Picky Eaters...Do You Make Them Something Else?

[Kaddidle Care]

My very first DCG was a fussy eater - her parents thought corn was the only vegetable. I had good luck with naming them funny things like Trees (Broccoli) and Brains (Cauliflower). Also I tend to ask them to take a tiny mouse sized bite before they refuse all together and then quote "Try it and you may I say!" Dr. Seuss can be your friend.

Oh.. and I say "You get what you get and you don't get upset!" ::

[QualiTcare]

I nver had this problem since all my DCLs were little but with my own kids, if I was ever serving something they didnt like, they can always have PB & Jelly sandwhich. There are some things they will just NOT eat, even if you paid them a million dollars. Me included. I was a VERY picky eater when I was little, and I still am. If I dont like something, I am not eating it, no matter what. So if they really wont eat something, I would not "make them" Just serve 1 alternative meal like the PB & Jelly. Schools do this as well.

my daughter's school does this - offers PB&J every day if they don't want what's on the menu. i was surprised.

i'm weird about it. i stayed with my "mammaw" a lot when i was a kid and she was one of those who wouldn't let you have ANYTHING to drink until you ate all your food and you had to sit at the table until you ate WHATEVER it was she made. i fell asleep at the table sometimes or got my "legs striped" cus i got caught feeding the dog. i thought she was distracted by soap operas ::

i usually just made stuff the kids did like (no food program) and i still ask my own kids what they want usually. i eat lots of tuna or salmon and i don't expect them to eat that very often. if i'm making separate food, why not make them what they want? then again, i was scarred as a child. ::

[My4SunshineGirlsNY]

I nver had this problem since all my DCLs were little but with my own kids, if I was ever serving something they didnt like, they can always have PB & Jelly sandwhich. There are some things they will just NOT eat, even if you paid them a million dollars. Me included. I was a VERY picky eater when I was little, and I still am. If I dont like something, I am not eating it, no matter what. So if they really wont eat something, I would not "make them" Just serve 1 alternative meal like the PB & Jelly. Schools do this as well.

This is exactly as I do. I have one daycare girl (age 10) that dislike EVERYTHING I make...it gets rather annoying but I have always offered the kids PB&J if they didn't like my main meal.

[graxpress]

financial help

My kids are great eaters but now and then I will have one that doesn't like something I'm making. It's almost always when I'm trying out new spices and it's something they aren't familiar with. I always keep four ounce containers of stews in my freezer for these times. Yesterday I slow cooked a roast, potatoes, carrots, and mixed veggie stew and when I go to divide it up for day care meals I will make three or four big baby food jars of it to pop into my freezer door. When a kid doesn't like something new I will take it out and nuke it. It only takes a few minutes to heat and serve and I know that ALL of them will eat roast beef stew so it will be a good alternative. Sometimes it takes five/six different attempts before they will get used to a new spice so I know I have back up food just in case. I don't have to do it very often but the way I see it is that the kid eats 19 or 20 meals for me every month so if they really don't like something then I will give an alternative I know they love and try them again on it the next time I make it. I don't want hungry kids BUT if I had a house of junk food treat food eaters then I wouldn't be making the alternatives for them. I would only offer this to kids that have shown me they like healthy food but just not THIS healthy food. I don't do picky kids. If they are picky they are almost always eating a junk food diet at home. I don't work for parents who do junk food meals. Everyone I work for does slow whole food so the kids know how to eat healthy from scratch food. They don't get anything else except for special special. I was talking to my Dad, my Auntie, my Uncle a few months back about their generation and how food was such a central part of their lives. They are all in their early seventies. I asked them if they had heard of or knew of the idea of a child being a picky eater. They all collectively went It's a pretty new concept in the scheme of our history. How blessed we are to have such a huge abundance of food that a human baby could pick and choose. A picky eater is the one who gets to pick.

I think you are right