Do you cook separate dinner for your kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you cook separate adult and kid meals? Mine are 5 & 7. I try to make sure there is one thing at every meal they both will eat but I don’t cook them their own dinner. Sometimes that means they don’t eat much. Is this typical?

That's what I did, although my kids were always big eaters, so even if they were only one thing they'd eat, they'd eat a lot of it.

They are now teens and eat everything in terrifying quantities.

I noticed my 8 and 10 year olds suddenly start eating a lot more and I really do feel like I’m feeding horses.

There is no way I would make separate meals unless it’s a leftovers kind of day. My kids were pickier eaters until around first grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat the same about 3x a week because that food is essentially boring and often fattening

Chicken/rice/veggie
Steak/potato/salad
Tacos
Etc


But I don’t really want to eat boring and fattening food all the time so I make special meals for me and my h and kids eat the basics.

Why are you feeding your kids boring, fattening foods? What do you think they're going to grow up to eat?

This is such a western thing I'll never understand.

Because they are athletes and they need a high fat diet.

I find a steak and potatoes boring plus I don’t eat streak but they live it.

I don’t like spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread but they love it so I make it.

My tacos are low carb with cauliflower… they get meat/cheese.

I actually don’t make them a different meal l I make me a different meal. They might even eat my meal as a snack .

Teen athletic boys and a 50 yo women have different dietary needs.

[Anonymous]

Do u eat the same breakfast and lunch?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat the same about 3x a week because that food is essentially boring and often fattening

Chicken/rice/veggie
Steak/potato/salad
Tacos
Etc


But I don’t really want to eat boring and fattening food all the time so I make special meals for me and my h and kids eat the basics.

Why are you feeding your kids boring, fattening foods? What do you think they're going to grow up to eat?

This is such a western thing I'll never understand.

DP, but I feed my kid boring fattening foods because boring foods are what she'll eat and she really needs to gain weight. We tried other things, but then she weighed the same thing at her six and seven year old checkups and her doctors advised us to do whatever we could to get her to eat food and gain weight. I don't care as much about what she'll grow up to eat as I do about keeping her healthy now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you cook separate adult and kid meals? Mine are 5 & 7. I try to make sure there is one thing at every meal they both will eat but I don’t cook them their own dinner. Sometimes that means they don’t eat much. Is this typical?

Op here - to be clear, they’re not starving!! They eat a ton at breakfast and lunch and have a big health snack after school. My mom was giving me grief about this and made me wonder if I’m being too tough.

Are your kids underweight?

Mine are, and I typically cook one thing, and then if they don't want that, they can have something simple like a bagel and cream cheese and fruit. If I held a harder line, they would be scarily underweight.

My son, who I thought was a life-long picky eater, turned 10 and started eating everything.

IMO it's ok to cater to them when they are very young. Kids need to eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat the same about 3x a week because that food is essentially boring and often fattening

Chicken/rice/veggie
Steak/potato/salad
Tacos
Etc


But I don’t really want to eat boring and fattening food all the time so I make special meals for me and my h and kids eat the basics.

Why are you feeding your kids boring, fattening foods? What do you think they're going to grow up to eat?

This is such a western thing I'll never understand.

What is fattening? Each meal is well rounded?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat the same about 3x a week because that food is essentially boring and often fattening

Chicken/rice/veggie
Steak/potato/salad
Tacos
Etc


But I don’t really want to eat boring and fattening food all the time so I make special meals for me and my h and kids eat the basics.

Why are you feeding your kids boring, fattening foods? What do you think they're going to grow up to eat?

This is such a western thing I'll never understand.

What is fattening? Each meal is well rounded?

It’s pretty fattening steak/tacos/spaghetti and meatballs… etc. my kids need high fat diets.

I simply can’t eat that food. Also it gives me heartburn.

I eat a different breakfast and lunch too, sometime things overlap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat the same about 3x a week because that food is essentially boring and often fattening

Chicken/rice/veggie
Steak/potato/salad
Tacos
Etc


But I don’t really want to eat boring and fattening food all the time so I make special meals for me and my h and kids eat the basics.

Why are you feeding your kids boring, fattening foods? What do you think they're going to grow up to eat?

This is such a western thing I'll never understand.

What is fattening? Each meal is well rounded?

It’s pretty fattening steak/tacos/spaghetti and meatballs… etc. my kids need high fat diets.

I simply can’t eat that food. Also it gives me heartburn.

I eat a different breakfast and lunch too, sometime things overlap.

Males do seem to need red meat. I could go a long time without, but my DH will start to look malnourished.

[Anonymous]

It varies. We have a rotation of food that we will all eat (spaghetti night, taco night, charcuterie night, pizza, burgers, etc.) Then there is usually one weekend night where DH and I want to order out something like sushi, so we’ll feed them something basic and then eat that once kids go to bed.

There are also foods (such as Chinese takeout or salmon) that one kid likes, but not the other. I’m really encouraging of my kids to try foods, but do not make them eat something they do not like. So I’ll offer leftovers to the one who doesn’t like what is being served.

Then we also have nights where we’ll have the same meal but slightly varied. E.g. adults will add beans and veggies in their quesadillas, but kids will have just cheese/chicken. Or we have grilled chicken over a salad and they eat it just as chicken with sides.

So basically it varies! My kids (9 and 7) aren’t the most adventurous, but they are pretty good overall and we try to make mealtimes enjoyable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big mistake to do this OP. Picky eaters are made, not born.

Do not become a short order cook for your kids.

This is not true at all. We have 3 kids all raised in the exact same way and all are completely different in what they are willing to eat/try.

My eldest will starve (or eat cracker and fruit) unless her food is very simple and specific. She needs to eat at a different table if other people are eating something that has a fish smell for example.

My second is one of the most adventurous eater I have ever known. She will try anything and everything (raw octopus on the beach once) and eats pretty much any food (except for really spicy ones).

Youngest is in the middle. He will try most things, but there are certain food he won’t eat.

Bolded sounds like neurodiversity, not standard pickiness.

No, nothing different with her. She is a very successful girl, who is a very picky eater and who will peel all the mushy stuff off her burger before she eats it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat the same about 3x a week because that food is essentially boring and often fattening

Chicken/rice/veggie
Steak/potato/salad
Tacos
Etc


But I don’t really want to eat boring and fattening food all the time so I make special meals for me and my h and kids eat the basics.

Why are you feeding your kids boring, fattening foods? What do you think they're going to grow up to eat?

This is such a western thing I'll never understand.

Oh wise one give me your meal plan for the week.

[Anonymous]

Sometimes. If I REALLY want something they won't or can't eat, I'll make them mac and cheese. But it has to be something I'm dying for and wouldn't get otherwise.

[Anonymous]

I don’t cook separate meals and if they don’t like it they don’t eat. But my kids are very unpicky and have free choice of their healthy after school snack options that they like so even if they’re entire dinner consists of two bites of the meal and fruit leather for dessert, it’s not a big deal for anyone. I think it is probably different if you have a picky eater or an underweight kid or something like that. I’m just glad mine almost always like some part of the meals I make; totally not eating dinners are rare in the extreme.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big mistake to do this OP. Picky eaters are made, not born. Do not become a short order cook for your kids.

Only believed by a parent who did not actually have a picky child...

I'm a picky adult and was born this way. I was never indulged by my parents at dinner. I had to choke down what everyone else was eating. That often meant I was stuck sitting at the dinner table while everyone else had finished and left the kitchen. It meant I cried most nights. It meant I dreaded dinner. It meant I didn't eat fish as an adult for two decades because my mother INSISTED on adding lemon which I hate to fish, making me think I hated fish, until I woke up in my 40's and realized I could make it without lemon. My brother and I were served the same foods, on the same types of plates, in the same kitchen. He likes all kinds of foods, of all different levels of spiciness. My mouth and lips burns for 2-3 days if I eat eggs with a bit of pepper sprinkled in and am completely grossed out by the idea of sushi. It's just how I came out of the womb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Big mistake to do this OP. Picky eaters are made, not born. Do not become a short order cook for your kids.

Only believed by a parent who did not actually have a picky child...

I'm a picky adult and was born this way. I was never indulged by my parents at dinner. I had to choke down what everyone else was eating. That often meant I was stuck sitting at the dinner table while everyone else had finished and left the kitchen. It meant I cried most nights. It meant I dreaded dinner. It meant I didn't eat fish as an adult for two decades because my mother INSISTED on adding lemon which I hate to fish, making me think I hated fish, until I woke up in my 40's and realized I could make it without lemon. My brother and I were served the same foods, on the same types of plates, in the same kitchen. He likes all kinds of foods, of all different levels of spiciness. My mouth and lips burns for 2-3 days if I eat eggs with a bit of pepper sprinkled in and am completely grossed out by the idea of sushi. It's just how I came out of the womb.

I forced my picky eater to eat fruit and found out he was allergic,