Does anyone here feed any children? Whether it be siblings, your own offspring, babysitting, whatever. If so...

also stews are good and maybe a big goup of mashed potatos with veggies mixed up inside with a side of pasta sauce and fish, steak, or chicken

If they are truly hungry then let them have something to eat. 3 square meals a day, 1-2 snacks, soda/sweets/fast food only as a treat, and keep them active. Young obese children generally have obese parents. Teach them healthy eating by being their example. Just don't let them veg out all day in front of the TV or video games while they stuff their face with junk food and they will be fine. Don't be scared. Kids don't come with instructions. All new parents wing it and learn as we go.

Thanks, I figure if historically people have let their kids eat when they're hungry without problems, it shouldn't be wrong now.

I'm Veeky Forums with a clean diet but the amount of men and women out there who have normal bodies but horrible dietary habits is discouraging. How are kids supposed to be intuitive eaters who know when to appropriately indulge when they get reared up in households full of snack cakes and ice cream?

I babysit and often share my cooking with that family since I can't be bothered to only cook for myself.
The kids aren't picky, 4 of them from 2 and the oldest being 12) but three of them randomly decide they don't like something. They could ask for it and eat it once a week but those little shits suddenly decide they hate a certain good they are having that day. If it's something I know they don't like I won't force them to eat it but they usually always do happily after their fussy fit of eating something else on their plate. I find not yelling at them or forcing them helps, otherwise they get more defiant. Also just manipulating into it with a snack after dinner, we will go for a walk, etc.

They rarely ever get fast food but they're allowed a cup of chips or something.

I remember this thread.

Exactly. Those types of foods need to be controlled you just can't turn them loose with it. It's geared to kids anyway. Chester the cheetah, sponge of Mac and cheese, etc. if all they eat or are exposed to is junk, then that's what they will reach for every time. A piece of cake, a hot dog, French fries, ice cream , chips, soda....nothing is wrong with any of that in moderation/as a treat. However letting them have it everyday or just giving them open access to a kitchen filled with junk is a bad idea. The parent is the one that's responsible for a child's obesity. Im a firm believer of getting the kids into the kitchen with you as soon as possible and exposing to all varieties of goods when they are young.

Sponge Bob Mac and cheese**

Good choice on the jambalaya, I also think home made chicken noodle or rice soup is easy to get kids to eat. Soups in general are lacking from most western diets, I think it's the key to the longevity of the oriental peoples..clear broths with vegetables and minimal protein and starch.

My wife's son really enjoys my homemade fried chicken. No idea why he likes it so much.

>if the meat is big and tasty enough they wont notice the vegtables and other stuff you put in like garlic

I never got this. Hiding veggies from kids. They'll find it anyways. And if they can't look at their food and taste it closely enough to know that it's there, that's a problem in of itself. Unless they're like 4.

My sister's kids get the same from her -- chicken nuggets and ramen noodle. I usually cook them some sliders, grilled cheese, stuff like that. Portion size is important imo, and sweets like sodas and ice cream i dont buy.

>he doesn't know about quinky sauce

Wrong. This board is full of fast food eating man children. Prove me wrong.

NORMIE GHET THE FUCK OUT RRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

"kids don't like vegetables and healthy food" is LITERALLY a Jewish invented meme.

I grew up in a family of 5 and we were all eating creamed spinach and all kinds of vegetables since we could remember.

How to get little kids to eat good food

>stop putting them in front of the electronic jew that tells them they need chicken nuggets
>make them food
>tell them if they don't like it they can go hungry

by the 6th time kids will come around and actually eat what you put in front of them. parents fail when they make separate food just for their kids

>how to make picky eaters who will buy more expensive junk food as an adult

This is pretty much it. I've been cooking as long as I remember (I even helped my dad brew beer when I was a kid) and I'll eat pretty much whatever.

Also, your kids will be able to actually cook when they get out on their own and won't have to beg for basic advice on a Laotian marionette bulletin board.

Cool dad desu

I just fed my baby some avocado for the first time today. Her reaction was priceless. She seemed to love it though after the initial shock.

Also

>don't cook like shit

Don't give them an apple when they should have some beef. Don't be stupid and inappropriate with vegetables. There's plenty of vegetables besides corn, as well.

That's my advice to them.

>How to force your children to eat shit they're allergic to and have their bodies age to 80 before their 25th birthday 101.

Get a fucking scratch test before you force food on your children, asshole.
16 Years I was forced with physical violence to eat food, and now have less than 25 food items I will actually eat, not to mention crippling health problems.
This is not the answer. Go the fuck away and stop forcing your misguided will on your offspring.

pretty much 5 minute shit like you stated bagged chickens, hot dogs and mac and cheese.

or you can make complicated shit where they dont see the ingredients so they dont know whats in the food but you run the risk of them not liking it anyway

Taste exists for a reason.

People don't like nasty things, kids are no exception.
Kids are picky is an excuse made by shit cooks. Just feed them fruit and meat.
Keep things separate. Not everyone likes the same things, so don't ruin perfectly good X by putting Y in/on it. Serve X and Y separately.

>tl;dr
Don't poison the source.

>if the meat is big and tasty enough they wont notice the vegtables and other stuff you put in like garlic
This is bullshit.
How about just giving them something nutritionally equivalent that they like instead of trying to force them to eat something they don't like?
No one dislikes all meats.
No one dislikes all vegetables.
No one dislikes all grains/starches.
No one dislikes all fruits.

>I want kids some day but I'm completely terrified of raising them wrong and they'll turn picky
Let them be picky. Everyone is happier as long as you aren't stubborn and try force them like what you like.
>How do you even know how much your kids should eat?
As much as they want.
>Obesity?
Avoid sweets and deserts, they are modern memes and can easily be done without.
Get them a sport with lots running or conditioning like football or lacrosse.
Calories in, calories out.

>How are kids supposed to be intuitive eaters who know when to appropriately indulge when they get reared up in households full of snack cakes and ice cream?
Ding Ding Ding! You spotted the problem.

My kid eats what we make for dinner. Usually he cleans his plate, sometimes he doesnt, but I do make him taste everything before he turns his nose up at something. I won't force him to eat all of something if he doesn't like it, just a few bites.

My kid is pretty good about eating tho. The main foods he hasn't liked so far are okra with stewed tomatoes, brussel sprouts, cantelope, tuna, and over easy eggs. He's almost 6 and pretty much eats whatever we have for dinner. I don't purposely make foods that he has difficulty with and force him to eat it. He can double up on another portion of something.

Breakfast is Oatmeal, pancakes or scrambled eggs and bacon, or cereal if we are in a rush.
Lunch is usually a PBJ/turkey/grilled cheese sandwich with a small bag of chips/pretzels, cheese stick, piece of fruit.
Dinner is whatever we make: cabbage rolls, tacos, stews, quiche, pasta, grilled chicken, casseroles, meatloaf etc. plus a side or 2
He can have cereal if dinner is just something he does not like.

Just don't go crazy with the seasonings. Kids are not hard to feed. They like good food just like we do. Expose them to new foods and textures and take control of their eating habits. If they won't eat anything but fast food it's a good indication that the parent needs to stop buying it.

Also, it's been said many times ITT, get your kid involved with you in the kitchen, have fun together while cooking and teaching, and keep them active.

ITT: picky eaters making excuses

>MFW that didnt work and id actually not fucking eat

>mfw im not as picky now but i still avoid certain things like green beans etc, but i keep trying things i hated as a kid

My girlfriend is a nanny, she cooks all sorts of things for the children she's looked after (generally 1-3 years old), doesn't pander to them if they're fussy. We've taken toddlers out when we've been babysitting and fed them pate, cured meats, curry, dim sum, pickles, just about anything. The idea of feeding kids anything different from what you'd eat is a bit of a nonsense, just don't feed them processed shit (like your sister is doing).

One boy she used to look after started being picky at about 2, so the mum wanted her to make sure she offered him something he would eat with every meal rather than let him go hungry. Two years later he'll only eat tofu or toast. Be warned.

Friends of ours gave their six month old baby avocado for the first time while they were visiting us, she wailed piteously while shovelling fistfuls of it into her face.

Self-indulgent bullshit.

My twin boys just turned one so we have focused more on meals and they eat three times a day when at home with us, a simple breakfast like toast and eggs or some bacon and a bagel, washed down with milk. For lunch it's left overs from the night before and for dinner I focus on making a meat and some vegetables for sure, and then whatever else like tatos or a hot bun, but I like to make spaghetti with chunks of ground beef so they don't eat just noodles, side of vegetables, pot roast and vegetables with side of tatos and bun. They obviously don't eat as much as I do but I make sure they have small amounts of all of it so it's a cohesive meal and doesn't feel like I'm just throwing random shit at them. Just gives me peace of mind thinking it will hard wire their brains to such meals for when they get older.

I also must add that I don't feed them anything I wouldn't eat myself and they are barely one lol

I have 7 and 10 year old daughters. Their favorite food is broccoli. They will eat just about anything at anytime and somehow are still anorexic looking. I'm guessing because of soccer. They do eat occasional tenders or hot dogs if offered and it's not an issue but they eat real food with no issue as well. They drink water over soft drinks and love bland popcorn for some reason. When the 7 year old was younger (around 5) it was almost impossible to get her to eat. She would sit there for an hour staring at her plate of food at dinner time. Then she would start crying saying she is full and then she would say she is hungry as soon as her plate was removed and she wanted chips or candy. She got her dinner plate back because we learned this after a couple times of her doing it. She never got the chips or candy.

I have fed my nephews maybe 100 times in the last couple years.

Want them to eat peas, serve em with mashed potatoes. Want them to eat broccoli, only flourettes in cheese sauce. I also make really good lemon pepper chicken tendies they love. Then some juice on the side.

Your sister fucked up by not feeding them a huge variety of foods from as early as feasibly possible. The more foods you introduce early, the better chances that they won't be picky little shitty eaters. My son's favorite food at two years were smoked clams. He ate every kind of vegetable (except baked or mashed white potoates, the little weirdo), and any kind of fruit. He also wasn't a huge fan of eggs until he was about 4.
He's an adult now (just barely, he's 18), and he'll eat pretty much any kind of meats, fish, vegetables, fruits, seafoods, whatever. Now he has "preferences" like most people (for example, he likes fresh tomatoes on pizza or salads, but he doesn't like tomatoes on burgers), but that's normal. Nowadays, his favorite meals to make at home are made with some kind of fish, vegetables, and either rice or sweet potato. And as far as going out, he loves pretty much any kind of food, especially persian, japanese, greek, and burmese.
The trick with kids to to try to feed them EVERYTHING from a young age. If they don't like it, take it away and try the same food again at a later date. Always give them options, and do NOT give in to what I call the "white/beige food diet" that most picky kids eat, which is things like chicken tenders, too much bread, noodles, potatoes, etc. Always serve something green at both lunch and dinner on their plates, and vary it up.

make sure the kids at least try the food you are giving them, don't accept this I don't know it therefore I don't like it bullshit.

If you want your kids to eat vegetable and fruit just slice it into somewhat small portions and put it on their plates

and never ever go cheap or lazy on kids food, like buying TV dinners or some shit, that stuff is literally poison

Start 'em out right with breastfeeding, then:
Fruits & veggies
Anything that can be smooshed with a fork
Fingerfoods once they have teeth

Start meat at 3

No sugar until 3, and then very rarely

Avoid premade foods: if they need crunch, give them nuts and seeds, or raw veggies

Check out baby/kid foods from around the world, and use them all.

At dinner, everyone has the same meal, although portions may vary. You have to taste everything, but you don't have to finish anything.

Yogurt is always available after meals for people who are still hungry/ didn't eat.

Worked for my kid! They usually become more adventurous in adolescence anyway.

Honestly, it's the cartoons.
Spinach, broccoli etc. don't taste bad, it's just that kids are conditioned by cartoon network and other fast food shills.

>Yogurt is always available after meals for people who are still hungry/ didn't eat.

do you make the joghurt yourself? Usually the flavored joghurt contains a whole lot of sugar, mind to share some recipes?

I cooked for my two boys. Never made specifically dumbed down shit for them, but the older went through a phase (about 6-7 years) where he simply refused to eat any recognizable vegetable matter. Of course he was constipated most of the time, and when he complained about it I just told him it was his own fault for avoiding vegetable fiber. He eventually stopped picking all the vegetables out of his food.

The biggest change cooking for the boys did to my cooking was the amount of meat I made. By the time they were teenagers they could consume a staggering amount of meat at supper time. I was literally cooking a few pounds of the stuff most nights. By the time they were out on their own my wife and I went mostly vegetarian because neither of us felt like eating meat so often as we had been during their teen years.

My two sisters are probably the worst when it comes to feeding their kids.

My one sister is a work from home mom that still can't manage to be a good parent. Always still dumping her kids off on my mother for no good reason, and god forbid she has to feed her kids

Frozen nuggets, takeout, hot dogs, fries, etc etc. Both of her kids are spoiled rotten idiots that just sit on their ipads all day.

My other sister is on the other end of the spectrum. She's one of those weird super scared over protective mothers. Her kids aren't allowed to do anything really outside of what she wants them to do. She's also very scared of food. As in she won't let them eat anything with dye, preservatives, chemical flavoring etc etc

Now you think that might be okay in a sense because all of the food she feeds them is organic and "healthy." However there is one big problem. She uses no seasoning whatsoever in her cooking. Not even salt/pepper. I don't even need to say anymore

One time she gave me and my girlfriend some of her leftovers when we were just moved into our new place and were a bit scrapped for cash. I was obviously thankful and happy but it was barely edible. Beef stew with potatoes and carrots. And obviously completely flavorless.

No kids here, no desire for any either

>don't accept this I don't know it therefore I don't like it bullshit.
"this smells like poison/ the smell makes me want to vomit"
Smell exists for a reason. The urge to vomit exists for a reason.
Not liking something before you try it can be legitimate.

>If you want your kids to eat vegetable and fruit just slice it into somewhat small portions and put it on their plates
This is the reason I hated apples and bananas as a kid.
(still do hate all apples other than granny smith, they just taste disgusting to me)

Only cut/slice things that don't change when cut/sliced.

>and never ever go cheap or lazy on kids food,
yes.

>like buying TV dinners or some shit, that stuff is literally poison
True, but depriving them of having kid cuisine at least once is just mean.

>not mouth feeding
It's like you don't care about their immune system.

Do you mean chewing their food for them before they have teeth?

I just gave the kid plain yogurt... Honey can be nice to add if you are worried about it being sour.
Plain yogurt with (dark)chocolate chips was a favorite dessert, but I would only offer that about once a week.

> what do you feed them
basically normal people food, but made into small bits and tiny portions. today was banana+yogurt for breakfast, chicken soup and a steak+veg for lunch, colcannon for dinner and fruit ad-libitum between meals as usual
> gross
I try to make good food. if they don't like, they don't eat
> feed them anyways
nah. it's not a problem if they skip a meal. they will probably eat twice as much at the next anyway. I do try to provide some diversity
> rebelious they eat nothing but fast food
I don't follow. so rebellious that they eat regimented mass market shit?

I sometimes get stuck watching my nephews and nieces. Here's food they've eaten:

Vermont Curry (bought the premade cube things)
- added potatoes, carrots, chicken/beef, and possibly broccoli.
- Despite never having had it before, they liked it even without meat
- You can even sneak in some onions. If you cook it long enough, they won't even know it's there

Peanut butter banana sandwich, toasted
- Liked it, but they only finished half a sandwich before getting "tired"

Middle Eastern flatbread (more chewy and less dry than generic pita with the pocket) with hummus
- They liked the bread. Meh about the hummus

Breakfast for any meal of the day: eggs, sausage, toasted bread, hashbrowns, side of fruit or veggie
- Who doesn't like these?

Sliced and peeled fruits
- They like eating it when it's already peeled and cut up into ~1 inch cube pieces. They share the bowl and each get a fork

Spaghetti and meatballs
- Easy, if a bit messy

Granola/muesli in milk instead of those sugary kids cereal
- They enjoy the change sometimes

Fruit and vegetable smoothies
- I occasionally make some for myself and they always seem to want it, even if its on the tart side

To be honest, so long as they're not eating chips and other junk food, it's okay with me.

>Sliced and peeled fruits
The exception to this seems to be watermelon. They like eat the slices with the rinds. They make a mess, so sometimes I make them eat it in the yard where they can compete in who can spit out the seeds the furthest.

I feed my sister whatever I consider appropriate at the time, regardless of if she likes it or not. If she doesn't, I'll force her to eat it (no violence, don't get me wrong). She doesn't act spoiled at all when she's with me, and loves me more than most of the family. Kids need a firm hand, not a pansy babysitter

> start meat at 3
go die in a fire

Yes. It's also known as kiss feeding.

?
You have some kinda problem with letting digestive and immune systems develop?

I'm a former scout leader so I used to feed a LOT of children.

Put them out of their habits / confort zone, a camping trip, picnic, a beach day (with no store nearby). When they are tired and there is no other option, they'll eat anything and the best part is they will like it !

Also, cook together so they are more implicated. Playing with food is OK for me, if you eat it in the end.

One last thing, it is said that you have to make them taste some food 17 (!) time before accepting the idea that OK, they really don't like it.

>Put them out of their habits / confort zone, a camping trip, picnic, a beach day (with no store nearby). When they are tired and there is no other option, they'll eat anything and the best part is they will like it
There is truth to this. Both my nieces are picky as fuck at home, much to my sister's chagrin. But when they come to visit me they'll happily eat all kinds of stuff they wouldn't at home.

>TL;DR: Cooking for kids.
P.S. : you don't cook for kids. You can cook with kids but you cook for you and your pleasure, kids will follow and imitate. That's how you learn, they'll be happy.

>they'll happily eat all kinds of stuff they wouldn't at home.
Totally true, send them to friends and family, go to parties and restaurants.

I babysit my nieces sometimes.
Usually I take them out to eat
They're not picky eaters so I usually pick something that they probably don't eat all that often

I usually just lie to them about whatever is in it and try to hide it. My niece despises eggs so if I'm making a baked ziti or something I'll mash up the sausage so it looks like ground beef, or I'll chop the onion up really finely. Still tastes the same and they don't throw a fit if they see a bit of onion in the sauce.

>eggs

I meant sausage. No clue why I wrote eggs.

Nothing wrong with being skinny, no sane child will die of hunger if food is available. Forcing kids to eat is how you make picky eaters.
I grew up in a house where if I didn't like dinner I was welcome to cook my own, no unhealthy shit. Also allowed to not eat if I liked. Started making dinner for everyone by 15 because I had become the best cook in the family.
My mom grew up in a house where they ate the same thing every day, but again they didn't force her to eat. She was anorexic size but not anorexic, just plain didn't like food. Joined the military and after her first 2 mile run her dislike of food left her. She's a fatass to this day.