Advice for 3 year old's meals?

Being kind of nauseous, I don't feel like cooking a lot of smelly things,
and in particular, all my 3 year old wants to eat is chicken. We've had this
issue for a while, she eats lots of fresh fruits and will eat some cooked
veggies like green beans, but for "main" dishes she only eats chicken
fingers or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Does anyone have any tips for me while I'm pregnant, to nudge her into
trying some new foods? I try to serve her sandwiches- peanut butter and
jelly, or any kind of lunch meat etc, and she's not interested. Even worse,
she won't eat casseroles and pastas. It's chicken, chicken chicken. She
doesn't even want hot dogs (fine by me) but I am at a loss as to how to get
her to eat more with me, and things that don't turn my stomach at that.
Since I'm naseous I'd like to throw together lighter healthier meals.
Honestly, I can't stand the smell of chicken, even baked chicken nuggets.

She adores fruits and always eats peaches, grapes, pineapple, or anything,
as long as it is fresh and not canned. But I want her to eat macaroni and
cheese, or spaghetti, or peanut butter and jelly. Or one of any number of
*new* things. Help! As an example, I feel like cooking today so I am
starting dinner right now, and am making stuffed jumbo pasta shells, stuffed
with spaghetti sauce and cheeses and a little bit of meat. I don't think
she'll even try them. Tomorrow I am roasting pork in a roaster with apple
slices.

At least...I think I am roasting pork, not my favorite meat, but I feel like
I may be able to handle it.

The only advice I would have is that you can't talk her into it, and you
can't really reason with her, but you can let her know that she gets to eat
what you serve for dinner, and there won't be a seperate meal made just for
her. If you are in the mood for grilled cheese sandwhiches, then that's
what the whole family will have. Then, I'd go ahead and serve her what you
are eating. Make sure that there is fresh fruit and some veggies and bread,
and let her eat what she wants from those choices. Perhaps start talking
about your "family policy" of tasting new things, even if she doesn't want
to eat them. We have always said that at our house, and my 4.5 year old
parrots it back to me like it was her idea. "Mommy, we always try it, at
least one bite." It's important to get her to understand that if she tries
one bite and doesn't want more, than you won't push it. And then don't.
She has to learn to trust that a bite is a bite, and it's her decision if
she wants to eat more than just a bite.

Now, for the first while, I'm sure she'll eat nothing but fruit and bread.
But you know what? Eventually she'll tire of that and see you enjoying
your stuffed shells, or macaroni & cheese, or pork roast, and she may well
give it a try.

The other thing we do a lot is honestly try to tell Taylor and Addie if a
new looking food tastes like something that they've already had and liked.
For example, Taylor had spagetti with meat sauce and liked it. A while
later, we had lasagna. She looked at it and didn't seem convinced, until I
told her it was just like spagetti with meat sauce, only in a different
format. She tried it, and sure enough, it was! Another time we had
mexican, and she had a bean burrito and liked it. Then later, I was eating
a soft taco, and told her it was similar to the bean burrito she had the
other time and liked. She tried it and liked it too. So I've been able to
build trust as far as food goes, because I never make her eat anything she
really doesn't like, and I've been able to remind her when she likes one
food and it's similar to another (and haven't been just saying that to get
her to try it, like the old "it tastes just like chicken ruse...).

If she likes grilled cheese sandwiches, tell her that mac & cheese is
similar -- it's the cheese that she likes, so she should like this one too.
Or, take one of her chicken fingers and slice it thin and make a sandwich
out of it. If you can get her to eat that a few times, then you can run out
of fingers, but substitute sliced deli chicken meat. "Oh, it's just
chicken, you love chicken." That type of thing. Maybe try fish fingers
instead? Just one more option.

Finally, just as practical advice, we buy frozen chicken dinosaur nuggets,
and I microwave them for about a minute. They come out hot and are ready to
eat. I'm sure they still smell a bit, but the whole cooking event is over
almost before it begins. If you cook them in the oven, it probably takes 10
minutes or so, while that smell is getting stronger and stronger, etc. Now
they aren't as crispy and good from the microwave as they are from an oven,
but really, she's 3, does she know the difference? So that may be something
that you can try, and see if it helps on the smell issue. You could pop
them in, and leave the kitchen, then come back in, hold your breath and put
the plate in front of her and be gone again!
--

Jamie
Earth Angels:
Taylor Marlys -- 01/03/03
Addison Grace -- 09/30/04

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"beyond the pale" wrote in message
...
Being kind of nauseous, I don't feel like cooking a lot of smelly things,
and in particular, all my 3 year old wants to eat is chicken. We've had
this issue for a while, she eats lots of fresh fruits and will eat some
cooked veggies like green beans, but for "main" dishes she only eats
chicken fingers or grilled cheese sandwiches.

Does anyone have any tips for me while I'm pregnant, to nudge her into
trying some new foods? I try to serve her sandwiches- peanut butter and
jelly, or any kind of lunch meat etc, and she's not interested. Even
worse, she won't eat casseroles and pastas. It's chicken, chicken chicken.
She doesn't even want hot dogs (fine by me) but I am at a loss as to how
to get her to eat more with me, and things that don't turn my stomach at
that. Since I'm naseous I'd like to throw together lighter healthier
meals. Honestly, I can't stand the smell of chicken, even baked chicken
nuggets.

She adores fruits and always eats peaches, grapes, pineapple, or anything,
as long as it is fresh and not canned. But I want her to eat macaroni and
cheese, or spaghetti, or peanut butter and jelly. Or one of any number of
*new* things. Help! As an example, I feel like cooking today so I am
starting dinner right now, and am making stuffed jumbo pasta shells,
stuffed with spaghetti sauce and cheeses and a little bit of meat. I don't
think she'll even try them. Tomorrow I am roasting pork in a roaster with
apple slices.

At least...I think I am roasting pork, not my favorite meat, but I feel
like I may be able to handle it.