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keira September 27th 05 10:25 PM

Kids and Nutrition
 
I have two boys and a girl. They all like different foods. I insist on
making them the same thing, which is often a battle but getting easier
since I have not back downed once. I want to know if anyone has any kid-
friendly dinner and/or suggestions for finicky kids. I am concerned
about protein and if my kids get are getting enough nutrition in their
diets. I need suggestions. Are there any foods out there that are
flexible but also nutritious?
--Keira


Peggy Tatyana September 28th 05 05:15 PM

"keira" wrote:

I have two boys and a girl. They all like different foods. I insist on
making them the same thing, which is often a battle but getting easier
since I have not back downed once. I want to know if anyone has any

kid-
friendly dinner and/or suggestions for finicky kids. I am concerned
about protein and if my kids get are getting enough nutrition in their
diets. I need suggestions. Are there any foods out there that are
flexible but also nutritious?


You might begin by telling us what sorts of things they actually like.
Is there anything that all of them enjoy?

If they like pasta, there are all kinds of ways of making things like
lasagne and spaghetti that can incorporate various protein and vegetable
foods. Also, I think it's helpful to require that they at least try
things they don't think they'll like. Tell them that being wiling to try
new foods is a sign of maturity (which it is!) That'll get 'em every
time.

Peggy

--
....it's always better to find humility before it goes out looking for
you. -- Carolyn Hax



dkhedmo September 28th 05 08:54 PM

keira wrote:
I have two boys and a girl. They all like different foods. I insist on
making them the same thing, which is often a battle but getting easier
since I have not back downed once. I want to know if anyone has any kid-
friendly dinner and/or suggestions for finicky kids. I am concerned
about protein and if my kids get are getting enough nutrition in their
diets. I need suggestions. Are there any foods out there that are
flexible but also nutritious?
--Keira

You don't say what age your kids are, but something my 5 yo has gotten
interested in is having one or two days a month where he gets to choose
the menu and help shop for and prepare the food with his parent of
choice. I set the parameters, such as "1 fruit, 1 veg, 1 protein, 1
whole grain, and dessert" and he gets to choose the items and greatly
enjoys the preparation. Everyone in the family eats that meal (parents
too, even if it's a bunch of "kid" food).

Funny, his most favorite part is being the one to call the other parent
and his litle brother in from playing when it's time to eat. I didn't
realize that was such a mystical and coveted position to hold!

With three kids, I'd pick one night a week to be "kid's choice" night
and rotate that to each kid having a turn. If you have a
husband/partner, have them plan the menu one night a month also and that
makes an even 4 weeks and they can plan on one kid always being the
first Thursday, next kid second Thursday, etc. and that might give them
some time to anticipate and plan a meal, look up a recipe, etc. I would
definitely not allow it to be pizza or whatever junk food every time,
unless they were making whole wheat dough from scratch, preparing fresh
vegetable toppings, etc, that kind of a thing.

Speaking of pizza, my son had a lot of fun one night last week making
pizza. There were some nice pitas on sale at the grocery store, so I
picked up a couple packets, one whole wheat, on pesto flavored, and laid
out a buffet of toppings and we each made our own little pizza. My 5 yo
loves broccoli on pizza, he also put olives, tofu, cheese, sauce. You
can make your own sauce - steam or saute a bunch of vegetables, tofu if
you're worried about protein, blend it all up and put it in sauce on
pizza, over pasta, in lasagne, they'll never know!

-Karen-


Scott September 29th 05 03:45 AM

dkhedmo wrote:
keira wrote:

I have two boys and a girl. They all like different foods. I insist on
making them the same thing, which is often a battle but getting easier
since I have not back downed once. I want to know if anyone has any kid-
friendly dinner and/or suggestions for finicky kids. I am concerned
about protein and if my kids get are getting enough nutrition in their
diets. I need suggestions. Are there any foods out there that are
flexible but also nutritious? --Keira

You don't say what age your kids are, but something my 5 yo has gotten
interested in is having one or two days a month where he gets to choose
the menu and help shop for and prepare the food with his parent of
choice. I set the parameters, such as "1 fruit, 1 veg, 1 protein, 1
whole grain, and dessert" and he gets to choose the items and greatly
enjoys the preparation. Everyone in the family eats that meal (parents
too, even if it's a bunch of "kid" food).

Funny, his most favorite part is being the one to call the other parent
and his litle brother in from playing when it's time to eat. I didn't
realize that was such a mystical and coveted position to hold!

With three kids, I'd pick one night a week to be "kid's choice" night
and rotate that to each kid having a turn. If you have a
husband/partner, have them plan the menu one night a month also and that
makes an even 4 weeks and they can plan on one kid always being the
first Thursday, next kid second Thursday, etc. and that might give them
some time to anticipate and plan a meal, look up a recipe, etc. I would
definitely not allow it to be pizza or whatever junk food every time,
unless they were making whole wheat dough from scratch, preparing fresh
vegetable toppings, etc, that kind of a thing.

Speaking of pizza, my son had a lot of fun one night last week making
pizza. There were some nice pitas on sale at the grocery store, so I
picked up a couple packets, one whole wheat, on pesto flavored, and laid
out a buffet of toppings and we each made our own little pizza. My 5 yo
loves broccoli on pizza, he also put olives, tofu, cheese, sauce. You
can make your own sauce - steam or saute a bunch of vegetables, tofu if
you're worried about protein, blend it all up and put it in sauce on
pizza, over pasta, in lasagne, they'll never know!

-Karen-


That last sentence really rubs me the wrong way -- if you
are tricking your children into eating vegetables, then IMO
you've already lost a battle. They've learned, from you,
that vegetables are a thing you have to be tricked into
eating; otherwise, they're no good. I don't think that's
a healthy viewpoint.

DS and his friends are very interesting to watch. He was
one friend who has an eagle eye and can discern any
vegetable within a muffin that does not belong there.
Another friend eats anything you put before him -- as if
he's daring you to find something he *won't* eat. DS
was Mr. Carrot Only for years. And they're all healthy
9-, 10-, and 11-year olds today.

If your child isn't eating vegetables, I wouldn't sweat
it. Things will change. Find something he or she
does like and give that to them. DS was also Mr.
Pasta Only. Suddenly one day he started eating
blazingly hot chicken wings. It's very odd how
tastes change with time. For years it was peanut
buter sandwiches (NO JELLY!) for lunch. Suddenly
he wants Ham and Cheese.

To the OP, worrying about protein. We have had good
luck with cheese (this is WI, after all) and nuts.
Beans as well, in season (Not dried beans -- the wife
and I don't like them). And meat as well. DS is
a chicken only person, but DD loves a good steak.
All are good sources of protein (as is skim milk).
Not a lot of tofu is consumed at our house, but
some people swear by it, and it can be very
flexibly prepared.

Good luck!

Scott DD 12 and DS 9


Nikki September 29th 05 07:09 PM

keira wrote:
I have two boys and a girl. They all like different foods. I insist on
making them the same thing, which is often a battle but getting easier
since I have not back downed once. I want to know if anyone has any
kid- friendly dinner and/or suggestions for finicky kids. I am
concerned about protein and if my kids get are getting enough
nutrition in their diets. I need suggestions. Are there any foods out
there that are flexible but also nutritious?
--Keira


Some things I do:

Have the kids cook. Hunter especially will be more adventurous if he cooked
it.

Eliminate the real junky food from the house. My kids wouldn't eat fruit
for a long time. Once I eliminated snack crackers and ice cream they
suddenly decided fruit was worth a try although they are still a bit
reluctant and will only eat a few types. I do let them dip strawberries in
sugar. We still get the other things but they aren't around all the time.
Once I went a couple months without hot dogs they suddently decided to eat
more of the other meats.

Keep things seperate if possible. I don't mix meat sauce over the spagettie
because one kid only likes a little. I used to seperate some macaroni
before adding the cheese as one kid doesn't like cheese. He's 6yo now btw
and in the last 6 months he'll eat mac and cheese as one dish. I do cook
some casseroles but everyone seems to like them. Meat, potatoe/rice/pasta,
couple veggies, maybe something else at a meal is nice because they can pick
and choose. I usually only cook one veggie and then their is some left over
from the night before. I like beets and zuchinnie and the kids hate it so
on those nights I usually have corn too.
Hunter and I love soup - Luke not so much. When we have soup I always pick
a sandwich or something that I know Luke will like. To make a long story
short I try to make sure there is one healthful thing on the table that each
person likes ;-)

I don't do bread at meals unless dh is home, otherwise they fill up on bread
and aren't hungry enough to want to taste the other things.

I don't ever fight about it. I sometimes try to get them to take one bite
to decide if they like it but if they don't or won't, I drop it.

For things to eat? I'm sure that varies. In my house beans, soups, deli
style trays with good meats, cheeses, veggies (they only really eat
carrots), fruits where they can just pick and eat (good for lunch). One kid
likes cheese and yogurt. Fried stuff which we don't do all that often but
they like it - especially fish, making their own pizza's with healthful
toppings, tuna and crackers, anything on a stick, lol. We make skewers for
the grill and put fruit and stuff on a stick sometimes. Mine like veggie
burgers oddly enough.

--
Nikki
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
EDD 4/06



Kevin Karplus September 29th 05 07:10 PM

On 2005-09-29, Scott wrote:
To the OP, worrying about protein. We have had good
luck with cheese (this is WI, after all) and nuts.
Beans as well, in season (Not dried beans -- the wife
and I don't like them). And meat as well. DS is
a chicken only person, but DD loves a good steak.
All are good sources of protein (as is skim milk).
Not a lot of tofu is consumed at our house, but
some people swear by it, and it can be very
flexibly prepared.


A lot depends on what kids are exposed to early. My son has been
eating cold tofu with a little soy sauce since he was 1 (he is now
9;6) and it is one of the foods that he will most reliably eat in his
lunch box. His other main source of protein is chocloate milk, of
which he now drinks about 2 gallons a week. He will eat occasional
meat products (mainly hotdogs and other sausages), and tiny amounts of
cheese. He will occasionally eat pinto beans, but not if they are
refried or mixed with anything.

------------------------------------------------------------
Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus
Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz
Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics
(Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB)
life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels)
Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed)
Affiliations for identification only.


Dawn September 29th 05 07:39 PM

anything on a stick, lol

There was a period in Henry's younger life when he would eat anything,
ANYTHING if I would let him eat it with toothpicks.

Those were the days.

Henry announced he was a vegetarian just after he turned 9. We thought
it would be a fun thing to watch him try for a couple of weeks (he was
a major carnivore who had graduated to Quarter Pounders from hamburgers
at age 3). He's still mostly vegetarian although he does eat all
seafood.

Cooking nutritionally in our house, then, is a challenge -- especially
since my husband does not eat many vegetables. We eat a lot of fish
(which keeps us all healthier) and then there are nights when we will
have meat for my husband and me and I'll prepare something more on the
convenience-foods line (a frozen cheese pizza or somesuch) or something
simple like an omelet for Henry.

I learned early on (and still believe this) not to worry about variety.
That's imposing my preferences on him. If he falls in love with
somethign that's nutritious (right now it's strawberries mixed with
blueberries) then he can have it three meals a day (supplemented with
other things) if he wants. When he tires of it (and he will, usually
on the day I purchased an especially large supply on sale) then we move
on.

I think their preferences as they get older are shaped a lot by peers.

-Dawn
Mom to Henry, 13


Lesley September 30th 05 11:54 PM

Dawn wrote:


I learned early on (and still believe this) not to worry about variety.
That's imposing my preferences on him. If he falls in love with
somethign that's nutritious (right now it's strawberries mixed with
blueberries) then he can have it three meals a day (supplemented with
other things) if he wants. When he tires of it (and he will, usually
on the day I purchased an especially large supply on sale) then we move
on.



So that doesn't only happen at my house. :-)

C: I don't know what to have for breakfast.

Me: Well, there's a brand new box of (fill in the blank favorite cereal).

C: Oh, I don't like that any more.

Envision the steam coming out of my ears, since it often is something I
don't really want either.

Lesley


Robyn Kozierok October 1st 05 03:17 AM

In article ,
Scott wrote:

dkhedmo wrote:
Speaking of pizza, my son had a lot of fun one night last week making
pizza. There were some nice pitas on sale at the grocery store, so I
picked up a couple packets, one whole wheat, on pesto flavored, and laid
out a buffet of toppings and we each made our own little pizza. My 5 yo
loves broccoli on pizza, he also put olives, tofu, cheese, sauce. You
can make your own sauce - steam or saute a bunch of vegetables, tofu if
you're worried about protein, blend it all up and put it in sauce on
pizza, over pasta, in lasagne, they'll never know!


That last sentence really rubs me the wrong way -- if you
are tricking your children into eating vegetables, then IMO
you've already lost a battle. They've learned, from you,
that vegetables are a thing you have to be tricked into
eating; otherwise, they're no good. I don't think that's
a healthy viewpoint.


Only if they *know* you are "sneaking" veggies into the sauce. ;-)

If your child isn't eating vegetables, I wouldn't sweat
it. Things will change. Find something he or she
does like and give that to them.


Why not do that and *also* add a variety of other veggies into
places like pasta sauces where they don't know they are eating them,
but are getting the extra benefits of doing so. o

--Robyn
..


[email protected] October 11th 05 01:29 PM

Kids and Nutrition
 
If you're worried about their future health, you could take part in a
new tv programme we're making for the British Heart Foundation - we'll
bring experts to your house and show them how to live a healthy
lifestyle. Of course it'll depend on their age and where you live but
if you ring Andy or Lucinda on 01752 727400 then you could find out
more...



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