Help feed my picky child...

[Ty's_mom]

I'm going to make a REAL effort this year to feed my picky DS. He's 9 going on 15. Normally I give in to him. His current diet consists of pizza, burgers, egg,s, pasta (no sauce) and pancakes. He does eat ANY fruit or yogurt. I should be happy for small things?
So... give me you best ideas/recipes for a PICKY eater. I'm looking for dinner ideas.

TIA!!

 

[juligrl]

My friend has not only picky children but a picky husband. She's been using that Jessica Seinfeld cookbook lately with great success. It sneaks healthy food into items they like. Can't remember what the book is called, but I'll bet some other DISer will know...

 

[spaceacewannabe]

My friend has not only picky children but a picky husband. She's been using that Jessica Seinfeld cookbook lately with great success. It sneaks healthy food into items they like. Can't remember what the book is called, but I'll bet some other DISer will know...

Deceptively Delicious---good suggestion!

 

[Heluvsme]

Buy the Carnation instant breakfast drink mixes, then make it with ice cream (it's like a thick milk shake that way) for the calcium, vitamin D, and protein and add in things like strawberries, bananas, peanut butter, orange juice, etc.

For the vanilla I add in fruit or peanut butter. For the chocolate I add in bananas or peanut butter, and for the strawberry flavored I add in bananas or orange juice.

My very picky daughter drinks these and it provides her vitamins, minerals, protein, calcium, and calories.

 

[Ty's_mom]

Great suggestions!! I'll look for that cook book tomorrow, and he would LOVE those shakes. I'll fell good about getting some 'good' things into him.

 

[MariDisney]

I think maybe I'm just a meanie tonight (or all the time). But my motto around here is that I am not a short order cook. You eat what I make or have two choices: go hungry or make yourself something else.

If I were in your shoes, with your DS already being so limited I might try to serve a favorite along with a new food. So, maybe a burger and broccoli. Insist that he have at least 3 bites of the new food. My DD (also 9) will eat anything, and I think that's because I've never made a special meal for her separate from from what I make for DH and myself. In fact, we just got back from dinner where she had several kinds of sushi (ick!!).

What I don't like about the "Deceptively Delicious" idea is that it doesn't really teach new or good eating habits. True, that it will get the right nutrients into them, and that's a good thing. But, IMHO, it just encourages continued poor eating habits if you're not teaching the kids to add new foods to their diets.

 

[happygirl]

I must be mean I don't fix anything special for my kids just because they don't like something

 

[Mom2Nick]

OP - My oldest has major sensory issues so we struggle with a very limited diet for him. Deceptively Delicious is a wonderful book but you can go without spending the money - it's really just recipes revised to include fruits and vegetables. I did buy it - but it was things I had been doing for years based on suggestions from one of DS's nutritionists.

For example - I make home made macaroni and cheese and throw in either my own carrot mush or a jar or two of carrot babyfood.

I add sweet potatoes to my pancake and waffle mix. You can also use canned pumpkin in these.

Carrots also go into my pizza sauce as well as a little bit of pureed spinach. I have to be careful with the colors but mostly with the texture with him so it's a lot pf playing on my part.

Carnation Instant Breakfast is wonderful and making smoothies is a wonderful idea as well.


Since you have not mentioned any other issues I am guessing that this is probably just a phase. He may outgrow it - he may not - it's frustrating but he'll be ok either way

 

[cheermom1]

I think maybe I'm just a meanie tonight (or all the time). But my motto around here is that I am not a short order cook. You eat what I make or have two choices: go hungry or make yourself something else.

If I were in your shoes, with your DS already being so limited I might try to serve a favorite along with a new food. So, maybe a burger and broccoli. Insist that he have at least 3 bites of the new food. My DD (also 9) will eat anything, and I think that's because I've never made a special meal for her separate from from what I make for DH and myself. In fact, we just got back from dinner where she had several kinds of sushi (ick!!).

What I don't like about the "Deceptively Delicious" idea is that it doesn't really teach new or good eating habits. True, that it will get the right nutrients into them, and that's a good thing. But, IMHO, it just encourages continued poor eating habits if you're not teaching the kids to add new foods to their diets.

me too my kids have went to bed hungry b4 but I will tell ya the next time I made something they didn't like they ate it! we 5 here and no way can or would I be able to cook that many meals and to be honest it just creates problems for the child as an adult IMHO

 

[Teresa Pitman]

Did you see the Jamie Oliver show (he's a British chef, in case you haven't seen him) where he took over cooking school lunches for a group of schools? The kids were eating very non-nutritious meals and he wanted them to eat healthier.

After some trial and error, he found that it helped to involve the kids in making the foods (he did cooking classes with them). But what seemed to make the biggest difference, ultimately, was just getting rid of the other foods. When the only choices the kids had were healthy ones (that is, lots of vegetables), they complained at first but after a time learned to like them. (And saw big improvements in behaviour and health, too!)

So that would be my suggestion. Going halfway didn't really work, according to the show. I would buy healthy snacks, cook and serve healthy meals, and that's it. In time your child's tastes will change.

I can't remember where I heard this "slogan" but I often repeat it: The parent's job is to provide nutritious foods, the child's job is to decide how much to eat.

Teresa

 

[portocall]

I don't make anything different for my kids either. When I plan a menu, I make sure that there is one thing that each of my kids will eat and my husband will tell them to try something they hadn't tried in a while. Like tonight when my oldest asked me when I am making cabbage again cause it is really good, never really liked cabbage before. I don't force them eat anything, but luckily have kids who eat most veggies, but won't touch stuffing or mac and cheese...they all went through a very picky stage, but it didn't last long when the hunger hit them... It may be because I come from a large family that didn't short order cook things, you ate or you didn't and DH came from a family that catered to him and his brother and they turned into 350lb unhealthy people (he is rectifying that now) that it matters way more to DH that we make sure they eat a well rounded diet. Since your son is older it would be harder to change old habits, but shrinking his old favorites while introducing the new foods should help, like a small piece of pizza with a large salad and a fruit would still offer him comfort, but he probally wouldn't be full until he ate some of the salad...

 

[freckles and boo]

Since he likes burgers you might play on the ground beef thing by introducing other ground beef meals - meatloaf, meatballs, etc. Or try turkey burgers to shake things up a bit. Good luck and don't feel guilty. Just keep trying new stuff and maybe throw a multi-vitamin in for good measure. I was a picky kid and I love all kinds of foods now.

 

[SpecialK]

My youngest was very picky when he was younger. Making him go hungry didn't motivate him at all. So, I did make something else for him if I knew he wouldn't eat what the rest of us were eating, BUT he also had to taste and swallow two bites of everything on the table. There are still some things he won't eat willingly, but for the most part he's outgrown the pickiness.

 

[Jsme]

The sooner he can get over this the better. You need to stop giving into him now. I say that because mine is 14 and very picky still!!! However, I can say his favorite foods are McDonald's $1 burgers, fish sticks, chicken nuggets and yogurt that has the candy on top. Please do not follow in my footsteps. lol I cook one meal and either they eat it or not. I do not cook anything else however I always try to fix something I know both of my children will like. Good Luck.

 

[maelstrom]

I have survived mainly on pasta, ramen, and pizza for 23 years. Throw in the occasional chicken parmesan, baked ziti, cheese ravioli, pancakes, and chicken fingers. I don't eat fruit and I don't eat yogurt. I'm still alive.

 

[cassie]

I myself am a fussy eater, but I got better as I grew older. My mother only made one dinner..eat it or go hungry. Nothing she made was fancy, just meat, potatoes and a veggie. No salads or gravies. I could live on potatoes So that's the way I cooked for my family, although I added salads to the meal. The kids were fussy too, worse than me, but I only made one meal and they picked thru it. Now they are adults and my son became a cook and my daughter learned to cook from her German MIL (not me, I hate to cook, still fussy ) and they are not only great cooks, they are good eaters. There's still hope OP, but it takes a while.

 

[Drewsmommybear]

What is cooked in our house is what everyone eats. This has worked well for my picky son and my picky husband (though DH still won't eat veggies.) I guess the flip side to this is that since my husband has lost 132 pounds, we eat differently than the normal family. For instance, there is very little red meat in our house. We have hamburgers but I make them with turkey or chicken. Pizza is the same way. We make our own with 2% milk cheese, turkey pepperoni or chicken pieces. So in a way, I think we're deceptively delicious...only out in the open.

I think this has helped DS try new things. In fact, today we had him at a Japanese steakhouse and he had cucumber rolls with me. Even I was amazed.

On Jon and Kate plus 8, I've heard her say more than once that you have to repeatedly put the broccoli on the plate. It has to be there every time. One day they will try it. I don't agree with her on much but I do agree with her on that.

One other little trick--there's a Disney cookbook that just recently came out. Every recipe is healthy and they have a Disney character hooked to them. Maybe if you involved your kids and told them that they got to pick out the recipe and even help cook the food they would be more interested in trying new things.

The most important thing is that barring and health issues (no peanut butter in our house) or special needs such as issues with food textures, cook one meal. Eventually someone will be hungry enough to eat it.

 

[clutter]

Do you know WHY he's a picky eater? Have you talked with him about it?

Once I understood why my dd was so picky (sensory stuff), it was easier to coax her out of it. Not fast, by any means, but she's made amazing progress over the years.

 

[Ty's_mom]

His picky eating is totally my fault. I'm not afraid to admit it. When he was really young he would eat EVERYTHING. We would always buy something 'new' to try at the market... then when he was 4 I got sick. After 4 years of surgeries/treatments, I'm on the mend and trying to correct all the bad that was done. He eats those things now because I was always too tired to fight it and feeling guilty that he had this sick mommy. We're having goulash tonight... He helped plan the meals for the week. I've talked to him about expanding his menu.
Thanks for all the great ideas. I'll let you know how it goes...

 

[mjkacmom]

I think maybe I'm just a meanie tonight (or all the time). But my motto around here is that I am not a short order cook. You eat what I make or have two choices: go hungry or make yourself something else.

What I don't like about the "Deceptively Delicious" idea is that it doesn't really teach new or good eating habits. True, that it will get the right nutrients into them, and that's a good thing. But, IMHO, it just encourages continued poor eating habits if you're not teaching the kids to add new foods to their diets.

See, I disagree. Dd12 and ds5 eat almost everything - sushi, clams, all meats, pasta WITH sauce. Ds10 is NOW just trying new things, and liking them (have your ds eat different things at his friends' homes - it's amazing what they find out they like). Dd7 is VERY picky, although she now tries everything. Dd5 has definite preferences - won't eat a burger, but will eat blue cheese out of the container.

All were exposed to the same foods, and when #1 used to chow down on tofu, cold lima beans, and avacado as a toddler, I (wrongly) assumed it was because I offered up so many healthy choices. Then #2 was born, and I realized they were born with different tastes.

Now, I don't cook up different meals for my picky ones, but I will leave sauce off of their pasta, or give them a default (yogurt, bagel, cereal). If ds10 is any indication of the future, I'm assuming the picky ones' tastes will mature, and in the meantime, I WILL NOT give food any power, or make it a battle. They're not going to starve.