S/O baby food: Cooking separate meals for kids?

[geneg]

I was on the WM board on TB and someone asked for recommendations for go-to meals for her toddler because he was picky. She makes him something different when she makes food he doesn't eat (she gave salmon and salad as an example). Others mentioned having a supply of chicken nuggets or mac&cheese ready to go. Does everyone do this??

We have two kids (12m and 36m). Since about 10m, they've been eating what we eat except cut into smaller pieces. At 1yr, DD thought that pasta with shrimp and pesto was the best thing ever. DS LOVES eating mozzarella and tomato salad with vinaigrette. We have salmon pretty often and both of our kids love it. Sure, they will pig out on candy and sweets and tend to prefer pasta over Brussels sprouts, but if DD (she's the older one) complains about wanting more bread, she knows she has to finish the salad first, etc. I don't know if she's even had mac&cheese (we don't eat it).

Baring allergies or medical issues, does anyone else make their child a different meal than the adults get?

[frlcb]

Let me just throw this out there - you are very, very lucky that your children eat everything you put in front of them. This is not always an issue of the parents giving in to the kids but rather making sure their kids eat something, anything, when you have a picky eater. I have a 4.5 year old that until this Summer was incredibly picky. Like, we would be thrilled to get him to eat anything so after days of his not wanting to eat what we put in front of him we give in and give him what we know he will eat. The old adage that if a kid is hungry enough he will eat? Totally not the case.

Now our dd, who is 16 months, does eat anything and everything, which is probably why ds is getting better. But don't judge (not saying you do but it sort of sounds like it) when parents have a picky child, if you don't have one you just have NO idea how difficult and demoralizing it can be.

Edit: I truthfully can't tell if you are being judgy about it or genuinely shocked that some parents do this, so if it is the shocked part I apologize for assuming you are judging.

[Deleted]

No, but DS tends to get leftovers from the night before. Most times, I don't get a chance to cook dinner until after he goes to bed or DH comes home from work (whichever comes first).

ETA: Sometimes, DS doesn't like the texture of whatever we have so I try to puree it if possible after that and he takes it in that form. He can be weird sometimes.

[Jem]

I agree that OP is VERY lucky. I would love it if DS were like that. Unfortunately, he is an extremely picky eater. He is so difficult that he won't even pick up food that he doesn't think he'll like - so he has no idea if he would actually like it because it won't even get past his tray. We have tried millions of things to get past this, but at the end of the day this just seems to be who he is. If I want my kid to eat, then he has to get his own meals. I'm hoping he grows out of this, especially once he can be reasoned with more, but for now he has to eat.

And it is not like he just likes unhealthy foods. He wouldn't even pick up his birthday cake, instead he had sweet potato to celebrate his 1st bday.

[Deleted]

Sure I don't think this is unusual at all. My kids eat pretty healthily but there are plenty of things that we like that they won't touch (salmon is a good example of that actually). A lot of times they're just being fickle and refuse to eat something they've enjoyed in the past, like a pasta dish. Pasta is hit or miss with them for some reason.

I keep things like grilled chicken on hand for nights like that and just add a little steamed broccoli or baby carrots and a piece of fruit to turn it into a meal for them. Or I make them something really easy to throw together in five minutes like an omelette or quesadilla.

[6fsn]

I give my kids what we eat, but they don't always like it. I'd rather give him some nuggets then have him go hungry. They at least have to try everything we eat though.

[geneg]

Aug 8, 2012 7:23:20 GMT -5 frlcb said:

Edit: I truthfully can't tell if you are being judgy about it or genuinely shocked that some parents do this, so if it is the shocked part I apologize for assuming you are judging.

Genuinely shocked. I keep running into people who are surprised that my kids eat what we eat (interviewing daycares and nannies, etc). People asking if DS is still on baby food or if he's "moved over to toddler foods". I don't know what toddler food IS! I've seen picky eaters (medically) and oral aversion and other sensory issues, so I can understand that. My sister went through a stage where she would only eat white food (pasta with white cheese, rice, bread, etc). But it just seems so strange to me that someone prepares a meal for the adults that sounds great and then the kids get chicken nuggets and mac&cheese.

And I'm not knocking M&C. If someone made M&C for the adults but made something different for the kids I'd still be surprised...

[6fsn]

I'll also add that when your kid is under 25% for wt and the doc has expressed some concern you'll tend to feed them whatever they will eat that's healthy. My son was underweight so instead of forcing him to eat we'd just give him lots of what he liked.

[mrssandro]

Salmon is DD favorite. Shrimp is her second favorite. Eats the entire portion every time.

Some nights DD has issues with what is prepared for dinner. But 9 times out 10 she eats what we eat. She is not the biggest veggie fan. My only requirement is that she at least give me two REAL bites and then she can go on about her business. Her favorites are any bread or protein. So I always try to include that at dinner.

[wordtothewise]

My 11 month old is a human garbage disposal. But that may change one day and I will probably accommodate with separate meals if necessary. My mom did that with me and my siblings and no harm done. We are all adventurous eaters now. Kids just sometimes are finicky. And I know lots of FTT kids whose parents will go to great lengths to get them to eat anything. Which is most definitely the right thing to do.

[blue1980]

I consider my DD a great eater. She will normally try most things that I put in front of her. With that said, there are some nights that I will make her a seperate meal. Normally the reason that DD gets something seperate is beacuse our dinner is too spicy or she is hungry before I can get dinner ready (we are going through some serious growth spurts right now). Last night for example, DH was running late and DD was starving. I let her have a Hebrew National hotdog, clementine and a handfull of goldfish. I ate with DH once he got home. I do keep easy stuff on hand for DD - pasta, hot dogs, TJ's chicken sausage, chicken nuggets, soy corn dogs, etc.

[drloretta]

We regularly give DD either a mix of something we're eating and something else, or something else entirely. Esp if we've gone out and we've each ordered something different, and we have leftovers.

I don't do dairy, and DD loads up on it. DD really isn't into meat, and it's a regular part of our dinner.

Would I love her to eat exactly what we eat every night? Sure. But most of the time if I were to try it, she'd eat nothing. I'd rather throw a few things on there that are sure to get eaten but aren't part of our regular meal. I don't necessarily do a whole separate meal for her, but she gets extras.

[niki]

Aug 8, 2012 8:01:29 GMT -5 6fsn said:

I'll also add that when your kid is under 25% for wt and the doc has expressed some concern you'll tend to feed them whatever they will eat that's healthy. My son was underweight so instead of forcing him to eat we'd just give him lots of what he liked.

This is where we are at. I never expected that meals would be the most stressful part of raising our son.

[definitelyO]

DS is a good eater - but I'm not sure what age that started. he's 6 now and his favorite food is scallops. he eats everything we do but just not spicy - so if we're making something spicy I'll portion his out before or give him something a bit different. as a baby we did give him baby food and finger foods, etc... I don't think he ate what we were having until probably 18 mo or so. and even so at that age I was not vigilant about having him eat what we were.

[iheartbanjos]

We reserve chicken nuggets and mac and cheese for nights when we have a baby sitter and they feed DD dinner. Otherwise, she eats what we eat.

[Willis Jackson]

I do not make a separate meal. DS rarely has a big appetite at dinner (neither do I) so if he doesn't like what's served, he just drinks milk. No big deal.

[frlcb]

Aug 8, 2012 9:41:45 GMT -5 niki said:

Aug 8, 2012 8:01:29 GMT -5 6fsn said:

I'll also add that when your kid is under 25% for wt and the doc has expressed some concern you'll tend to feed them whatever they will eat that's healthy. My son was underweight so instead of forcing him to eat we'd just give him lots of what he liked.

This is where we are at. I never expected that meals would be the most stressful part of raising our son.

Yes, I should have added that as well. My son is in the 4th% for height and weight. Fourth. He is 3 years older than his sister and only 8 lbs more. It is incredibly stressful when they don't eat and they are so small, so frankly while I would love for us all to eat the same stuff I am more just happy when he eats at all.

[kittycatlove]

Aug 8, 2012 9:41:45 GMT -5 niki said:

Aug 8, 2012 8:01:29 GMT -5 6fsn said:

This is where we are at. I never expected that meals would be the most stressful part of raising our son.

This is us. We try to give DS everything we're eating and he will flat out refuse, meltdowns ensue. Right now I figure we'll give him what we need just to get him to eat something. Hopefully in time it will get better.

[lala]

I think that when you have kids that don't have any food or texture aversions, no other medical issues (like FTT, etc.) and who are generally good eaters, it is hard to imagine cooking 2 meals. Obviously, if you have any of the above concerns you would constantly be working to find foods that your child would eat.

My kids are pretty decent eaters. They go through phases but no medical concerns and no legitimate aversions/issues. They eat what we eat. DD2 sometimes has some adaptations b/c she is too young for certain things (choking hazards) but we did BLW, so most things are fair game. We do spicy, DD1 just knows to ask for milk or eat bread if it's too much. Don't get me wrong, she's had nuggets and mac and cheese and loves them, but she equally loves pesto, seafood, pulled pork, etc. I very rarely resort to a completely different meal. Usually she is asked to have a few bites of everything and now we are at the point that if she chooses not to eat at dinner, she knows that the food from dinner is all she is allowed to have until it's gone. We all can't eat our favorites all the time. I don't like eggplant very much, but I certainly don't refuse it if that's what my DH makes for dinner or make him make me a different meal.