We did baby-led introduction to solids with Meredith, and will do the same with Fiona. Proponents say that this method of introducing foods is more natural and that kids are less likely to be picky about what they eat. One of the keys is to offer variety. I find this part hard sometimes. For instance, neither Kris nor I like calamari. We were out to eat with some friends a couple of months ago and they ordered calamari and Meredith loved it. But it’s not something we would ever order ourselves because if she didn’t eat it it would go to waste and she’s unlikely to eat a whole plate of it anyway. But if we never have it around, I worry that (and things like that) will end up being just a weird foreign food in her mind.
I feel that we eat very healthy compared to most of the population. Our suppers are pretty much all home cooked and from scratch. I make my own broths, and I plan to can tomatoes and make sauces and salsa this fall. We have grown quite a lot of our own vegetables this summer, and I’m trying out a winter garden this year. I started that pretty late so I’m going to try and not be too disappointed if that’s a bit of a flub though. 
All that being said, we eat healthy, but we don’t eat a huge variety. We have lots of great tried-and-true recipes, but I find it difficult sometimes to get out of the comfort zone of recipes I know we all like, and try new things. There’s also a lot of vegetables we’ve never really tried. Not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I know we like other ones. In fact, when I was looking over the list of vegetables that work well in a winter garden, I almost gave up on the spot simply because a lot of the vegetables on the list are things we just don’t eat. (Cabbage, swiss chard, beets, parsnips, to name a few.) But then I changed my mind and went ahead and ordered them.
While I wouldn’t consider Meredith overly picky, she’s certainly suspicious of foods she’s never seen before, and she doesn’t like leafy greens much (though she ate almost an entire bunch of fresh spinach from the garden to herself once!). I think a lot of it is a texture issue. She used to eat mushrooms and onions no problem, now she pulls out even little pieces from ground beef. If any of the above foods actually do grow this year, I obviously want them to get eaten. So I’ve been reading a bit about hiding vegetables in food. There seem to be two sides to the issue: those who feel it’s best to get vegetables in your kids any way you can, and those who feel kids should be exposed to lots of foods and that you’re not doing them any favours (or giving them much credit) by hiding vegetables in food.
I agree with both sides. I want vegetables to get eaten, but I want them to be seen and enjoyed for what they are too. I don’t agree with forcing kids to eat things they don’t like. We don’t have a one-bite rule of any sort, though there have been times I’ve encouraged her to try something. With Meredith’s personality, it often works best if I offer it to her and then drop it and leave the food in front of her. Often she says no, but then if I drop it she will try some and before I know it she’s done hers and trying to steal mine too!
My way of going about “hiding” foods isn’t so much about hiding as it is about masking flavours and textures. When having pasta, we’ve always cut up and added onions, peppers, zucchini, mushrooms; basically whatever we have on hand. But even that she will sometimes pick out. I was reading about pureeing foods and decided to give that a go this week. Meredith often helps me cook, so it’s hard to hide something when she’s the one adding it to the food processor. She still sees the vegetable, I tell her what it is if she asks, she helps me pick them out of the garden, and she knows it’s in her food. My plan is that as she gets used to the tastes, I can puree it less and less and hopefully eventually just be chopping it coarsely. We also still offer other vegetables that we know she does like at every meal as well, so she’s still getting lots of exposure to different vegetables.
So far, it’s been fairly successful. We made sloppy joes with zucchini, green peppers, carrots, and onions pureed into the sauce, and then corn and mushrooms in bigger pieces. We had curry last night with lots of peppers, mushroom, and onion. I have a menu plan for the next week all ready to go, with plans to add things like cauliflower, broccoli, zucchini, and most of the above vegetables to various ones. We’re going away next week, but when we’re back I want to try buying some vegetables that may be out of my comfort zone and starting to add those in as well. Hopefully this will help get all of us eating a larger variety of vegetables, not just Meredith.
This post is my contribution to Food Renegade’s Fight Back Friday this week.
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I have a hard time ordering/buying things that I/we might not like in case it is wasted. Sam begged for “sea shells” (mussels, clams, oysters, anything) for months, everytime we went to supperstore. I was not comfortable with cooking them at all. I have had mussels before and didn’t like them either. But finally we took her to red lobster and ordered mussels, calamari, and bacon-wrapped scallops. She took one look at the open cooked mussels and refused to eat a bite. She ate some calamari, but otherwise the rest was left alone. Walter and I ended up eating them, even though we are not seafood people. But it was worth getting them for her to try even though they not accepted, and now I don’t need to worry about it anymore because she got to try it.
My thought on pureeing food is that it really makes the sauces you put it into richer. I personally have huge textural issues. Some food I don’t want to eat because I can’t stand how it feels when I bite it, not at all for flavour. Also “Nourishing Traditions” actually says that kids are more likely to eat things (like salad) if it is grated or cut up small, and it helps with chewing which helps with digestion.
My thought on the one bite rule is that I would like them to taste it. In “How to get your kids to eat, but not too much” by Ellyn Satter it basically says that kids can take many exposures to like something, and most kids can handle tasting. This doesn’t mean they have to swallow, they are free to spit it out. Swallowing something you don’t like is the really hard part. I don’t always succeed with getting them to taste, but they do at least taste a lot of things.
I agree about purees making the sauces richer. I made chicken cacciatore and pureed or chopped onions, zucchini, cauliflower, and garlic into it. It tasted really nice. Definitely something I want to continue doing (and with a bigger variety of vegetables). That’s interesting about grating or cutting things up for kids and digestion. I’ve actually heard that before but never really thought about it. I once grated up some carrot for something and Meredith thought it was really fun and ate a bunch of it. I’d forgotten about that.
I don’t like to force Meredith to eat anything, because I was as a kid and (especially with her personality) I think it often creates resistance for no reason. My parents used to tell me “just try it, you’ll like it”, which set me up before I’d even tasted it not to like it! I know you’re not talking about that though, but that’s more what I was meaning above. I do encourage Meredith to at least taste things, but I’ve never forced it. I think just offering it and having it available and in sight goes a long way to getting them to accept foods.
I don’t force tasting either, but I do strongly encourage it. Anthony does a lot of spitting out what he has tasted, but he will usually taste it.
And I have started grating carrots for salad, and just that change really makes the salad better for me. The small pieces all through the salad mean you get a little taste each bite.