[Closed] Kids and vegetables

Les gosses! Ils sont comme quoi!

As a kid I liked most food except gristle, which got stuck in my throat at school dinner and made me barf. OK with it now. Sprouts one of favourite veggies, even as a kid. I never understood picky eaters though (unless for ethical and/or health reasons, which is not so much picky as informed, for good or ill)

My 8 y/o loves sprouts and broccoli too! I think it's because he had time to become used to it before all the "ew, gross" stuff at school by his mates. Although he has a bizarre hatred of red peppers - not sure where that came from.

As a kid I liked most food except gristle

Gristle's not really a food, though, more a nasty bit in actual food. Or are you Oliver Twist grown up?

When I was a kid I'd eat carrots and peas as long as the shells weren't broken and that was it for veg
Lunch today was a salad with cucumber,mushrooms,tomatoes,courgette,broccoli,cauliflower,beetroot, spring onions,olives,red pepper, sugar snap peas, carrot and mixed nuts. That's a very typical lunch, alternating nuts and pulses for some protein. I went overnight from eating a very very limited range of veg to eating just about anything.

Oh God, this is driving me nuts right now. Three kids. Only eat peas or carrots. Youngest wont eat anything potato based (that makes life hard)

They are typical kids, love a plate of chicken dippers,suasages, chips (except the youngest) pasta based meals and that's about it.

It is soooo hard to get them to even try anything new, so if anyone has any tips or kid friendly recipes it would be very appreciated.

Only eat peas or carrots

That was me

so if anyone has any tips

Get them to leave home, wake up one morning and realise they eat crap and go to the local greengrocers and buy everything. That's what happened to me. Gave up meat at the same time.

Although he has a bizarre hatred of red peppers – not sure where that came from.

High sensitivity to taste would be my guess. My wife cannot stand peppers as she thinks they taste bitter even when cooked - they also upset her stomach. She thinks kale is bitter too. I mean it's a bit weird tasting but not actually bitter, to me.

Kale btw is another thing that my eldest (the can I have some sprouts please one) loves.

Re fussy eating - I was a nightmare as a kid not eating any vegetables at all and no fruit besides apples. But it was mostly a texture thing, and when I left home I realised I could cook them soft and that made them much easier to eat - then I could learn to deal with the taste.

I still can't eat most raw vegetables which makes eating salads that I haven't made myself really quite difficult.

Les gosses! Ils sont comme quoi!

I love the way this place doesn't make sense unless you read lots of random threads

Kale btw is another thing that my eldest (the can I have some sprouts please one) loves.

You do know you can buy kale/sprout hybrids don't you? Go on spoil them!

Kalettes they are called (brand name, not sure if any others), they look like this and are delicious.

Gristle’s not really a food, though, more a nasty bit in actual food.

Which isn't present if you go to a decent butcher.

Which isn’t present if you go to a decent butcher.

What school did you go to? A Large chunk of my memories of primary school in the early eighties consist of being force fed gristle.

Will people PLEASE be a bit more careful with their keyboards.

Do you not understand that Hipsters have developed advanced algorithms that track our food habits?

I guarantee that by Monday there will be Pop-Up shop in Shoreditch selling Gristle porridge.

Could I just let it be known right now that I was into Gristle porridge before it was cool.

For future reference NEVER mention the keywords "Maxell C90, Pogo stick, wire coat-hanger and Findus Crispy Pancakes" in the same e-mail.

You have been warned.

Mmmmmmm artisan crispy pancakes.

At around 4 years old I was extremely picky and quickly getting more so until the only food my folks could get me to eat was Spam. Going out for meals, visiting family or going on holiday they had to pack enough spam for the duration.

After a lot of experimentation my mum managed to expand the menu to include Mashed Potato. Aware that Spam and Mash didn't constitute a balance diet even in the 70's she took to spiking the mash with nutrients - mixing in eggs and ground up vitamin tablets. Which I was unaware of but fine with. However the unintended consequence that I then refused any mash than hers because other mash tasted funny.

for those struggling, I wouldn't worry too much. my boy of 6 eats everything, my girl of 3 eats very little. She used to mind, cherry tomatoes like they were sweeties, cabbage , loads. it's just a phase. she does however love fruit , so we focus a bit of effort on that. My boy wants to be stronger than pappa so he knows that veg and fruit do tha.

All I would say is keep giving them the opportunity to eat vegetables. always put it on their plate, always have a side salad, you yourself always eat it. they will follow soon enough.

failing that things like ragu sauce with carrots, celery, onions, all chopped fine in the food processor, leek and potato soup, they never notice.

always have a side salad, you yourself always eat it. they will follow soon enough.

Honestly that trivialises the problem some kids face. I had a proper deep rooted phobia of the foods I didn't 'like'. Every meal was anxiety. Watching people eat salad didn't normalise it or make me want to eat it - it revulsed me.

they never notice

I always noticed.

ok I'm sorry to hear that. I have no evidence to the contrary of course but I imagine that is quite an extreme and unusual situation.

so if anyone has any tips

kids are fairly resilient little buggers, a few years of eating "odd shit" really won't damage them massively, try to chill out about it. You are in this for the long haul, not the next meal. They are also massively influenced by their peers and friends, which can lead to a greater acceptance of food that perhaps a mate is chomping into, but your child won't. and in the end most kids grow up and develop better eating habits.

Personally, my tack with my daughter was that I allowed her not to eat the food she found weird or bad tasting I countered it by 1. eating it myself, and 2. remarking that she was a kid, and perhaps she just wasn't ready or grown up enough (not in nasty way, just a explanation to her) eventually we had a conversation about how (at about 8) she was grown up, and was now ready to try some more grown up food.

In the end some people just don't like the taste of food you like.

Fussy eaters? Meh. Just stop buying the shit they like and they'll sharp come round to fruit and veg when they're hungry. Learn the hard way, like me, never did me any harm, what, hanging's too good for 'em. Send them back. Brexit, Churchill...

Honestly that trivialises the problem some kids face. I had a proper deep rooted phobia of the foods I didn’t ‘like’. Every meal was anxiety.

Somewhat OT, but I've noticed in the past that it's really hard to underestimate another families' kids' problems unless your kids have the same problem to the same degree. As an example, our eldest was an absolute nightmare for getting to sleep from birth until fairly recently (she's six now). I've had any amount of well-meaning advice along the lines of "oh, we always just put ours in a darkened room and left them to it, and they dropped right off". As though I'd not considered putting the lights off and being quiet as a possible approach! 🙂

Anyway, mealtimes are also somewhat difficult for us. I'm vegetarian, and not too good with wheat. The Mrs eats most anything but has had enough pasta + sauce type meals to last a lifetime so generally won't go for that. The eldest only likes peas and tomatoes, hates onions in sauces, won't eat potatoes unless they're in chip-like guise. The middle one will at least try most veg, but finds cooked tomatoes and peppers "spicy", and will only eat raw carrots, and only those from her Aunt's house (it's surprising how we manage to source all our carrots from there). The baby eats more-or-less anything, for now.

The teatime Venn diagram currently yields quite a narrow selection! But as anything with kids, it's just a phase. Or at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Mmm, Kalettes!

Found some on offer in Lidl last week, so cooked them up that same day. Delicious. Even went well with the puy lentil and shiitake curry. That reads like a setup hereabouts. Plenty of jokes there for some Brit spark.

I feel like a prepper these days, grabbing random reduced stuff and using whatever to invent recipes on the fly. Baked beans in chilli works well btw. Even for those who for whatever weird reason 'don't like' baked beans!

#beprepared

*. Edit - just remembered I tried a tin of 'baked beans' in the US of A once. Probably the one time I felt like a 'picky eater'. Gnot gnice. Was basically a slurry of salt and sugar, lumps of hyper-processed fatty bacon with maybe some beans in there.

Maybe give picky kids a choice of A or B? With B being the desired healthful food, and A being a tin of Spam. Nah. They'll take the spam won't they?