When my girls were a lot younger, 1-2 y.o., I would feed them something different if we were eating something spicy, or too difficult for them to eat. But I got tired of feeling like I was running a cafeteria! Tonight I made Baked parmesan tilapia, brown rice and broccoli and even tho my girls were wrinkinling their noses at the "fish" they still cleared their plates. On my "lazy" nights (I like to take Fridays off from cooking), I will let them pick from a couple different options as to what they would each like to eat, like sandwiches, soup, mac-n-cheese, nuggets, hot dogs.... That way occasionally they still get to choose what they want to eat. My kids have also gone to bed hungry because it was a matter of eat what I made or you can wait to eat til the next meal, which is breakfast, and it doesn't seem to bother them!
Ijust wish that I could make dinner without complaints... cooking for my hubby and 4 kids, someone is bound to complain that "I don't like that" or "Ewww what is that?" Every once in a while I can make a meal that no one complains and everyone clears their plates and raves about, just wish that was more often than less often!
Good luck getting your lil ones eating gladly and not complaining!!!

Sheywood4, the flexibility you have with your children in letting them choose individually once a week is a really healthy, smart way to avoid power struggles and let them feel empowered by choosing.

For dinner, our toddler eats everything we do, including lots of veggies. I make a wide variety of Indian, Mediterranean, Jamaican, Mexican and American foods. She takes them all as spicy as we do. Well, there is one dish that's so spicy that we can barely enjoy it. On that night she gets something else! I'm home and lunch is often leftovers or my chance to eat stuff DH doesn't like. So, sometimes she eats leftovers, sometimes she eats what I've cooked for myself and sometimes she gets stuff that's just hers. We're generally a cereal household for breakfast, so there's no sense in making everyone eat the same kind!

Initially, when she transitioned out of "baby" foods, I started feeding her "kids" foods. Then, I realized what a mistake I was making and fixed it. Thankfully, we didn't have battles! The only battles we have is how SLOWLY she eats! How long can it take to chew one pea?

And, the closest thing she usually gets to sweets is yogurt. My mom sent her five pieces of candy for Valentine's Day and I gave her the first piece today. She got to eat about three of the cookies before I sent them off with DH to work. Even before I was dieting, we'd have ice cream once or twice a week and once in a blue moon I'd make something like cookies or brownies. We never have dessert right after dinner. She gets most of her junk when we visit friends or from well-meaning folks at church. Since I control most of her eating, I don't fret over those times.

My kiddos eat the same things my husband and I do. Sometimes, I'll modify them a bit. For example, when we have chicken fajitas, my DD doesn't like green peppers, so I'll just put chicken and onions on her tortilla. It works out fine.

I used to get really frustrated at how slowly my children ate. Now, in a way, I'm glad for it. There have been discussions here at 3FC at how hard some of us have to work to slow down and enjoy our food. And how some of our naturally thin friends make something last several bites that we would inhale. So the slow eating is probably healthy eating, even if it is one pea at a time.

At school my daughter can barely manage to eat lunch in the time period allotted which is stressful for her. They're planning to shorten the lunch period next year to minimize the amount of unstructured time for troublemakers. So that will be yet another way the school system's lunch program helps make our kids fat.

Ive talked at extent with my 4 year old about making healthy choices and eating healthy...we talked about what is healthy and what is not healthy...and as a family we are choosing to eat healthy..etc.etc...and she is doing a very good job at trying to eat everythig we eat...bcs its healthy! She now understands the difference between healthy and unhealthy food... they eat what we eat...I dont go out of my way to make them something different... I dont know I figure they will learn to love the same foods and so far they are doing great (I also have a two year old...he will eat anything)... i guess my kids arent that picky though...bcs I had a friend over with her 4 year old and he didnt eat anything and she knew before we served dinner he probably wasnt going to eat it...(it was roast potatoes, green beans (fresh) and salmon... She thought he would eat the green beans (but he only ever at canned)...so he didnt eat... ???.. I felt bad...but...she said he sometimes just doesnt eat dinner he snacks??? so I dont know...i think its tough....when your kids are picky

Up until October of last year, I homeschooled my kids, so eating within a time frame really wasn't a problem. But then I put them back in school and I myself started working in the school cafeteria (of all places!) and I'm appauled at how quickly we have to serve them and how quickly they have to eat. (Let's not even talk about how much fat and sodium are in the foods I prepare. It's disgusting. They are talking about taking the soda machines out of the schools around here, which is good, but absolutely no mention was made about the fat or sodium content of the kids' lunches.)

I think we could learn a lot about food from our kids. Most of the time (except in case of candy! LOL), they really slow down, eat and listen to their bodies' cues when they're full.

This is such an interesting thread.....

I have a 10yr old and a 7 yr old... I feed them what we eat or a variation of it... Perfect example - Last night I made whole wheat pasta w/ a white wine based sauce that included blue cheese, capers and salmon. (it was really good)

I don't know many children that would enjoy this!?! Plus I hate to waste my precious favorite ingredients on their uneaten plate. Sooo they had a different sauce / tomato sauce w/ turkey meatballs...

Also - What do you feed them when you and your husband are eating a salad?!?!

I feed my daughter salad when I eat salad, always have. When she was small, I would include just a tiny amount of leafy greens and lots of the other salad ingredients. She's always been a curious eater and been offered adventurous foods. I've never assumed my child wouldn't like something, I just put a bit on her plate. It's said that a child needs to be exposed to a food 10 or even 20 times before they are familiar with it. Eventually, they WILL eat it, unless you are subbing other foods.

Here's another good article on picky eaters.

http://www.medicinenet.com/script/ma...ticlekey=54276

I agree completely. I have always been adventurous with my cooking and my son was always right there beside me. Plus anyone I would invite over to the house was never allowed to make negative comments about the food I was serving. So like fresh Spinach - no one was allowed to say "eeeewwww spinach! YUCK" so he would have bad associations. Worked for me he will eat pretty much anything now and eats 99% fruit for all his snacks!

That is a really important point...Children pick up on our subtle and not so subtle ideas and attitudes about everything and food is no different! A baby doesn't know that they "should" dislike or like any one thing! Humans do have an innate preference for sweet tastes, and that's why it's usually suggested that stronger tasting vegetables are offered before sweet ones.

My kids love salad -- so feeding them salad isn't a problem.

When my son was little like 4 and 5 and we would go to like an all you can eat place,, i used to have to make him eat the main coarse first THEN salad because he would pick at the meat but overload on the salad,, which was fine but come on a kid needs protein too!

My son eats healthy, and now that I am on a better track for myself, I will be better with him. My son races motocross, so we are disciplined regarding his diet.

Now that I am going to be better, instead of our too often, fast food "bonding" we will be going to the market for him to choose a favorite fruit for us to share after a healthy lunch cooked at home. Otherwise, our "bonding" over food will be him helping with meals, which he loves to do.

Feeding him in a healthful manner has never been an issue. The issue has been me sharing that with him. My history has been me eating poorly all day before he gets home, then feeding him healthy meals, but me not eating said meals, but snacking later on. Oh, so awful, but so glad that is over!

My kids, who are five and two eat the same as DH and I. We sit down and have dinner together every evening and whilst it's sometimes a battle to get our kids to eat, I love the experience... MOST of the time.... of sitting down as a family. I'm lucky that my DH works from home and this is possible.

It took a while to get used to, but we now eat nice, healthy, well rounded meals pretty much every night of the week which I think is really important for ALL of us.