From: hyler@ast.saic.com (Buffy Hyler)
Subject: Re: RECIPES NEEDED FOR FUSSY EATERS
Reply-To: hyler@ast.saic.com
Organization: SAIC
Date: Fri, 22 Jan 1993 17:52:40 GMT


>>Nancy M. Schnepp (ns@bohr.physics.purdue.edu) wrote:
>>> I have two fussy eaters, ages 7 and 11.  I am very tired
>>> of the spaghettios or macaroni and cheese suppers.  

I haven't seen this article yet on my site, just a followup.  I
have a very fussy 6 year old son.  

First, I belong to the camp that has decided to absolutely *not*
make a fuss over eating, within reason.  If David had shown an
inclination towards eating empty calories all the time I would
probably be more controlling over what he eats.  Or if he was
showing some nutritional problems with his health.  But he seems
to eat reasonably healthy and gets excellent health reports.  We're
even down to only 1 ear infection this winter, so far (knock wood!!).

And, David is an only child so it is somewhat easier to organize than
if it were multiple children, each with different wants.

So, I allow David to either eat what we are having for dinner or choose
among a small selection of easy to cook meals which include pizza, hot dogs,
cold cuts (salami/cheese), grilled cheese sandwich, pickles, carrots and
salad.  The salad is the only one that's hard to offer when he wants because
sometimes the ingredients have gone bad (anyone know how to freeze salad? :-)

I've noticed two ways to get David to include a new item in his limited
list of liked foods: seeing other kids eat them or novelty.  He now loves
pineapple because they had a group of "P" foods to try during the week
they learned the letter "P".  He came home insisting that he have pineapple
for dinner.  He also learned to like celery with peanut butter at school
and a few others I've forgot.  The latest "novelty" was using chopsticks.
He used them at a local Japanese restaurant on the salad they served and
is now hooked on having lots of salad so he can use his chopsticks (which
he does amazingly well with very little instruction, his own style, of course).

Oh, one other thing that has worked *very* well with David is to offer
"appetizer" type meals.  He seems to really enjoy having a small amount
of a few different things on his plate, and if they are finger food oriented,
all the better.  His standard lunch is two slices of salami, 3 hamburger style
pickle slices, a cookie and a thermos of apple juice.  He says the other kids
have sandwiches but "that's too much food!".

I've heard others suggest getting the kids involved in helping to prepare the
meals and that this interests them in eating it.  This hasn't worked with
David until just recently where he is really getting interested in helping
me in the kitchen.  He used to run if I brought out the hand mixer (TOO NOISY!!).
So we'll see.

So my feelings would be that as long as your two aren't eating too
unhealthy and it isn't a strain on your time, let them have alternatives
that they want if they don't want the main meal.  But it is really only
a thing that each family can decide for themselves.  I hope I've given
you a few "recipe" ideas, though.


---
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Buffy Hyler (hyler@ast.saic.com)
SAIC, Campus Point
San Diego, California
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Newsgroups: misc.kids