Thursday, July 29, 2010

Eating as a family

Please tell me how old your kids were when you were able to all eat the same meal as a family. Tori is now 18 months. She eats ok. She eats basic kid things. And she used to try new things. I know eating together is important, and with my new job, it's easier for me to cook dinner so we can all sit down and have a real cooked meal, which I love. With her allergies, I've been adjusting recipes and trying new things (with trial and error, often in fail), but she just won't try things. Am I trying to do this too early? I feel like now we are suffering with the above mentioned fails and all for nothign when she is not even trying it.

So should I continue to make egg and wheat free chicken cutlets (rice flour and buttermilk), wheat free broccoli rice and cheese casserole, and wheat and egg free meatloaf in the hopes that one day she will join us or cook things the way I know how to cook them and re-visit this later?

3 comments:

  1. That is a tough call with her allergies. By that age, we were eating as a family but she may have learned that food "hurts" from the allergies so she is afraid to try new things. They say that is may take 10 times of offering a new item for a kid to try it and you just put it on their plate every time.

    That being said, you are cooking especially for her and it sounds like it isn't always going well. That is disappointing to you guys too.

    Here is what I think. Try making ONE thing at a meal that you can ALL eat. Then for the rest of her meal, give her things she can have that you know she likes. And you and Min weat what you would like. Work up to having more things you can all eat.

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  2. I think Angelle's suggestion is good.

    Sorry to tell you this, but Corgan still (at nearly 3 years old) generally won't eat what we eat. Fortunately, he does have some heathy go-to foods, so he eats those a lot, but he is VERY against trying anything new. He won't even try honey even with Annabelle and I raving about how it tastes so much like candy! Annabelle took a while, but she is very good about trying new foods now. I would say that it's all in how you handle making them try things, but I have one of each, and I really don't think I treated them differently in that respect so...

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  3. Halle was like Tori. Ate great, then about 18 months, became super picky. She's still a picky eater, but she's expanding her horizons every day and trying new things all the time now. Elena started off just like Halle and is still a very good eater. Every kid is different. My suggestion would be.. if you like broccoli cheese casserole, but Tori can't eat it.. separate out some broccoli by itself and serve that to her instead of the casserole. Make your cutlets the way you like them and stir fry up some chicken without the flour for her. It's extra work, but if you keep things as close to what you're eating as possible, it shouldn't be too bad. And I think every family has some meals the adults eat and the kids don't, so having a few special Min and Nicole meals each week, while giving Tori her favorite go-to foods, is totally reasonable too. Good luck!

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