Comments on: Food: 10 easy ideas for making life with fussy kids bearable.

By: Louise

Louise — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:04:22 +0000

My 3 year old has always been an insanely fussy eater. He will basically only eat the following foods: oatmeal porridge, weet bix, plain yoghurt, bread with peanut butter and/or honey, “chips” (fries or boiled potatoes sliced) with ketchup, cheese and sometimes, if I’m lucky, fish fingers. The only way I can get fruit into him is via juice – apple usually. It drives me nuts. I can make cute faces out of his food as much as I like, it’ll still be refused. He won’t eat pasta with sauce, or any form of meat (except frankfurters once in a blue moon). He’ll eat pretty much anything sweet though.
Any ideas?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 23:51:05 +0000

You grated frozen steak into his dessert??????

That’s insane. Troll?

By: Phoodie

Phoodie — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 03:13:20 +0000

awesome idea!

By: Phoodie

Phoodie — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 03:00:17 +0000

Lolly – you are AMAZING – 3 kids of those ages and still the time to be so creative and thoughtful about meals! Well done you!

By: Goldie

Goldie — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:44:09 +0000

My kids are pretty fussy too and it drives me bonkers! They like pizza but only with cheese, or cheese and salami so I got smart and made up my own tomato base sauce. I cook sweet potato, peeled zucchini, pumpkin, anything that I have spare and then blitz it til it is super smooth and add the tub of tomato paste to it and mix it all up. It looks just like normal tomato paste, but with a little somethin’ special in it! I freeze it in blocks and just defrost one as I need it. I also add it to pasta or bolognaise if I have run out of other veggies to hide.
Is hard but you have to be fairly relaxed a dinner time and kids will eat better. Kids know what they need and some days they eat more than others but it all balances out in the end.

By: JosieY

JosieY — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 02:38:22 +0000

I hear you sister!

By: zia

zia — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 01:04:38 +0000

Oh yes, the spinach brownies! Made those once in a moment of desperation. Literally the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tried

By: Luc

Luc — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 23:55:31 +0000

I do think kids often go through this as a developmental phase. My little guy was an awesome eater as a baby, then narrowed down a lot as a toddler. He ate fairly healthy things, thank goodness, but there was only a limited number! Then at around five, his “food vocab” opened up again, and now at seven he eats almost everything again.
I read somewhere that kid’s tastebuds are trained in the first two years, and if they are exposed to lots of things then, they will return to them when they are older.

So here’s hoping it works for you too!

By: Bec

Bec — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 13:18:06 +0000

My toddler started refusing meat. This is the same little guy who was eating steak and corn on the cob at 10 months.. I was all prepared for vege refusal but was floored by the meat one.

So I still offered it. Covered it in tomato sauce which he sucked off and then spat the meat out (was hoping some would transfer in the 30 seconds it was sitting in his mouth while he sucked the sauce off) and then grated frozen cooked steak into his yoghurt for dessert.

Thankfully he got passed that phase after a few months.

By: Lolly

Lolly — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 12:38:19 +0000

Great ideas Phoodie!

I’ve got a 4yo, 2yo and 8 month old, who are pretty good eaters, but still have their moments of fussy/slow eating. Here are a couple of ideas for happier meal times…..

- keep to set meal times (breakfast, m/t, lunch, arvo/t, dinner) each day. Nothing else, then they should be coming to the table reasonably hungry each time….nothing like a few quick crackers at 4.30 to bugger up a 6pm dinner!

- a tapas plate at the end of lunch and dinner. So they eat their main meal (sandwiches for lunch, meat/vegetables for dinner), then they get tapas. It’s a mixed little plate of healthy foods they love (cheese, fruit, soy crisp), plus one or two new things for them to try (peas, tomato, olive paste on a cracker, sausage, piece of fish pie etc. It’s visually so interesting and appealing to kids, and quick to throw together. If they try/eat everything they could get a sticker on their rewad chart, or watch a bit of tv after dinner etc

- download the free sand timer app. Give a set time for the meal, 15-20 mins. In our house, whoever has finished their dinner before time is up gets to watch Thomas the Tank or Raa Raa in the loungeroom recorded earlier in the day on our Foxtel IQ. If the timer runs out and you haven’t finished, you stay at the table and keep eating. (they might be able to hear the tv, just make sure they can’t see it!). If you’re still slow, the show will finish, you’ll miss it and have to just go straight up for a bath. We don’t use the timer every night (cause we don’t want them getting too dependent on it), maybe 3/4 nights a week.

- talk about how lucky they are to eat such wonderful, interesting, delicious foods. It’s never too early to remind them that so many children in other parts of the world may only get a small bowl of plain rice every day for dinner. A bit of empathy and showing gratitude is great for kids!

- it’s December now, so we’ve bought an advent calendar for each toddler (not the baby, obviously). Nothing like the promise of a little square of chocolate to get that dinner eaten! But if dinner is not eaten happily or on time, you must stand firm – NO CHOCOLATE for that night (leave it out for Santa’s elves, who might just be flying around tonight looking for good boys and girls!)

Bon appetit!