My top tips for dealing with fussy eaters.

Before anyone thinks I am just talking nonsence and have not been there, let me tell you I have my Abygaelle (the one who loves to cook!) was one of the worst. It started when she was about 18 months she had her MMR jab and became very ill, sickness and diahrrea for about 2 weeks. When she was finally over it she stopped eating, the only thing I could get down her were petit filous, I gave her what she wanted but continued trying other things. Eventually I managed to get her back onto solids but she was only eating Cheese and onion crisps, chicken nuggets and chips, or Jam sandwhiches. We went on like this for a while, then I took her to see a ditetician who told me she was getting everything she needed and to carry on, that when she starts school and sees others eating it will change. It did not! I managed to get new things into her with a few tricks and tips from parenting books, magazines and ideas from other parents. Our big break through came when we moved to France and I had had enough, this I think mainly works with older children who can understand (Aby was 5 1/2 -6 at this point).
So here are my top tips, I will not say they work with every child and you may have to try a combination or they may work in part and you have to wiat for the rest to follow when the child can understand "you don't eat this there is nothing else, and you get it for your breakfast!" a good old trick every mum pulls out of the hat at some point!

• Be a good role model.

If you're a fussy eater then you may have to make peace with the idea that your child may be a fussy eater too. Lead by example and try to expand your diet to show him that you enjoy a wide variety of foods.

• Ask your child to help with the preparation of a meal.

Your child is more likely to eat a meal he has helped to make.

• Set up regular habits for eating.

Make sure that your child understands what is expected of him when he eats.

• Make sure that the food you serve looks interesting.

By including a few differently coloured foods on his plate, he may become more interested in his food. If he has food favourites, include them and work from there.

• Encourage self-feeding from a young age.

Being actively involved in eating - rather than sitting passively receiving food - will encourage him to take an interest in the food he's being served.

• Find a food he will eat from each food group.

If your child doesn't like milk, try offering yoghurt or cheese.

• Finish dinnertime.

Once your child has eaten as much of a meal as he's going to, take away his plate and finish the meal. This will discourage him from drifting away from the table with the expectation that he can drift back later to pick at his food.

• Make sure that your expectations are realistic.

Your child is not a small adult and you can't expect him to eat like an adult.

• Serve child-size meals.

He can always ask for a second helping! Generally serve three small meals a day, with a snack in between.

• Minimize distraction

 Turn off the television and other electronic gadgets during meals. This will help               your child focus on eating. Keep in mind that television advertising might also encourage your child to desire sugary foods.

• Sit down together:

Try to set aside your meals as family time. Turn off the TV and enjoy eating together.

• Make healthy food and meals fun:

Try cutting up food into fun shapes or making faces out of fruit and vegetables.  Putting healthy 

snacks such as oatmeal cookies or dried fruit into a fun bag can turn healthy foods into a cool snack for your child.

Try not to let the fussiness become an area of contention between you and the child, I had many an arguement with Aby. I now wish I hadn't. They will change in their own time, I know its worrying at the time and their bad habits can rub off on younger siblings (just praise the other when they pick up the desired food and start eating it, this will get the fussy ones attention! e.g "Well done James you ate the carrot, what a clever boy!"). Try and make the learning and discovery of new foods fun, take them to a green grocers and get them to touch, smell and if possible taste some of the fruits and vegetables, then get them to choose which ones they would like to try that evening for dinner, then get them to help prepare them e.g washing, and placing them on the plates (if old enough let them chop them). 

Good luck :)

The importance of boys in the kitchen.

I am a firm believer of getting our sons to cook, I feel they need to learn to able to survive once they have left home. We cannot let them think it only the womans place even if we are the only ones to cook at home (actually thats a lie in my case, my partner loves to cook so he does alot of it when he is here on his weekends off). So get your boys out of the garden, or off the computer game, or away from the telly or where ever they are playing and start teaching them a few basic recipes to have ready for when they are older and away from home. Otherwise believe me they will live on Pot noodles and baked beans until they meet a girl who will do all the cooking for them.
It is important not to force them to do it or you will have a  battle but maybe in the morning say "would you like to help me prepare the dinner this afternoon, I could use some help?" this way you are not telling him what to do but encouraging him to do it, and then you could even get his opinion on it "what do you think we should have? Chicken curry, or chicken with a cream sauce and pasta?" again he is the one making the descisions. You could even get him involved in the whole process and get him to help you with the shopping, i.e he chooses which vegetable, the desert etc.
We owe it I think to the future generations to raise our boys to be considerate of their wives and to be able to look after themselves. Oh and while you are at it maybe teach them how the washing machine and iron works too!

Crumble making day!

Finally the day that Abygaelle thought would never arrive has finally fallen upon us! We have collected enough blackberries to make our crumble, so Aby has learnt that even if we don't collect enough on the first day we can freeze them until we have enough. She has also learnt that we need to wash the fruit before we use it too. She has been involved in every step of the process and will be so until it has been finished.
I will put photos of the finished product up later but here is one of a proud Aby and her blackberries!

Getting the veggies in!

I always wondered how other mums did it? How do they get their kids to eat vegetables? Suddenly it dawned on me you have to be inventive. I personally mix it with the food so they don't notice them or I cook them in such a way that they actually taste good. For example the french way of cooking "haricots vert" is simply delicious and my children adore "Mamie Girard's" haricot vert. You cook them in a pan with melted butter some garlic and lardons, thats it very simple really. Peas and carrots I mash with my potatoes.
You need to get thinking, what does my child like to eat? and if you can disguise the vegetables in it. Try different ways of cooking the vegetables, maybe with the child aswell as I have stated before if tghey have cooked it they are more likely to eat it.

The Book: Kids Cuisine

My own copy of my book has arrived, now I can throw all the scrappy bits of paper away! Abygaelle is very happy as she is on the front cover.
The contents of the book are:

Main dishes: Pasta Bake with ham and cheese
                    Chef Andrés chicken
                   Simple spag bol
                   Pasta bake with salmon
                   Shepherds pie
                   Hamburgers
                   Vegetable Soup
                  Beef or Sausage casserole
                  Chicken breasts with apple and cheese
                 Fish Pie

Baby food dishes: Sweet Pork Chops
                            Spaghetti with beef and vegetables
                            Pear and raisin Mash
                           Fruity breakfast
                           Breakfast soup
                           Yogurt and raspberry puree
                            Potato and spinach puree

Deserts for all: Bread and butter pudding
                       Yogurt and nutella cake
                       Jam tarts
                       Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies
                       Moon rock cakes
                       Traditional french crepes
                       Cherry soup

Non food recipes: Lemonade
                             Play dough

All fairly simple recipes that children can help make. So have fun and get cooking!

Early age cooking

My Alex is only 17 months old and he is already interested in cooking (granted its only eating the food ) I let him sit in his booster seat at the table an let him nibble at some of the ingredients, that way he explores new tastes and hopefully this will avoid the whole fussy eater issues. He also gets a little stir of the cake here and a prod of the dough there just so he get to feel the different textures. He also gets the all important lick of the spoon at the end aswell, we musn't forget that now!!
With Aby its a very different thing, cooking to her is all about finding which tastes go together and seeing how things change from one thing into another. Its all very scientific, and mathematical. She is very clever, the other day I made a mistake when reading a recipe and did not put enough flour into the mixture, Aby was doing the crumble of flour and butter and told me "mummy there is not enough flour" me being stubborn as always I say "I put in what it said so we will leave it as it is" Later when I took the cakes out they had turned into biscuits, I am confused and look over the recipe and it dawns on me. So I think next time I will listen to my daughter who obviously has an eye, or feel for these things. Either that or she is going to be the next Nigella Lawson.

Get your kids involved in the kitchen it really helps, ask them what they want for dinner instead of telling them what they are having, ok maybe give them a choice instead of asking for their exact choice maybe put it as "We have either spaghetti bolognese or shepherds pie? would you like to help me cook one of them?" You will be surprised that they will want to and how much of it they eat as it was their creation.

Crumble

The kids decided on our walk to get some bread that they wanted to collect blackberries. I said this would be fine but I didn't think there would be enough for a crumble, this drew out a "oooohhhh" so I told them they can collect them, wash them and put them in a tupperware box in the freezer and check next week to see if there are anymore ripe berries. This was fine apparently until Aby my eldest asked "but what if there are still not enough, do we go every week until we have enough?" I told if that is what she want to do then yes, "but we will be doing that for years!" she replies
Kids are so funny, I don't know how big she thinks the crumble will be!

Hello

Hello everyone, my name is Amber and I live in France with my family consisting of my lovely partner Jean Marie and my 3 gorgeous children Aby 10, James 7 and Alex 17 months.
I love to cook but when Aby was little she had a problem with eating and started to eat very little with very little variety and eventually she was eating exactly the same meals every day.
I bought her over to France and swore that things would change, little by little it has and Aby has grown into a child that loves to eat and even helps me cook. "Kids Cuisine" is a recipe book full of Abygaelles favourite foods.
In my blog I will share with you some of my recipes.