What Tricks Do You Use To get Kiddies To Eat Food?

Hodgey, you'd probably have more joy if you post this on the Baby Talk forum.

However, to answer you;re question, I've always found a stern 'you eat it or there's no pudding' to work well. I tried hiding spinach in mince once and it was a disaster - my daughter noticed the green specks and looked supsiciously through every meat dish I gave her for weeks afterwards to make sure I hadn't slipped in anything. She now eats most vegetables without a murmur, and only protests about the most understandable ones. Celery is pretty heinous after all ?

I will do the 'eat some more of your dinner or there is no pudding' line but if they wont eat raisins (which they dont as it happens) I just dont give them raisins. After all they eat them in grape form.

In fact, there is a list from here to Lands End of food my kids wont eat but if they are eating something from each food group then I dont worry! But then after 6 children, 4 of whom have (so far) reached adulthood as healthy individuals I am totally laidback about what they are eating/not eating as long as it is reasonably healthy...and on occasion not even remotely healthy!

Agreed with MM (or should it just be M?) - I have 4 children all of whom have had various food fads (one lived on peanut butter sandwiches for nine months) but I have come to the conclusion that there are no foods that MUST be eaten for health, just a fairly varied diet. In fact, a very limited one won't do a lot of harm for a while (see the peanut butter fad as above). They grow up and generally, as long as you haven't made food an issue then they naturally start eating more and different things. My son, now 17, as a child wouldn't entertain the idea of any kind of fish or seafood, not even fish fingers, but he has just come back from a snowboarding holiday where I hear he was eating moules mariniere like there's no tomorrow.

I think a relaxed attitude to food is far more beneficial than demanding that kids eat certain things - if they won't eat raisins they will eat grapes (as above) or apples or pears or some fruit, it all works out in the end.

Thanks all for your kind replies,

...........and thanks for the pointer that I posted this in the wrong forum,, perhaps admin or a moderator can move it ?

Thanks for listing your foodie options when it comes to dealing with kids. Mine are pretty good at the moment, ..I just wanted to share my glee and getting my youngest two (albeit by using subterfuge?) to actually eat some raisins. LOL..next week they'll probably love them anyway.

hugs and thanks

*le smile*

hodgy

xxxx

I don't understand why it's important that they eat raisins - and surely any goodness from the raisins would be negated by the fact that they are hidden in amongst the jam (thinking lots of sugar etc)

I was sat here thinking exactly that, I would rather they just didnt eat raisins than coat them in jam.

The idea is a good one though, will your child eat mash--hide peas and sweetcorn in there? Also blend fruit and add it to weetabix in the mornings?

I threaten to send them up the chimney an hour earlier in the morning.

I don't hide food, I want my children to grow up developing their own tastes and deciding what they do and don't like and by hiding things I think it runs the risk of stopping them eating something that they would otherwise eat! I can tell you now though that if my son didn't like raisins and I put some in a jam sandwich he would either pick them out or leave the sandwich!

I'm with Imsunshine on this one.

Don't get fixated on the raisins though, they're something like the number 2 cause of tooth decay in children, just behind apple juice. They're probably worse than the jam as they really stick to the teeth and probably (unfounded suspicion) stick around the gum line etc.

That program ages ago re food phobias was quite relaxing for parents I think as this nutritionist was pointing out that the kids who would only eat chocolate etc were perfectly healthy, they just need to fufill their calorific needs to grow, anything else is a bonus. My H is living proof of that.

That said, my kids love veg so it is sooo easy for me from my smug and lofty position.

We just give sometings that may look unappealing to the eldest silly names:

- spag bol - worms in mud sauce

- green soy beans - alien snot boggies

etc. works a treat.

Hodgy, sorry I didn't mean you'd posted on the wrong forum as such, just that I thought you'd get a better response on BT as ther are lots of mums with toddlers as well as babies.

Lowkey, the name thing just grosses my daughter out - the above mentioned hidden spinach (my only attempt at hiding veggies!) was called mince swamp, and I did mashed potato stepping stones in it and everyfink, the ungrateful child wouldn't eat it and kept asking me if any mince dish was mince swamp afterwards ?.

The only veggies she point blank refuses are butternut squash (too sweet), peppers and radishes, with reticence about parsnips, celery and tomato (I know, it's a fruit). She loves sprouts though, so that must count for something ?

I find that pinching their nose is the best way. They have to open their mouth at some point.

My daughter would only eat red cabbage and not green, so i used food colouring.

My son wont eat hardly any vegetables, but cut up very small and thrown into mince works wonders

I don't try to 'hide' food in other food but when she says she doens't like something that's on the plate I just ask her to at least try it then tell me if she likes it or not. If she doesn't after that then fair enough. My daughter calls broccoli and cauliflower green trees and white trees instead of their proper name and eats them no probs.

There was a discussion similar to this on BT a while ago. One poster (and I can't remember who for the life of me!) said she thought that children had so little control over any area of their lives that the children who were fussy eaters were just trying to gain a bit of control by choosing what to eat.

I thought this made an awful lot of sense and as such, I have modified the way I offer food to my 2 year old. He is what could be described as a fussy eater so now, I offer him a varied diet of healthy options and let him choose what he eats. For example, today for lunch he has cucumber, cheese, a couple of mini sauages and some brown bread & butter. There are things on there that he'll wolf down happily and some he won't touch but they are all healthy so what does it matter if he eats only the bread and butter and leaves the rest? Once in a while he'll clear his plate of everything, even the things I *think* he doesn't like. He'll always eat fruit and yoghurt and generally he'll eat sausages (butchers ones, not nasty rusk & water filled ones!) and carrots.

He's not wilting away and always has plenty of energy. I feel much calmer as I no longer stress if he skips a meal.

The whole 'wrong forum' thing is interesting - I know that no one is having a go on this thread, but I have always felt that any kiddie related topics I'd want to raise aren't appropriate on BT as mine are 9 and 7, perhaps I am wrong? On OT I feel that kids topics are mostly frowned upon. There are of course other sites for this sort of stuff.

I know what you mean about the where to post on HItched when children reach an age that isn't regarded as a baby/toddler/preschooler.

However, I have had some great pointers from OT from Hitchers with children who are teenaged or who work with older children. (Maybe I've been blithely unaware, but I don't think that my post was frown upon though?!)

My daughter won't eat fresh fruit in any form, so I decided to be sneaky and mash a ripe pear into her ready brek this morning. She ate a couple a spoon fulls but gagged on the lumps of pear. When she refused any more I gave her weetabix instead. An hour later she puked the whole lot up all over me. That'll teach me to be sneaky.

I'm an OT-er only not a BT-er and this is interesting as I know nothing about children and had no idea that people tried to get their children to eat things they don't like! I can't understand why? I don't remember my parents doing this although I think this is probably because I just ate what was put in front of me, as that's all there was to eat and I was hungry!

Actually, I do remember my Dad forcing my sister to eat tomatoes which she has always hated, and still doesn now although she's by no means a fussy eater and it's the only thing I can think of that she doesn't like. This was just to be cruel to her though.

I too am a strictly an OT-er, although I do have 1 daughter, who is 10, and I am also baffled by the getting children to eat things they don't like. If my daughter doesn't like something, then I don't give it to her. Same is if I don't like something, I don't eat it. I am surprised that hiding raisins in a jam sandwich is a triumph tbh. I can understand it maybe if the children eat nothing healthy at all and raisins in a sandwich is the only way but surely if their diets are balanced, raisins are neither here nor there. I hate raisins too but it's not done me any harm!

Like I say, if there is a major problem, like a couple of posters have said they have with their children, then yes, bits of mushed up fruit or teeny tiny vegetables are the way forward. Otherwise, leave well alone I say.

Why do I try and get my daughter to eat things she 'doesn't like'? Because she'd probably have scurvy if I didn't.

I think it's very easy to say you don't hide food if you have children that will eat some vegetables, but if you have a child that point blank refuses to eat any of them, then you have no choice but to grate carrots/finely chop peppers, celery etc, and put them into foods like bolognese. How else am I meant to get vegetables into her?

It can be utterly heartbreaking watching your child refuse food time after time after time, so whatever gets you through, imo. Walk a mile in my shoes and all that jazz.

This topic always vexes me slightly. when i was a child, and the same with friends and family, there was no choice in what you ate. there was no whinging about it. you ate it or you didnt. if you didnt you were starving, and soon learnt that if you left most of your meal, you d feel hungry for hours, overnight etc. we all have certain things we dont like, but i m always a bit surprised at the seemingly huge number of things that children wont eat. surely (and this is a question, not a statement) when a child is small they eat what you give them. they cant feed themselves and rely on you to do it. so with that in mind, HOW do children become fussy? what happens when?

i was astonished when my mate offered his 4 year old daughter a choice of about 4 different dinners. amazed actually. when i was a child, it was "this is for diner" there was no choice, no "but i dont like that". i ve seen this happen a lot in the last say, 5 years. parents of really small children giving them what seems to me to be vast choices, a menu in fact ?

Am with NickJ on this one. I didnt get a choice...it was either eat what you were given or go without. My parents encouraged me to try different foods and as long as I had a forkful or two of whatever was new, they were quite happy.

As a child I was a happy eater and never made a fuss.

As an adult...now thats a different story! Ha ha.

Same as Nick and Tillybean. We weren't allowed to leave the table until we'd finished - there was no option to leave it if we didn't like it.

Mum specialised in over-cooking spinach and liver and whenever she presented both of them in a meal to us, me and my sister would be at the table for hours as every mouthful made us retch. We resorted to covering the whole lot in ketchup to try and disguise the vile taste.

But it was either that or get no food as there wasn't another option.

I can only comment on my daughter, she was weaned on home made vegetable/fruit purees, always given a varied and balanced diet. From about 18 months she point blank refused to eat, there was a stage where she would only eat 3 or 4 things. She still refuses dinners at 2 and a half, it's heartbreaking watching food that you've lovingly prepared refused constantly, so you do what you have to in order to get through the day.

I'm certain she won't be refusing carrots 10 years from now, and am aware that it's a very common occurrence during the toddler years and something I need to ride out. Some days I cope well with it, others I want to scream in frustration, hiding vegetables is a way of getting goodness into her. I think I'm being responsible by doing it.

I'm with Nick on this, pretty much. But children are allowed food preferences, surely? I'm not talking not eating anyhting except chocolate, but not liking specific foods. I don't see the point in making an issue of that.

I also think hiding raisins is ridiculous - but not as ridiculous as dying green cabage red, wtf is that about??

What Nick and Tilly said.

Whilst I don't hold with reinforcing faddy eating in terms of overly pandering (offering a child 4 different options is clearly crackers!) neither do I advocate forcing/coercing when something is a clear dislike. I can remember my father refusing to allow me to leave the table until I had finished freezing cold mince and carrots-I still can't bear it to this day!

I gave mine a wide range of foods from a young age, and generally they ate well. They went through a spell as toddlers of refusing certain veg, or picking them out of the meal-I would keep my cool and remove the dinner when they had clearly had enough. Snacks between meals however, were few and far between.

NickJ, I really think you have severely rose-tinted memories...

Sorry but I don't for a minute believe that you and every child of your generation ate what they were given or starved - I'm 34 and my cousin was 3 years older than me and he spent years eating tomato ketchup sandwiches for instance because that was all he ate. My aunt was hardly someone to pander to a child but she was also a nurse and knew that forcing food wasn't going to help - and guess what, my cousin eats a very healthy and varied diet now.

There's a big element IMO of control over their lives with regards to eating but children also have different palates to adults and lots of foodstuffs are quite adult tastes IMO. And I've read that it can take up to 20 tastes before you start to like something, it's not always instant.

FWIW my son doesn't like minced beef or curry just now - I'm sure that in a few years his palate will change and he'll go off marmite (please God, I hate the stuff!) and like chicken masala but it seems bl00dy stupid to keep wasting food when I know he won't eat it and will eat something else that's as healthy.

While I don't have an issue with say hiding extra veg in sauces, I don't think the "eat up or shut up" attitude to food is a very healthy attitude, in the same way I'll never say you must clear your plate" or "clear your plate to get your pudding."

Zeb, youre totally wrong. when i was very young my parents were poor. however, my mother still managed to give us a really varied diet, and sorry, but "rose tinted memories", thats quite insulting tbh. we had to eat what we were given - yes, i wouldnt eat tripe, but that was it.

i dont think the eat up or shut up thing is helpful either, however i find cant help but mentally condemn people who pander to their childrens every whim and offer them multiple choices. and i m with sophie, hiding food in other food is ridiculous, esp hiding raisins in jam and colouring cabbage. i dont have any issue with HH's oputting carrot in bolognese though, ditto celery etc, but then those things are supposed to go into bolognese ?

I have to jump in here and respond to this topic!

When I was little, we were gien foods that our parents liked. Or could afford. Now, my mther didn't like banana's and suffice to say, my sisters and I didnt like them either!

It's true what Nick says, we weren't allowed to leave the table until we had finished our meal. This could last for hours and there's many funny stories of my sisters and I being the "lookout" and food being put down the toilket pan! Or scraped into a bag and stuffed in our jacket pockets till we went out to play and then disposed of! lol

One of my friends never ever gave her kids any sweets. They had fruit or yoghurt or raisins as a treat. When the first of her children began nursery school she came home and said she'd had a sweet. Her first experience ever.

Anyhoo, I think that what I'm trying to say here is that most kids will eat what is put down to them withh a little bit of encouragement (big muscles wow! or shiney hair etc) if they turn their nose up. I never used any tricks other than bribery!?

I would never force a child to eat everything on their plate as I personally don't think it creates a very healthy attitude to food, especially when out as quite often you get massive portions that I can never finish, let alone a child. But then I'm also not a fan of children's menus which mostly seem to be fishfingers and chips. I would rather have a smaller version of an adult dish, but I don't have children yet, so will have to see what they are like when I do.

I have nothing against cutting up and hiding veg in mince or sauces, but, I do however dislike the idea of forcing someone to eat something they really don't like. My mother remembers once trying to force me to eat liver, she put it in front of me for five evenings in a row and for five evenings I ate nothing until I went to my grandmother and cried about being hungry. I think there was a big row about that and I still hate liver.

I think it's a balance between pandering too much to particular tastes and allowing to a certain extent for likes etc. I tend to cook things at home that me and my H like, so would hope to be able to do the same for children. If my child had a varied diet then I wouldn't care if they didn't like particular things, as someone else said, if they try it, that's fine with me. Tastes change over time, when I was little I wouldn't eat any vegetables at all and now I love them.

Refusing to allow a child to leave the table until they've eaten is just stupid and barbaric imo.

When I was a child, dinner would be a main course, veg and/or salad, and cheese and biscuits afterwards. We were a big family so pandering to the whims of every child wasn't an option, but if you didn't like any element of a meal you weren't forced to eat it. Filling up on rubbish certainly wasn't an option - there was no rubbish in the house to fill up on.