What do they eat when they won't eat anything else?

This is not a "how do I get my kids to be less picky" post. I've pretty much given up on that front. :blush:

I'm just curious, purely for entertainment, what your fall-back foods are. At the moment, Sarah's is yogurt. Amy can usually find something worth eating at dinner (even if it's just raw carrots and white bread), but Sarah is allowed to go get herself a yogurt from the fridge if she just can't bear to eat anything else on the table.

 

Strawberries, blueberries and grapes almost ALWAYS go down here, so if we're just having a bad food day, I give them a plate with fruit, the Back to Nature cheddar crackers (which are like Cheez Its), maybe some cheddar cheese (Karina) and natural Hormel ham (Kevan), and if I'm really desperate, Annie's bunny grahams.

 

Blueberries, hot dogs, and scrambled eggs.

 

Actually if my kids don't eat what we are having for dinner that night, they don't get anything else to eat. ardon:


But they pretty much always eat apples, yogurt, pasta, chicken, and a few other things.

 

mine never say no to any type of berry, or pirates booty. but when they won't eat a meal i can usually get peanut butter into them, which at least makes me happy cuz they need the protein and fat. yogurt usually works, too.

gl!

 

Oh yeah! Bunny grahams are the nuclear option in our house too! :lol:

Fruit lovers here too. (Are we raising the same kids?) Some last resort foods other than that - cheese or hard-boiled egg (Andrew), saltine crackers, raisins, prunes (yes, really :wacko: )...

 

yogurt, cheese, crackers, pretzels

DS will always eat scrambled eggs and DD will always eat peanut butter sandwiches.

 

Both girls will almost always eat macaroni and cheese, frozen mangoes, fresh strawberries, fresh blueberries, and cheddar cheese. Cricket will also always eat tomatoes and hard boiled eggs.

 

Ditto this...One of my DD went to a feeding clinic (not due to pickiness, but due to poor oral motor tone) and they said to offer at least one food they will eat and place it as part of the meal (not an alternative) and only offer one serving. If they are hungry enough they will eat and be more encouraged to try new foods....

We always offer what we are eating and then they usually have a fruit as well (Dh and I dont always have the fruit). Sometimes they eat a lot, sometimes they dont.

For breakfast it is the same thing---we rotate breakfast foods: some they like and other they don't like as well. But they eat them all!

DD1 will always eat fruit and bread (carbs).
DD2 will always eat meat and cheese.

 

cottage cheese!

 

Same Here. If they don't eat what's on their plate, they don't get an alternative. I figure if they are hungry enough they will eat. I don't want to get to a point where they are dictating their meals. I refuse to enable picky eating habits.

 

Goldfish crackers
Cheese
Apples/applesauce

At least for this week. Next week, who knows? :unknw:

 

yogurt is Gabe's big fall back. He also likes peanut butter and most nuts and loves fruit. He hates pretty much every entree I cook.

ETA: I don't give him an alternative, but I usually include those things a lot at lunch b/c I know he'll eat them. Dinner, hey...you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. He often eats very little for dinner.

 

Yogurt, cheese and crackers, and for Bea a pb&j sandwich.

I totally understand. I really try to do the not offering something else thing, include one food they will eat. But then I feel like it's better that they have yogurt (which we have plain yogurt with fresh fruit or homemade jam mixed in), then just bread for dinner.
I wish they would eat real food. Sometimes dinner is my least favorite time of day. The dinners I know they will eat are pasta, grilled cheese, hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, sometimes mac and cheese, and surprisingly they will eat most of a salad. They won't even eat chicken nuggets unless they are from Chick-Fil-A. They don't eat fish sticks. They will eat some Mexican stuff DH makes, and Bea likes edamame when we get Chinese. They just started eating some rice dishes. I'm on my own this week and I gave them a yogurt smoothie for dinner. I wasn't up for the fight.

 

Pasta with red sauce. They would eat it by the handfuls (and Jake has, literally). Besides that, they go through phases. They like mac and cheese lately, but for a while boycotted it. Jake is a carb head, rice, pasta, bread, crackers, etc. Hailey is just weird. She will eat the veggies on her plate before anything else.

But except for the pasta, nothing is a guarantee in this house. Things they usually hate they start eating one day, things they've loved, they suddenly refuse. All fun, all the time over at our house at dinner time!

 

Waffles, fruit, hotdogs and french fries.

 

Mine are weird. Meara will eat broccoli and Ana will eat green beans. They also never turn down "cheesy toast" (toast with cream cheese on it).

 

If I know what we are having for dinner likely won't get eaten by L&L, I usually make one peanut butter sandwich, give each of them half on their plate plus some of everything else we are eating in the hopes that they will at least try it. At the end of dinner, they are always (regardless of what they've eaten at dinner) allowed to have fruit & yogurt if they want it. That way, they hopefully try the new foods, but I don't send them to bed hungry which will really just make for a bad night's sleep for all of us. I have learned from past experience, they will eventually outgrow a lot of the pickiness, so I don't stress about whether or not they are eating exactly what we eat for dinner.

L&L will almost always eat most fruit, yogurt, mac & cheese, pb&j, grilled cheese sandwiches, cheese, bread with butter, pickles, crackers of almost any kind, and rice cakes.

 

they both will always scarff down a banana or two each (Alli calls them banananas and Lucas says banas, haha)

Lucas just started the everything is "yucky" phase, so I just fill him full of apple juice and milk. He rejects all foods with visible chunks in it. And even if he would eat the separate ingredients, if I combine things its over. Like chicken and rice, nothing can touch or its "yucky" and he takes it off his plate and won't eat it.


Allison would eat anything covered in ketchup if I let her.

 

Same here, we grew up like that and i will be doing the same when and if im blessed with children someday

 

Yup same in this house. Yesterday the kids had chicken, a little pasta, green beans and some tortillas for dinner. My DD would only eat pieces of the tortilla and that's all she got, DH and I were not making her anything else.

 

I have a little different view about making kids eat what everyone else is having. I know that my experience growing up my dad always stressed the "you eat what everyone else is eating or nothing." And it turned my brother into a picky eater, and me into a neurotic one. I personally don't see anything wrong with letting my children eat what they want. I offer them healthy alternatives, I certaintly don't allow them to have the choice of chips or candy or whatever, but I am not going to cause eating anxiety because I make a huge issue about what they eat.

 

I make one meal, and I do try and include something in the meal that they like (they both like carbs - so rice, pasta, bread and wholewheat crackers are always a hit). So, I give them a little of everything on their plate, and when they ask for more carbs (which they almost always do), I tell them that they can have more if they have a bite of veggies or meat, and when they do then I give them a small portion of what they want, and it keeps going like this until the meal is done (I dont' require them to eat everything on their plate, but I do usually get in a few bites of everything that is one their plate). DH and I also eat exactly what the kids are eating, and we model good eating.
I also give them 1 cookie/day which is after supper, so I can usually tell them that they get their cookie if they eat a few bites of the other food on their plates - most times they will take a few bites, and then they get their cookie. If they dont take bites of all the foods, then that is fine, just means no cookie. I try not to stress myself or them about what they will and wont eat. But I do use the "bribe" technique and it works really well for us. DD is pretty good about eating meat and veggies, but DS is much more challenging - but he does love his daily cookie, so I can usually get a few bites into him with the promise of a cookie.

But - when the kids are sick and wont eat, then I do cave pretty easily and give whatever they will eat - which is mostly carbs and fruits.

 

Jessy is too tiny to not try to get to eat. That said she will usually eat a grilled cheese, hot dog or sausage. She will pretty much always eat something from a pig. :laugh: sausage, bacon, ham, ribs...Jazz pretty much is a good eater

 

For both, it's fries and chicken strips... lol. But they will always eat pasta (it just leaves a horrible mess for us to clean up). Plus they will always eat fruit, whether it be bananas, mandarin oranges, apples, etc.

ETA- about forcing them to eat what they don't like, i'll never do this. i lived with my grandparents for a few years and they always ate seafood and i hated it but they forced me to eat it. to this day, i will not touch anything that is remotely related to seafood.

 

Unless they're sick, they don't get an option B- they eat what I serve them. However, I almost always will serve at least something that I know they like, so they rarely go without unless they're being real stinkers. When they're sick though, I'm not that stubborn. The things I can almost always count on are applesauce, crackers (sometimes with some PB on them), yogurt, scrambled eggs, and fruit. Joel will never turn down a banana- and if he does then he's REALLY feeling bad!

 

About "always serving at least one thing I know they like"... I used to try to do that, but these days Sarah is sooo picky that unless I put plain white bread or plain pasta on the table at every meal, sometimes there just isn't anything. That's when we let her have a yogurt -- which is more healthy than refined carbs anyway. The only difference is that I don't actually put the yogurt on the table and pretend it's part of the meal, which is what I would be doing if I served white bread or pasta with something they totally don't go with, like tacos or Thai stir-fry.

Strangely enough, though, after I posted this, they've both been much more cooperative eaters for the past couple of days. They're still picky, but they come to the table and eat their plain brown rice and grapes, or plain pasta and raw carrots, and at least don't complain! :drinks: