What Do Your Kids Eat?

[catan]

I have two kids ages 3 and 6. I used to be able to get food like liver, eggs, cheese into them easily, but now it is a struggle. They like rice, potatoes, lentils and especially anything with wheat like pancakes and pasta. For meat, so far ground beef and chicken has been ok, although they generally don’t eat a lot. They refuse all seafood. For fruit they like bananas, apples, oranges, dates, and melons. I put bone broth into their food.

My 3yo likes orange juice, applesauce, and anything sweet. Loves candy and chocolate. She still nurses.

My 6yo does not care for sweets, and really likes starches. I found a cavity, her first one, in one of molars a few months ago. At first it was hurting, but it has stopped hurting, although it hasn’t seemed to improve much. She also gets occasional joint pains, which I think are growing pains.

So far both of them refuse to drink milk unless it’s in cocoa powder with sugar, or with oatmeal.

I give them vitamin D supplement in the winter.

Both are both very thin and generally healthy but I could use some ideas on feeding them.

 

[mmb82]

I don't have kids, but if I did, I would not give them supplements and allow them to eat intuitively as long as it was in the realm of "real food". Psychologically, I think it would be better for them and prevent them from being somewhat orthorexic in the future. The body is also more intelligent than we think and often times, if you go through phases of wanting to eat certain foods, it is likely due to your body needing certain nutrients.

From what you mentioned, it sounds like your kids already enjoy a variety of healthy foods despite that they don't seem to enjoy that many animal products at the moment. I see nothing wrong with going a bit more plant-based for a short time and only feeding them meat or eggs once or twice a week, sticking with rice (as long as it is not enriched), potatoes, lentils, or pasta (again, if not enriched) as some main calorie sources. OJ, applesauce, and chocolate are all great too. I would not push milk on them and don't tend to think of it as a necessary food.

If you are looking to get more healthy calories into your kids easily without making them feel stuffed, dried fruit and liquid calories (fruit juices) are two things that come to mind. Adding raisins or dates to oatmeal or applesauce can add 100 - 200 calories without adding much food volume. Prunes, apricots, and figs are also good snack options. Giving them juice occasionally instead of plain water can also add 100 - 200 calories here and there. Shredded/flaked coconut meat is also high in calories, healthy, and tasty. You can also try switching up the oatmeal for some buckwheat cereal and the lentils for other beans. Most kids also enjoy corn, which can be somewhat calorie dense, especially if you add butter to it. Adding butter to the starches (rice and potatoes) will also increase the calories and palatability. Doing something like a bowl at Chipotle with rice, beans, corn salsa, and some meat and cheese (if they would eat the meat and cheese) can be calorie dense and cheap. Lastly, if you are determined to get some milk and eggs in them, rice pudding, flan, or ice cream for dessert are options.

 

[tca300]

My daughters are 22 months

Whole cows milk
White grape juice
Liver
Egg yokes
Dark chocolate ( just cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sucrose )
Mushrooms
Cheese
Icecream

 

[mangopop]

My daughter is 27 months

FRUIT - loves it all, really: berries, mango, grapes, watermelon, kiwi, apple, pears, coconut, pineapple, banana
juice - mostly apple and orange
milk
oatmeal made with milk, blueberries and brown sugar
fried rice - butter, peas, egg, carrot, scallion, soy sauce, sometimes ham
pasta (especially mac and cheese, homemade)
potatoes
sourdough with butter
grilled cheese occasionally
she loves pizza (which I make) and also bagels and cream cheese and also bacon :/

I worry that she doesn't like to eat protein foods, she'll only eat meat or eggs if it is chopped really small and mixed with rice or something. She won't come near chicken. I'm sure her body knows what it's doing, I just don't want her to grow up to be short!

 

[Deleted member 5487]

I have two kids ages 3 and 6. I used to be able to get food like liver, eggs, cheese into them easily, but now it is a struggle. They like rice, potatoes, lentils and especially anything with wheat like pancakes and pasta. For meat, so far ground beef and chicken has been ok, although they generally don’t eat a lot. They refuse all seafood. For fruit they like bananas, apples, oranges, dates, and melons. I put bone broth into their food.

My 3yo likes orange juice, applesauce, and anything sweet. Loves candy and chocolate. She still nurses.

My 6yo does not care for sweets, and really likes starches. I found a cavity, her first one, in one of molars a few months ago. At first it was hurting, but it has stopped hurting, although it hasn’t seemed to improve much. She also gets occasional joint pains, which I think are growing pains.

So far both of them refuse to drink milk unless it’s in cocoa powder with sugar, or with oatmeal.

I give them vitamin D supplement in the winter.

Both are both very thin and generally healthy but I could use some ideas on feeding them.

I am curioues if your were peating during their prenatal environment?

The best gift a parent can give a child is the prenatal environment the mother can give her child.


From nutrient reserves to quality of food. Alignment of the facial bones, symmetry, skull size and brain volume are all dependent on these factors. Influences the child life in astronomical ways.

Following this importance is the giving a male son the best nutrients and hormonal profiles during adolescent, as this will determine his future from sports, girls, finances..etc.

The best gift a parent can give is nutrition.

I hope you are aware of orthodontics, mouth breathing, tongue position, chewing? If not I HIGHLY suggest you look into these for your children. 49/50 fortune 500 CEO have Chin growth past the nose, forward growth of the mandibles...etc.

 

[catan]

I don't have kids, but if I did, I would not give them supplements and allow them to eat intuitively as long as it was in the realm of "real food". Psychologically, I think it would be better for them and prevent them from being somewhat orthorexic in the future. The body is also more intelligent than we think and often times, if you go through phases of wanting to eat certain foods, it is likely due to your body needing certain nutrients..

I understand this all too clearly, having had eating disorders for ten years. I want to avoid orthorexic tendencies in my children. Lately with the anti-sugar trend, my daughter's 6 year old friends have been telling each other 'sugar is bad', 'I don't eat sugar', etc., leading my daughter to question all food in general, as she wants to be a good kid and eat healthy. It's quite a complicated topic to navigate with children.

I've also noticed how intuitive children are with eating. My 3yo will have periods of eating specific foods-- cheese, fruit, juice, egg yolks... and will not hear of a substitute once she wants it.

 

[catan]

I worry that she doesn't like to eat protein foods, she'll only eat meat or eggs if it is chopped really small and mixed with rice or something. She won't come near chicken. I'm sure her body knows what it's doing, I just don't want her to grow up to be short!

It does seem to me my children don't care much for high protein foods. My older one ate an egg or two almost daily when she was younger, but now won't eat them, it takes a lot of work just to get her to eat maybe a couple eggs a week. Other meats are hit or miss... They have very strong preference for carbs, especially starches.

 

[catan]

I am curioues if your were peating during their prenatal environment?

The best gift a parent can give a child is the prenatal environment the mother can give her child.


From nutrient reserves to quality of food. Alignment of the facial bones, symmetry, skull size and brain volume are all dependent on these factors. Influences the child life in astronomical ways.

Following this importance is the giving a male son the best nutrients and hormonal profiles during adolescent, as this will determine his future from sports, girls, finances..etc.

The best gift a parent can give is nutrition.

I hope you are aware of orthodontics, mouth breathing, tongue position, chewing? If not I HIGHLY suggest you look into these for your children. 49/50 fortune 500 CEO have Chin growth past the nose, forward growth of the mandibles...etc.

When pregnant with my first, I had been vegetarian for 7 years previously, and had strong cravings for beef, liver, and other organ meats in that pregnancy. It was relatively higher fat and lower carb.

My second pregnancy, I was mostly following Peat's recommendations. His recommendations made me fertile again at 28 month postpartum.

What's interesting to me is that my daughters seem to prefer foods that I ate during my pregnancy. My older child loves beef and does nots seem to care for sweets. My younger one doesn't care for meat and loves orange juice and cheese, both I had a lot of when carrying her.

I have read about orthodontics, mouth breathing, tongue position, chewing. My jaw is definitely narrower than my mother's. I've had 7 teeth extracted and had braces at 11. It's hard to tell with my kids right now. There is some crowding in my 6 year old's jaw.

 

[Deleted member 5487]

When pregnant with my first, I had been vegetarian for 7 years previously, and had strong cravings for beef, liver, and other organ meats in that pregnancy. It was relatively higher fat and lower carb.

My second pregnancy, I was mostly following Peat's recommendations. His recommendations made me fertile again at 28 month postpartum.

What's interesting to me is that my daughters seem to prefer foods that I ate during my pregnancy. My older child loves beef and does nots seem to care for sweets. My younger one doesn't care for meat and loves orange juice and cheese, both I had a lot of when carrying her.

I have read about orthodontics, mouth breathing, tongue position, chewing. My jaw is definitely narrower than my mother's. I've had 7 teeth extracted and had braces at 11. It's hard to tell with my kids right now. There is some crowding in my 6 year old's jaw.

Your doing better than 99% of parents.

Learning about tongue position/nose breathing will further give ur children an edge.


Breathing through the nose will increase oxygen to the brain increasing size and intelligence. All deviated septoms/allergies need to be resolved. This will allow nose breathing keeping the mandible growing forward which will greatly increase the quality of the child's life. If you mouth breath, the mandible grows down to open up the airways and make a long horse face. The neck will push forward to open the airflow, making a curved neck with bad posture.

"Mouth breather" is where the insult came from, they are less intelligent on average and ugly.

 

[Elvie]

My daughters are 22 months

Whole cows milk
White grape juice
Liver
Egg yokes
Dark chocolate ( just cocoa mass, cocoa butter, sucrose )
Mushrooms
Cheese

What chocolate and cheese brands do you give to your girls? Thank you.

 

[Glassy]

My son loves meat and food in general so he’s pretty easy. He’ll eat liver on Saturdays quite happily (I slice it finely and add it at the last minute to fried beef mince with bacon and some onion. Served on a bed of well cooked potato or short grain rice). My daughter will eat liver but reluctantly (it took a while to work up her serving size of it). She was allowed jelly if she ate her liver and she now has jelly through the week (made with Gelatine powder and fruit juice). The jelly is sweet enough to be pleasant but not sweet enough to turn my wife off it (she still has some sugar concerns). We bake 2 doz oysters on Sunday with bacon, cheese, sea salt and chilli sauce in their half shell and my son is allowed 4 or 5 (he would eat a dozen if we let him). My daughter asked to have 1 without chilli but she turned her nose up at the taste (I think she had a bit of FOMO).

My daughter is a starch hound and will gladly eat bread and starches all day. She figured out that if she snacks on these she’s not hungry when she picks at her dinner and then declares she’s finished. We’ve removed all the PUFA laden foods from our pantry, restricted convenient starches and have plenty of fresh fruit available which seems to make her hungrier come dinner time. She asks to bake cookies for snacks on the weekends which we are ok with.

I think you just have to try to shift them to better choices and don’t fret if their diet isn’t perfect.

 

[tca300]

Trader joes has a dark chocolate that just has cocoa mass, cocoa butter, and sucrose, all of which are organic. As far as cheese, Trader joes has a nice variety of cheeses but I typically feed them cheese without coloring added ( annatto ), I give them white darigold or organic valley. Those are what is available in my area but I doubt they are all nation wide products. @Elvie

 

[Elvie]

Trader joes has a dark chocolate that just has cocoa mass, cocoa butter, and sucrose, all of which are organic. As far as cheese, Trader joes has a nice variety of cheeses but I typically feed them cheese without coloring added ( annatto ), I give them white darigold or organic valley. Those are what is available in my area but I doubt they are all nation wide products. @Elvie

Thank you for the information. I also give organic valley but was a bit worried about microbial enzymes in it.