Why (and how…) My Kid Doesn’t Eat Chicken Nuggets, French Fries, Deli Meat or Kraft Dinner
In real life, I’m often asked how I get Primo to eat so well. We’ve gone to birthday parties & lunch dates where he’s eaten a whole grain bun and fruit when the other kids are mowing through hotdogs and fluorescent orange noodles. Nary a hot dog has ever crossed the lips of my offspring.
How did I manage this extraordinary feat?
He’s never rarely seen crappy food.
I know. Wow, right? It’s totally not rocket science.
Since he was introduced to solid foods at 6 months of age, Primo hasn’t been exposed anything (at home) but fresh, primarily organic fruits and vegetables, legumes, whole grain breads & crackers, organic dairy, organic juices and a wide variety of homemade items. The image in this post was Primo’s breakfast this morning – a plate of varied fruit (raspberries, oranges, apples, cherries, kiwi, and strawberries) and a bowl of organic plain whole milk yogurt with organic granola, pumpkin seeds and flax stirred in and topped with fresh blueberries. It took just minutes to prepare (the fruit was all pre-washed and chopped on the day I brought it home), it’s pretty, and even if he doesn’t eat it all he’s been given many choices. He chose which of the fruits went on his yogurt and I put the rest on his plate. He was also given the choice between the yogurt and toast with almond butter as his protein item. No matter what he chooses, he’s getting something good. I really feel like that’s the key. If you don’t want them to eat it, don’t have it in the house.
It’s not like he’s never had macaroni and cheese. He has, but we make it from scratch with whole wheat noodles, fresh cheeses, real butter and organic milk. I want him to know that real food is not fluorescent. He has also had chips (some bad, but mostly multi-grain Tostitos, organic veggie chips and the like), baked desserts (99% home made with only whole wheat flour – even in things you wouldn’t think you could substitute whole wheat in, organic sugar [less than in recipes because we want other flavours to shine through], real butter and real cream) and jello (homemade with real organic fruit, fruit juice and gelatin)..And, you know what? It’s not hard.
I want my kids to develop a taste for real and wholesome food. I am the only one who can do that.
You see, I’m the parent.
I, for just a few years, have total control over what my children eat and see. I find it very strange when I hear people say that their young child won’t eat vegetables. If you offer nothing but a variety of vegetables and they’re hungry, they’ll eat vegetables. You may need to explore new and unusual veggies, but I guarantee there’s at least one your child will like. Granted, it’s easier if you start at 6 months old but it can be done. And it’s totally worth your time and money. If they have to slather it in ranch dressing, so be it. I don’t allow that because we haven’t come to that point yet, and I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. I hope we don’t ever come to it, though. I hope we’ve guided their newbie taste buds to enjoy wholesome, healthy food. Bella had her first taste of garlicky hummus goodness yesterday and will follow in Primo’s footsteps as we teach her how to eat. If the Chinese can get their kids to eat duck eggs and the Filipino people can get their kids to eat blood stew, we have no excuse.
We are teaching our kids by example that fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains and organic dairy are 90% of what we eat and that it’s totally normal. We don’t give a ton of options. If you don’t like what we’re having, you can have different fruits and vegetables, yogurt and/ or some other plain whole grain item that we have in the house but nothing that takes any effort. I’m not a short order cook. You can have bread, but I’m not toasting it for you.
Also, we’re not perfect. If I want complete crap, I’ll have it when my kids are either sleeping or somewhere else. We teach them moderation through all having one bite of a shared piece of trans-fatty goodness. Primo knows the word “organic.” He knows the words “junk food.” He knows the words “sometimes food” and “everyday food.” Giving them the gift of good health is my way of paying back the universe for our gifts of two happy, healthy, beautiful children.
(And…my post title is actually a lie. He does eat chicken nuggets. These ones. And we make homemade fries with both red and sweet potatoes.)
Questions?
What do your kids eat?
What do you have trouble with in terms of your childrens’ diet, if anything?
*Please note, I’m totally not judging you if you feed your kids hotdogs regularly. Intestinal cancer will be curable by the time they grow up anyway, right? < / snark >
It’s our four year anniversary today! We have two kids and no babysitter so we’re doing nothing to celebrate until we go visit my parents in August. Then we’ll go out for dinner. Regardless, I’m even happier today than I was last year because we now have Bella. Thanks, Big Guy, for the best four (six) years of my life and for bringing me everything that I love most. I love you more than words can say.
July 24th, 2008 at 5:05 am
My kids will eat anything. The only thing my almost-4 won’t eat is Salsa… but actually? She’ll eat that at restaurants, she just likes to say she doesn’t like it so we can all say, “oh she’ll eat anything but salsa.” Anyway, I don’t go through the trouble of buying organic or whole wheat (though I do opt for wheat when there’s an easy choice in the same price range). We always buy the unsweeted stuff and the whole grains – but I certainly don’t go way out of my way to find the “good” (subjective) food. I’m not a food nazi. I respect your method, here. But, I don’t have the time or energy for all that. Plus, I don’t want my kiddos feeling secluded or (worse) excluded because of my personal desires.
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July 24th, 2008 at 5:51 am
My kids will eat anything. The only thing my almost-4 won’t eat is Salsa… but actually? She’ll eat that at restaurants, she just likes to say she doesn’t like it so we can all say, “oh she’ll eat anything but salsa.” Anyway, I don’t go through the trouble of buying organic or whole wheat (though I do opt for wheat when there’s an easy choice in the same price range). We always buy the unsweeted stuff and the whole grains – but I certainly don’t go way out of my way to find the “good” (subjective) food. I’m not a food nazi. I respect your method, here. But, I don’t have the time, energy or money for all that. Plus, I don’t want my kiddos feeling secluded or (worse) excluded because of my personal desires. My kids eat very well – my almost-4 would choose yogurt or cottage cheese over crap food anyday. But, she does love her some fluorescent mac and cheese!
maggie’s last blog post..Running
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July 24th, 2008 at 6:04 am
My daughter (2yrs) did really well with eating fruits and veggies for the first year and a half. She still loves fruits of all kinds, thank goodness. But with the veggies, she can’t stand the textures of them. She was fine with the mushy baby food veggies, some homemade, some store bought. But with the actual whole veggies, she usually won’t even try them. When she does, she spits them right out. Hubby and I eat them and like them, but she doesn’t want to follow in our example. So, in order to get those veggies into her, I sometimes give her the baby food mushy stuff again. But evn then, it’s a hit or miss with it. But either way, we keep trying, because I feel that every bit of goodness we get in her, is better than nothing.
And it’s funny that you just post this about the flourescent mac and cheese, because it was just last night that I was saying to hubby that I need to start making our own homemade mac and cheese becuse of all the crap in the store bought stuff. Got a recipe handy? I’m terrible at this stuff.
Kookaburra’s last blog post..$5 Check in the mail!
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July 24th, 2008 at 6:56 am
Kookaburra – I love that! I put purees in everything to add even more veggies. I think once you have cancer in your family you do everything you can to eliminate pesticides and other carcinogenic chemicals that are in many non-organic and scarily processed foods. When my dad got cancer we changed way more about our lifestyle. Though that coincided with the birth of my first child so they both likely had something to do with it. Plus, my husband and I both read too much…I think there’s such a thing as being over-educated.
“But either way, we keep trying, because I feel that every bit of goodness we get in her, is better than nothing.” – Absolutely! If you keep trying, she will know that it’s the normal way to eat. As long as the other choices you give her are good ones you can’t lose. I didn’t eat a cooked vegetable until I was 18 I think – only raw ones, and NEVER tomatoes (which are now one of my faves) – it’s a kid thing. However, because we didn’t have any crap in the house what I did eat was whole, real and healthy so my tastebuds were primed for it. We can only do what we can do. It’s about the choices we make that impact our kids for life.
Recipe? Sure! FYI, I change this all the time but these are the basics.
HOMEMADE MACARONI AND CHEESE
3 cups dry whole wheat elbow macaroni
4 tbsp. butter
4 tbsp. whole wheat flour
2 c. milk
2 c. shredded cheddar cheese, heaping (or whatever kind you like…if your kid won’t eat orange, use monterey jack or ??)
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Tomato slices if you like them
Parmesan cheese
(optional: purees or small pieces of squash, zucchini, cauliflower…)
Boil water and cook macaroni according to directions on box. In the meantime, melt the butter over low heat in a small pot. Add salt, pepper, dry mustard, and flour. Stir and let cook for 1 minute. Add the milk and stir constantly until thickened. Add shredded cheese and stir until smooth on very low heat. If you choose, you can now add purees (which will be totally unnoticeable to picky palates) or small sliced veggies of your choosing.) Grease a large baking dish with butter and pour in drained macaroni. Pour cheese sauce evenly over pasta, mixing in. (Mix well so you don’t have dry spots – that’s not good.) Cover the top with tomato slices. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, salt, and pepper. Bake at 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, uncovered.
Serves 6 to 8.
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July 24th, 2008 at 8:55 am
My kids refuse to touch mac and cheese- fluorescent or otherwise! They are both great eaters and have always had lots of fresh fruits and veggies in their diet. Our funniest latest find is that my 6 year old who’d never had a standard salad with ranch dressing in his life has decided that it’s now his favorite meal of all time. He now downs salad every day the way other kids eat peanut butter (which he can’t stand by the way). Kudos for you to exposing your children to the foundation for a healthy future.
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July 24th, 2008 at 9:14 am
Happy Anniversary!
As for your food info, you’re an inspiration… I’m meeting friends for nachos tonight, so in order to lesson the guilt and give myself the chance to actually enjoy the endulgement, I’m about to hop on the treadmill! Balance, balance, balance! I love how your teaching your children. You’re awesome and a WONDERFUL role model. Perhaps a “simple recipes to instill good eating values” cookbook is in order in your future??? Hmm???
Tara’s last blog post..Beauty
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July 24th, 2008 at 9:46 am
We try. I have gotten better with cooking and therefor provide better meals. My kids eat a ton of fruits and veggies and I always received the same questions about HOW I got them to eat it. We are meatless during the week, and my kids eat beans, fish, tofu … because like you said, it is good for them and I MAKE them. hehe I am the ruler of their universe!
chelle’s last blog post..WW #26 – Window to the Soul
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July 24th, 2008 at 9:53 am
pssst …. Happy Anniversary!
chelle’s last blog post..WW #26 – Window to the Soul
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July 24th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Happy anniversary!
Fly loves fresh fruit and veggies, and he loves pasta. He has been in a strange no-meat phase for about a month now, so I am giving him beans and I try to sneak in some cheese because he won’t eat that by itself. He actually loves to eat plain kidney beans!
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July 24th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
The fruit looks yumm-o! We eat some organic and try to eat as healthy as possible since our youngest son has severe food allergies but sometimes my 7 yr. old and I like to eat a hot dog.
BTW, happy anniversary!
Amanda Petite Mommy’s last blog post..What You Do When Your Internet Is Down
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July 29th, 2008 at 1:59 pm
I admit we don’t eat everything organic because I shop at the commissary on base and they don’t carry a lot of organic. We have one health food store in town (not a local chain) and I don’t get there very often. I have started changing the way we eat and what we eat though. I buy organic ketchup, not necessarily even because it is organic, but moreso because it doesn’t have any HFCS, I buy natural PB, fruit preserves w/out HFCS, usually buy Ruby’s breads because they are organic and no HFCS. We eat a lot of cereal here, but not the sugar-laden stuff. I used to make Kayla’s baby food – basically she would eat what we were having, but mixed in the food processor. She used to eat pretty much anything – beef stroganoff, stew, chili etc. Now she won’t eat hardly anything at dinner. We have to beg, bribe, cajole, plead for her to take one bite of each food. It’s been very frustrating. I think this started about 1-2 yrs ago. Even if it was food she had before and liked and ate, she will hardly touch her dinner now. She does eat most fresh fruits, but she has her moments, last week she wouldn’t eat kiwi or mango even though she’s eaten them up before.
I agree with if you don’t want your kids eating it don’t have it in the house. I don’t buy sugar-filled snacks – cookies etc aren’t in our cabinet (occasionally I’ll buy Nature’s Own cookies, because again, no HFCS), Kayla likes pretzels, rice cakes, nuts etc. I don’t buy doritos, freetos, chips, Hostess or Little Debbie snacks.
So what do you do if at a bday party, or bbq, or something like that when all they are serving is hot dogs? Do you bring your own food for Primo?
Michelle’s last blog post..It’s That Time Again
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July 29th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Yolanda – Primo won’t eat mac n’ cheese either. It’s for us.
He just eats plain noodles with some grated cheese on the side.
Tara- you never fail to make me blush
Chelle, Amanda & Damselfly – Thanks!
Michelle – I always have food for him in my purse just in case, but usually most people have things he will eat. I would let him taste a hot dog if he wanted to, but I’d never offer it to him. Usually he’ll want me to get him a plate and I’ll give him the good stuff. If he sees chips or brownies or something, he’s all over it. He’s definitely my kid! I’m not totally anal – it’s just the consistency of routine eating that’s important to me. We love treats, but also stay away from the HFCS like you. And e don’t eat everything organic either. We’d be broke. We eat what’s most important…dairy, we try to get meat, and probably 80% of our produce…especially the dirty dozen.
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July 31st, 2008 at 4:48 am
Happy 4th! We just celebrated our 5th last week, doesn’t time just fly?
Good for you for controlling the food situation so well! It’s hard to do. I’ve tried to teach my daughter about junk/candy and all of the healthy categories. But, once they know there are junk options, I will say that it is much harder to convince them to make healthy choices! We are the parents, but do you find that as they age it gets harder to take control over their food choices?
Good for you
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