What about eating issues?

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
What about eating issues?
2032
Fri, 06-10-2005 - 2:24pm

We have debated sleeping issues to death once again....so what about another one of the issues of childhood....eating and/or not eating?


My kids eat just about anything and have a pretty well rounded diet.

PumpkinAngel

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 06-14-2005 - 10:52pm

No, but it would be beyond rude to have him over for dinner and then not provide anything substantial that he can actually eat.

Dj

"Now when I need help, I look in the mirror" ~Kanye West~

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 06-14-2005 - 11:03pm
Wow! Don't they understand that somebody has to fill up the bottom of the growth charts? ;-)
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 06-14-2005 - 11:12pm
There was an article in our local paper the other day about the increase in recent years in the number of restaurants serving fresh seafood. It's not cheap, but they can get it here fast.
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 12:03am

I haven't read all the posts...dealing with a little drama here at home, lol.

"This entire thread has made me wonder why it's ok to cater to adults' food issues but to childrens'."

I tend to agree. I mean, I can see if a child only wants to eat Fruit Loops and Oreos all the time, which is bad for them. But some kids just don't like certain foods. And that, I don't think is all that bad. There is a line though-if one has three kids I can't see making something different for each of them. I could see serving a variety though...and keeping in mind what the kids hate. For instance I am having company over the Independence Day weekend. We'll have four adults, a three year old and a nine year old. I plan to make skewers-some beef (for me and ds), some chicken (for dh) and some prawn (just for fun). This way the guests, as well as my family, has a variety to choose from and every body can have what they'll like. I'll make a green salad (strawberry pecan), a mediterranean rice salad, and we'll have chocolate fondue for dessert. I'll likely set aside some plain rice for the three year old, and I know my dh will skip the rice salad (but there's the other one so that's okay).

I don't think there was anything wrong at all with your ds having chicken nuggets while you had fish. Pretty soon I'll bet he'll be having the fish...or seeing how much you enjoy it, be willing to try it.

When I was a kid I HATED hamburger. Really-completely hated it. Wouldn't eat burgers, didn't like french fries, didn't like pop. My Mom made the ocassional thing with hamburger cause everyone else liked it, and I ate salad. I did try it, still didn't like it.

I STILL hate hamburger. And if she made that famous hamburger pie of hers, I wouldn't eat it.

However, I will point out that while my dh is totally picky, he never complains and I could serve roast beef (which he hates) with mashed potatoes (which he avoids) and salad, and he'd eat a little potatoes, a lot of salad, and later on have a peanut butter sandwhich. He won't complain-and I think that's why I cater to him. Plus I love to make what he likes-I came from a family where food was an expression of love, and I love making things they like. I do see meeting their likes as a challenge that I don't mind facing. My ds, having grown up with a picky Dad, never was pressured to eat a thing. We'd have a variety of stuff on the table, and occasionally would say "That is just for the grown ups"-to make him interested in a particular veggie. Always worked, he always tried it. Ds is a particularly adventurous eater though, one that took sushi for lunch in grade one, loves calamari and lobster, etc.

On the flip side we never have pop, chips, or other junk food in the house, we never go out for fast food, and the only treats are home made baking (my last name used to be Crocker-good one, lololol). Works for us.




Edited 6/15/2005 12:11 am ET ET by khumphrey
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 12:06am

I think it would depend on the person's reason for being a vegetarian; some have moral or religious reasons for their diet, others simply don't care to consume certain types of food. I also think it would depend on the occasion; if I were serving a holiday meal to a lot of people on say, Xmas, no, I wouldn't prepare a strictly vegetarian meal, because that would not be fair to the other guests who had accepted the invitation on the understanding that the meal would be traditional. (And no, Tofurkey is not a reasonable compromise, LOL!)

Serving a vegetarian meal once in a while isn't a big deal, and I'll do it on occasion if I've invited someone who would really be genuinely offended at the presence of flesh on the table. (I draw the line at excluding dairy, however; if my child asks for milk in his own home, he gets it.) However, most of the vegetarians I know are doing it for what they profess to be health reasons, so for them simply including a selection of foods that they can eat seems to best satisfy all concerned.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-18-2004
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 12:15am

Actually my dh isn't into food either.

It's strange for me, coming from a family where food is HUGE, you eat it, discuss it, then...like another poster said, watch Food Network!

He eats to live, basically and has a really limited repitoire of what he likes. I've mellowed him out more over the years and he's gotten more used to being fed good food rather then quick stuff though.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 12:24am

ITA re: texture. Peaches, mushrooms, strawberries (though I'm allergic to them anyway), tomatoes, the list goes on. Love the taste of mushrooms and tomatoes, but the texture of the raw/cooked food itself makes me gag. (Can't say the same for peaches, universal blech on those!)

My little hand-held Braun food processing wand is my saviour; I even puree oysters for my turkey stuffing. Like I always tell DS, if you think it smells good, then it will almost always taste good, but the way a food feels on your tongue can still kill the deal.

Smell is a whole 'nother category for food aversions. Can't tolerate cooked cruciferous veggies, myself. (So no brussels sprouts get cooked in this house, not matter how much a guest might like them.) To me, that category all smells just like raw sewage.

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 2:28am
I'll play -- there are only a couple of things I really don't like -- organ meats and beets. I don't cook organ meats at all. But I do cook beets from time to time because the guys in the house rather like them. DH doesn't like squash or eggplant, but I do, so from time to time I cook those things, but I always have an alternative vegetable on the table, too. One of my kids doesn't like fluid milk to drink, and I am always looking for calcium-rich products to serve him. Once in awhile he'll eat some yoghurt. I make mashed potatoes and milk-based sauces more often than I normally would just to get some milk into him, and I tell him that unless he has some milk, he ought not to have soda because of soda's calcium-leaching potential. The other kid usually eats everything but goes on wierd food jags from time to time, which I accomodate if I can. The two latest have been the Horror of Bruised Fruit episode (where it wasn't enough to cut the dark spot out of the apple, the whole thing suddenly was inedible in his eyes) and the Winter of Oatmeal Breakfasts.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 2:39am
My kids' forbidden fruit isn't cake and ice cream, which they are actually quite indifferent to. What they will go for every time, given the chance, is what DH and I refer to as "balloon bread", the nasty white stuff that is more air than food. I swear, my kids would rather have a loaf of Wonder Bread in their Easter basket than a chocolate bunny. And no, I don't buy it for them. Ever. Refuse to have it in the house.
iVillage Member
Registered: 09-04-1997
Wed, 06-15-2005 - 2:43am
My kids might have been like that too, at three or four, depending on what was on the TV. But it still didn't make me feel like running out and buying a TV and getting it hooked up for cable and paying the cable bills so they could get enough of Blue's Clues or whatever at home that they wouldn't want to watch it elsewhere. I see junk TV as sort of like junk food. Nice for a treat from time to time, but definitely not something I want my kids experiencing every day.

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