Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"kid's food" = processed food that is leading to the obesity epidemic. Feed your child real foods just like you eat, and the child will like them just like you do. If you want them to look more fun, make them look more fun naturally (put fruit on sticks, shape eggs into bunnies, place carrot sticks into teepees with peas hiding inside....). There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding your children real food, and it is a shame that our society makes new parents think that there is.

For me, and I'm a PP who does use mostly fresh and/or minimally processed foods, I think sometimes it feels wasteful. I don't let it stop me, but I do sigh and understand why some parents just cave to the convenience of processed crap. Yes, I know it can take 10 to 20 tries for my child to try a new food and that sounds fine. Except that then becomes 10 or 20 pieces of fish, or lentil soup or whatever that is thrown away untouched or with one little bite out of it. With my two year old I use plates with multiple sections so that every meal I know she's getting at least one or two things that she likes in addition to anything new or unfamiliar.

Last night she ate almost 3 pieces of chicken, skin removed. She loves hummus, but it went untouched since I'd spread it on fresh cucumber rather than with fresh carrots. She did eat half of a banana and some grapes. The freshly picked zucchini that I'd diced and tossed with mint and a vinaigrette also was avoided completely. My sense is that for many parents it just becomes easier to serve the mac and cheese or chicken fingers since you know the kids will eat them.

I think the PP is spot on. I have a real problem wasting food, and that is the number one reason why I have never stuck to a program of feeding my kids the same meal that my husband and I eat for very long. We do not serve chicken nuggets (my oldest is an extremely picky eater and wouldn't touch them anyway), but we do make them homemade from scratch mac and cheese because they will reliably eat it (and ask for seconds). Add some roasted chicken, fruit, and maybe a vegetable for my less picky eater, and it's not a terrible meal. Intellectually I agree with the whole "kids should eat the same things adults do" philosophy, and before I had kids if anyone had told me we would be in the place we are in now I would have said no way, that would NEVER happen. But I discovered, much to my chagrin, that you can't make kids eat things they don't want to eat. (I mean, unless you're willing to use heavy coercion, bribery, or outright force -- and even coercion and bribery wouldn't work on my oldest). When I try to make things that are "kid friendly", no one is happy -- DH and I don't get to eat the kinds of things we like (spicy, heavy on veggies, "exotic" veggies like brussels sprouts, soups and stews, tomato-based dishes), and the kids won't eat it anyway. There are plenty of kids out there with adventurous palates, and that's great -- but not all kids are like that. My oldest will go without rather than eat something he decides he doesn't want to try. I am not about to have a battle over food three times a day, every day, for the next ten years or however long it takes him to pull his head out of his ass about food (I don't say that to him of course!). Food is awesome, and he's the one who is missing out. So I have scaled back my expectations -- as long as he eats something reasonably healthy, I've done my job. I am also teaching him about the social aspect of food and he is seeming more receptive to that message now that he is 5. (though whether he can put it into action remains to be seen).

To bring this back around to the OP's inquiry, we still do not eat a lot of heavily processed foods. There are many things, like cookies, crackers, juice, "fruit" snacks, processed chicken nuggets, snack cakes, packaged bars of all kinds, and chips, that come into our house rarely or never. We do buy things like whole wheat bread and bread products (bagel thins, english muffins, tortillas), whole wheat pasta, various types of cheese, and peanut butter, all of which are processed, and sometimes frozen or prepackaged ravioli, tortellini, and so forth. I am more concerned about too many simple carbs and especially too much sugar than about processing per se. We have fresh fruit with every meal -- even most picky kids like some types of fruit -- and I try to include a protein at each meal as well. Even if your child is picky, that does not necessarily mean that you will end up serving [insert name of most reviled processed food here]. But it may not be easy to make one meal that everyone will eat, either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"kid's food" = processed food that is leading to the obesity epidemic. Feed your child real foods just like you eat, and the child will like them just like you do. If you want them to look more fun, make them look more fun naturally (put fruit on sticks, shape eggs into bunnies, place carrot sticks into teepees with peas hiding inside....). There is absolutely nothing wrong with feeding your children real food, and it is a shame that our society makes new parents think that there is.

For me, and I'm a PP who does use mostly fresh and/or minimally processed foods, I think sometimes it feels wasteful. I don't let it stop me, but I do sigh and understand why some parents just cave to the convenience of processed crap. Yes, I know it can take 10 to 20 tries for my child to try a new food and that sounds fine. Except that then becomes 10 or 20 pieces of fish, or lentil soup or whatever that is thrown away untouched or with one little bite out of it. With my two year old I use plates with multiple sections so that every meal I know she's getting at least one or two things that she likes in addition to anything new or unfamiliar.

Last night she ate almost 3 pieces of chicken, skin removed. She loves hummus, but it went untouched since I'd spread it on fresh cucumber rather than with fresh carrots. She did eat half of a banana and some grapes. The freshly picked zucchini that I'd diced and tossed with mint and a vinaigrette also was avoided completely. My sense is that for many parents it just becomes easier to serve the mac and cheese or chicken fingers since you know the kids will eat them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is 19m and her major foods are fruits and veg (broccoli, blueberries, bananas and avocado are favorites), any kind of cooked beans, cubes of tofu, cubes of cheese, eggs (usually fried and cut into pieces), oatmeal, yogurt, bread, rice. We offer meat, but so far she isn't into it.

That sounds like a diet! LOL

Yes, we all eat a diet, and this doesn't seem like a terrible one.

I only say this b/c I have an underweight DD and these foods are not really weight gainers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I agree with some of the PPs' advice. You just feed your child whatever whole foods you are eating yourselves.

Give us an example of some of the meals you and your husband fact yourselves, and we can give you feedback on whether it needs changing for a child.

OP here - thank you everyone so much! I have been away from the computer and never imagined there would be so many responses. Very grateful.

Breakfast is oatmeal or cereal with fresh fruit on weekdays; eggs on weekends. For dinner, we eat whole grain pasta with whatever fresh vegetables are in season and dried beans; stir fries with (again) whatever fresh vegetables are in season and frozen edamame (which I prefer to tofu); simple soups (usually with beans and vegetables); quesadillas or tacos or enchiladas (again with the beans and veggies); and usually once or twice a week we have red meat or fish (with vegetables as a side). Lunches during the week are usually leftovers from dinners. We do cook with a lot of onions and garlic so I wonder if that would be a turnoff for kids.

We don't eat much poultry but I guess that might have to change with a little one around....

I would appreciate any tips you can give on how to "kid-ify" these. Thanks again all!

Anonymous wrote:OP, I agree with some of the PPs' advice. You just feed your child whatever whole foods you are eating yourselves.

Give us an example of some of the meals you and your husband fact yourselves, and we can give you feedback on whether it needs changing for a child.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Mine is 19m and her major foods are fruits and veg (broccoli, blueberries, bananas and avocado are favorites), any kind of cooked beans, cubes of tofu, cubes of cheese, eggs (usually fried and cut into pieces), oatmeal, yogurt, bread, rice. We offer meat, but so far she isn't into it.

That sounds like a diet! LOL

Yes, we all eat a diet, and this doesn't seem like a terrible one.

I only say this b/c I have an underweight DD and these foods are not really weight gainers.

I don't think this is true. The above post is actually pretty much my child's diet with some hummus thrown in and she is at the 99% for weight and hieght. Perhaps, you might try giving her more of the above?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We eat a combination of processed and made-from-scratch meals.

Our pre-prepared ingredients include things like:
1. Bread & crackers2. Yogurt
3. Applesauce
4. Dried fruits
5. Frozen veg.
6. Dried pasta7. Pasta sauce8. Canned beans
9. Luncheon meats (salami, turkey, ham slices)10. Muffins (morning glory kinds of things)11. Cheese and butter
12. Hummus
13. Ice cream treat14. Cookies, gummy bears, or other treat.15. Nutella16. Peanut butter and jelly17. Instant brown rice18. Hot dogs
I call them processed, because I don't make those things at home. But I do, as much as possible, strive to get these as organic and in BPA free containers.

Our "fresh" stuff includes
1. Salad and fixin's (what are "fixin's"? If vegetables, not processed; if croutons, processed.) 2. Salad dressing (purchased salad dressings generally have lots of chemicals) 3. Dinner main-course meats
4. Vegetables
5. Fresh fruits for snacking

Gosh, look how short that list is. Well, I'm just not going to be making my own bread, cheese, and sandwich spreads...

This does not seem responsive to the question at all. You eat mainly processed foods.

How is this post not responsive? Many folks have posted that they serve their kids things like cheese and applesauce and stuff, and these are on the PP's "processed" list. I suppose the OP could take a list like this one to determine the extent to which he/she would be willing to make his/her own bread, cheese, yogurt, homemade pasta (or would using flour and salt mean it's processed?), hummous made from dried beans (or is that processed?), meat (which I suppose would mean that the animals are slaughtered and prepared from a farm in the backyard) and so on. In addition, the PP lists the foods that are not processed (as much).

Methinks your quibble with the post might require a clearer definition on your part about why it is not "responsive."

Keep Calm. Carry On.

Anonymous wrote: My sense is that for many parents it just becomes easier to serve the mac and cheese or chicken fingers since you know the kids will eat them.