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Eschewing the kids menu: Children can be food snobs

Posted on Jan 30th 2007 7:31PM by Martha Edwards

Filed Under: Healthy Kids, Nutrition & Supplements

I don't have kids, but all the kids I know have pretty much the same diets: Chicken fingers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (on white, with the crusts cut off no less), spaghetti, etc. I even know one kid who will only chicken fingers -- for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Vegetables are a no-no, while anything sweet and full of empty carbs are a yes please! But, as was reported on Blogging Baby, there are kids out there who prefer the finer foods in life, such as dim sum, sushi, baba ganouj and much more. Apparently, among a certain group of gastronomically-influenced parents, "It's a badge of urban sophisticate honor to have your kid be an adventurous eater".

I think turning kids onto fresher, healthier, less processed foods in a great idea. My well-travelled parents regularly gave me fine things like caviar, fresh seafood and stinky cheeses and to this day, I am an adventurous and healthy eater. But is it feasible to feed stuff like this to kids?

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Tags: kids, kids eating, KidsEating

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Lauren 1-31-2007 @ 9:41AM

You bet there is! Our daughter is 19 months old and eats everything we eat. We had decided from the beginning we would not make separate meals for her and we absolutely do not want to feed her nothing but processed chicken fingers.

She likes spicy thai, dijon, pastas - you name it. I say do what works best for your family, and so far this works for us.

Jill 1-31-2007 @ 9:41AM

Oh, Lauren, just wait! At 19 months, my girls ate lots of things they refused to eat from age 2- 5! I remember being at the 2 year old appointment with the pediatrician with my oldest, and telling him that she eats everything we put in front of her- Vietnamese noodles, sushi, Italian, etc. Less than a week later, that all started to change. When they start getting the hang of independence, they also learn that they can refuse some foods.

We just kept serving them healthy foods though, and both started to add more options back in around the age that kindergarten started (maybe they were getting enough independence away from meal time by that point!). Now, our 7 year old eats just about everything again, and the 6 year old is coming along.

Just remember that your kids aren't always going to like every food. Aren't there some foods that you don't like?