only likes dry bologna on white bread and their dad hates vegetables. And the parents can't figure out why they have trouble getting the kids to eat their good food.
In my family, food was fun. We didn't have our own plates when we were little. We sat in mom or dad's lap and ate their dinner. We didn't have to eat dinner if we didn't want to. We could have a peanut butter sandwich or whatever. But we didn't have junk food in the house. Snack time was apple slices, ants on a log (raisins, no chocolate), or homemade turkey jerky. (Mom had a dehydrator so she could salt it lightly.)
Oh, and I second the broccoli trees idea. That's what my mom called them. To this day, they're still my favorite veggie, raw or cooked. But they have to be florets; I don't like the stems.
Edit to add: We also took turns picking out what was for dinner when I was a kid. I think empowering kids with choices to start with cuts down on some of that. But you could get stuck with some odd combos. My dad still talks about the night we had fishsticks and spaghetti because I wanted it.
posted
I was supposed to eat everything on my plate, but I usually managed to barter my way down to half of the vegetables at least once a night. (For nights where I really didn't like what we were having I would sit at the table for hours until my parents told me that if I ate just that little bite, I could leave.) My problem is that I can't stand frozen vegetables, which is all that my mom has ever cooked. They taste like plastic. She likes them because she grew up on canned vegetables, so I can see that frozen must be an improvement. I have tried over and over again but I can't seem to get her to serve raw vegetables, or even cooked fresh veggies, except for asperagus (I know that's spelled really wrong) sometimes in the summer.
Posts: 1547 | Registered: Jan 2004
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posted
My sister's girls got popcorn and pizza and fast food so often when they were growing up that the thing they adore most is a real home cooked meal with vegetables. I didn't start feeling that way until after I was in college for a while. Because I know how much trouble it is to cook one, and because I live by myself and it hardly ever seems worth it to cook just for me, I still find home cooked meals with vegetables to be the greatest food on earth. <laughs> I think vitamin deficiencies must really help a person crave veggies, or something. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
AR and quid brought up interesting points about how our eating preferences are formed. Even before I became a vegetarian, I absolutely refused to eat homemade hamburgers cooked in a skillet. Why? Because my mother served them practically every single night. If it wasn't that, it was cubed steaks.
I find that I avoid almost all foods that I grew up on - simply because there was very little variety. The foods I make most often for my family, such as pasta and fresh veggies, were never served in my home growing up. I was a picky eater as a child I think in large part because our dinners were always meat-based, and even as a small child I remember hating the texture and taste of meat. Most dinners I ended up making a peanut butter sandwich and eating that.
posted
AR, when I make the weekly menu, everyone gets to pick a meal (within budgetary constraints). Yeah, that means we eat some of the same things every week, but that's OK.
Posts: 1021 | Registered: Sep 2004
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posted
Ic- I've tried the "eat it or go hungry" route. It worked with my oldest, but the youngest said "fine" and just didn't eat. He would go a whole day without eating until I finally offered him one of "his foods". I finally found a compromise by offering at least one of "his foods" with every meal so that he has something to eat.
It hasn't worked yet with the youngest, but my favorite way of introducing new foods to the oldest is through having him cook with me. He gets to pick the recipe, but makes a solemn promise to try at least one portion of the finshed dish. This method works with most of my nieces and nephews too. If they get to see all the things that go into a dish and are involved in the creative process, the food doesn't seem so strange to them.
posted
Avid Reader, my husband isn't a picky eater and I never really thought I was either till recently.
We always offer our son the food we eat, he just never wants it. We decided early that we weren't going to perpetuate the "clean plate" thing, and I didn't want power struggles over food at all. When he started refusing to eat, we let him. I had been a nanny for a boy who only drank chocolate milk and maybe eat a banana and a peanut butter sandwich a week. The doctor said with his vitamins and milk, he'd survive, so we just let him eat what he wanted. He turned out fine.
With our son, when he was old enough, I told him that he either ate what we were eating, or he cooked his own food. He cooks his own food.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
My mom is of the 'clean your plate or go hungry' school. I really have no concept of the mechanics of any other format... But of course, as such a young child, the actual carrying out of the plan might be difficult.
All I know is that I have a pair of cousins for whom eating is a battle. One of them, the girl, (who is RAIL thin) has taken on her mom's propensity for talking about not wanting to get fat et cetera et cetera. It's a struggle to get the boy to eat anything but peanut butter sandwiches. As a result, he is quite skinny.
Of course, it's all relative. His FATHER (who I am SO glad is no longer in the family...) seems to think that it's preferrable to resemble a starving ethiopian child, compared to being a doughy mound of flesh like me and my brother and sister are. (scoff) Asshat.
Which is not to say that by letting your kid eat whatever they want, you'll be condemning them to an early death. I think that you're doing the right thing continuing to offer him the food, but even though it's tough to say, things like this can become battlefields. Part of the reason my cousins have such trouble over food is because the kids realized that in that area, they were able to win over their parents.
Anyway. I'm not being coherent about this. Food is good. Ummm... Feed your kid food.
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Well, our point was that my husbands side of the family has weight problems and we didn't want to perpetuate that or add food battles. We let him eat what he wants, when he wants (within reason) and he's stayed at a nice healthy weight. By this age, my husband was a good 75 - 100 pounds overweight.
My problem was being starved to death and the clean plate. I remember being hungry all through childhood and when I was finally on my own, I ate and ate. (My mother even cut out milk at dinner (milk only on cereal in the morning) because she was worried we'd get fat. Now, at the time, I was 5' 7" and weighed 105 pounds. I swam at least three hours a day and did gymnastics at least three hours a day.
Anyway, we didn't want food to be an issue and I heard that kids know when they are full. We didn't want to do the clean plate thing because we didn't want him to lose that innate ability. And it seems to be working. No matter how much he likes ice cream, if he's full, he actually says no to it. Or any of his favorite junk foods. If he's not hungry, he just says no thank you. It floored my parents the first time he did that when they were around.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:. . . I heard that kids know when they are full. . . . And it seems to be working. No matter how much he likes ice cream, if he's full, he actually says no to it. Or any of his favorite junk foods. If he's not hungry, he just says no thank you.
Not my girls. They always want to eat, and they always want more. (And they never seem to grow, but that's another issue.) They never seem to realize that they are full. We discovered early on that if we didn't cut them off, they would literally eat until they puked. I almost never give them ice cream anymore, because they will make themselves sick, or at least have tummyaches, almost every time they have it.
I think they have developed the ability to tell when they are full in general, now, but not when it comes to dessert.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Took about 15 min to prep. I made substitutions as per our pantry (we still haven't been paid yet! Darn universities.)
Stale dry bread into blender, added poultry seasoning, salt and cumin. Whizz. Dumped 1 lb beef and 1/2 lb pork into Big Stone Mixing Bowl* ( ), dumped bread crumbs on top.
Whizzed veggies in blender with 1 egg and a little extra hot sauce. Mixed into meat with Big Wooden Spoon* ( ), molded, and turned out onto parchment.
Baked for an estimated time (no temp probe handy). Glazed twice.
*I have all the things in my life I ever wanted. I am so happy.
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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Darn universities.)
