Making food fun for kids
3 August 2011, by Jon Wilde
Mealtimes need constant creativity to keep the young 'uns engaged and eating something decent. Jon Wilde explores some novel ideas for dinner
To misquote The Bible, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is to persuade your child to eat a sprig of broccoli.
Mealtimes ought to number among the more relaxing parts of any day. However, as any parent knows, it only takes one food-fussy kid to turn dinnertime into a highly-charged battle of wills. Most parents will be familiar with the following scenario:
Dad: “Why don’t you try some of that delicious broccoli on your plate?”
Child: “Won’t. Hate it.”
Dad: “But you’ve never tried it.”
Child: “Don’t need to try it. I hate the way it looks.”
Dad (in a futile attempt to be playfully persuasive): “Why don’t we pretend that the broccoli is a tree and the mashed potato is a desert island?”
Child: “Why would I want to eat a tree?”
Dad: “How about giving the sprouts a try?”
Child: “Hate sprouts.”
(Continues along these lines for another three hours until dad loses the will to live.)
It has long been my suspicion that parents are often as much to blame as their offspring for making mealtimes so unbearably stressful. We easily forget that a toddler’s taste buds are far more sensitive than our own so they are liable to be more fickle about food, needing more time to become accustomed to new flavours.
Forcing food upon them is likely to make them even more stubborn. Try putting yourself in their shoes. If your own mealtimes involved someone shoving food in your face and refusing to let you leave the table until you’d finished your petit pois, you’d be inclined to give them a swift punch up the bracket.
My neighbours’ six-year-old twins, Wanda and Spike, are notoriously picky eaters, making mealtimes hell on earth for their long-suffering parents. I can always tell when they’re sitting down to eat because the noise emanating from the house resembles something out of an 18th-century madhouse.
I’ve long suspected that the twins’ refusal to scoff anything more adventurous than pizza and fish fingers has much to do with their need to be in control of what they eat, with the result that mealtimes become no-win power struggles.
Clearly, it’s time for a fresh approach. With the aim of encouraging them to become more creatively involved in what they eat, Wanda and Spike have been persuaded to choose five grown-up recipes from a pile of cookbooks. They accompany me to the supermarket to choose the ingredients. Then, over the course of a week, they assist me in the preparation of the meals and I sit back to gauge their reactions as they tuck in. (See below for recipes.)
Stuffed Lobster
Spike choose this Alton Brown recipe because he’d seen a lobster in a Disney film and it looked “kinda cool”. The twins took particular delight in removing the claws and attaching them to their noses. Having been promised that they’d get the lobster shells to play with if they ate up, both plates were picked clean. Success rating: 10/10
Red Dragon Pie
This was chosen after I vetoed Wanda’s idea of lamb’s brain tacos. “Red dragon” is simply a term for adzuki bean but the twins weren’t to know that. It was consumed with some gusto, after which they rang up their friends to boast that they’d had a dragon for dinner. 10/10
Jamaican Red Pea Soup
Selected, I suspect, in the mistaken belief that they would get to see what “red pee” looked like. It was all eaten apart from the kidney beans. According to Spike, his granddad had an operation to remove one and was in agony for weeks. 8/10
Smoked Haddock With Marmite Rarebit
The twins are big fans of Marmite but have always refused to eat fish unless it’s covered in breadcrumbs and shaped like a domino. But this Gary Rhodes dish marked a dramatic breakthrough, with unprecedented demands for second helpings. 10/10
Shepherd’s Pie
This was a perfect opportunity to sneak some broccoli in, to prove to the twins that it doesn’t actually turn your skin green. I was rumbled on the first mouthful, though. I start explaining that broccoli contains a high amount of potassium, which helps maintain a healthy nervous system, but Wanda and Spike are too busy screaming to take any notice. I guess you can’t win ’em all. Blimmin’ kids, eh? 0/10
The recipes:
Smoked Haddock with Marmite Rarebit
22nd March, 2012
Divorce and separation expert Charlotte Friedman answers a dilemma from a man whose ex-wife is souring his relationship with their two children
2nd September, 2011
How to turn a trip to the hairdresser into a good experience, and stop you resorting to the 'bowl and kitchen scissors' look
11th October, 2011
We can all agree that shit and f*ck are swear words, but what about arse, crap and bugger? Where do we draw the line?
6th September, 2011
Teaching your kids how to cross the road and the theory of relativity are just the start. You must also get the buggers to live within budget, says Phillip Hodson
27th September, 2011
Can your child make you feel like a spare limb, an interloper or an irrelevance? Perhaps you’re not spending enough time with them, says Phillip Hodson
Comments
Posted by Rugratzz on 3 August 2011 at 09:19
By calling food some other name hiding the “goodies” in the sauce, Personally I think you are defeating the point, all you do is swap the “dino” shaped fish/chicken with something else. Thankfully none of my boys are fussy eaters, they have a few things that they dont like, but will eat them if they are served. liver not liked by the eldest, but loves the gravy, and tomatoes, (uncooked). from almost birth they have been given a huge range of different foods not only popular ones but also foods from other countries, especially spiced food.
We never have the “I dont like that” or “I dont think I like that”, they will always try something new at least twice, (thanks Andrew Zimmern presenter of Bizarre Foods says you always need to try something at least twice.) a teacher brought in some fried locusts and other various bugs, my middle son was there like a shot trying the new food, while others in the class were cringing with horror as the food did not look like chicken nuggets, pizza or burgers and heaven forbid they actually try something new.
Many people people joke about the Danish taste in food, Personally I find the food bland, and very boring, “Frikadeller” Danish meat balls, made from port and very little seasoning, very little taste, they actually found a new seasoning here its called Salt!!!! so many of the children when they come in contact with spiced food dont like the taste.
We have the philosophy of take it or leave it, what is on the table is it, you will try every thing, but only a little of what you dont like if you serve yourself then you will eat everything on the plate, two small portions are better than one huge one. . No battles, those are the rules. Its the same for any child that comes to our house. we were looking after a little boy for a friend, just a few days, and he was a picky eater, well that lasted a day, he went to be the first night, after eating one potato, (it was mince in gravy with a few peas and corn in it and spuds) nothing to adventurous, the next day he just ate everything that was given to him, it was not because he was starving he had a good breakfast, he just understood that we did not play his games.
The boys ask me what’s for tea, and I tell them if its a pie then I tell them what’s in it I dont hide the ingredients ever!!!!!!
Posted by Rich on 11 August 2011 at 19:46
Good article. Looking through recipe books and food magazines together is a great idea. We always try and eat together as family, and where possible all have the same thing. Asa result we’ve got a fairly adventurous 4 year old by. Stilton, olives and mussels are amongst his favourites.
Please log in to post a comment.