Monday, June 13, 2011

First Steps to Getting Kids to Eat Healthy

Last week I wrote about a very cool app for moms (and grandmas too) by Annabel Karmel, who's been inspiring moms for a long time. I was particularly excited about a recipe for fish cakes. The truth is, neither of my grandsons will eat fish. But look how cute that Nemo like fish looks with radish bubbles, "ocean" peas, half a sweet pea pod mouth and slice of egg eye. I figured they'd never be able to resist. My daughter just gave me a look that said... "are you serious?" and added "I do hope you have a back up plan".
I even had my chef extraordinaire - Boaz, do the plating... which he thoroughly enjoyed, wearing his favorite chef apron. So I was hopeful when we reached the table. Perhaps my first mistake was calling them "fish" cakes. Perhaps I would have had a better chance if I said "salmon" cakes or just "nuggets that swim in the ocean" cakes. They do love chicken nuggets.


At least Dov, the little one, put some in his mouth before spitting it out. And they both did eat the white part of the egg - rejecting the yolk, but Boaz, wouldn't even try the cute fish he made. Good thing there's always ingredients for grilled cheese sandwiches around here.

That said... my Honey, my daughter and I loved them. And hopefully, one day soon the kids will love them too. In the meantime, I'll just make them as patties without the bubbles and sea floor of peas... and I will be making them often.

What do you do to get your little ones to try new things?


6 comments:

La Cuisine d'Helene said...

This is so cute. They eat with their eyes.

latika said...

good posting

Johanna GGG said...

cute plate of food

recently I have been pondering why Sylvia will try eating an onion with the skin on but not even taste a plate of cooked lasagna - kids are a mystery

Ruth Daniels said...

Helene, they do eat with their eyes, but it would be nice if some of it would actually make it into their mouths ;-)

Latika... thanks

Johanna, no question about the mystery. My Joanna (mother of Boaz & Dov) went through a stage at about 1 year old of only eating raisins or other tiny foods and then only from the floor. Yikes! Glad she outgrew that one. And her younger sister, Sharron would eat ONE kind of sandwich for an entire school year and then the following September, totally reject it.

Goody said...

I've been really lucky with Danny (now 6)as he will eat anything, except Butternut squash. Any other squash is fine, but Butternut sends him gagging. I haven't tried persuading him to try it again, I mean, we all have that one food we can't tolerate. I can't smell, much less eat a cucumber.

I really feel for parents of children on the mono-diet. My poor mother-in-law had to make peanut butter and honey on toast every day for my husband, and every day the toaster would blow out a fuse. To her credit, she changed the fuse, and carried on with the toast. I wouldn't have been that patient.

Ruth Daniels said...

Goodie, not sure patient is the word, but at the end of the day, we do what we have to to get them to eat.