Comments on: Redefining Kid’s Menus: Beyond Chicken Fingers & Buttered Noodles

By: Matthew Olsen

Matthew Olsen — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:13:48 +0000

Absolutely agree. I was lucky enough to have parents like you, and in kindergarten, my favorite food was a toss up between sashimi and king crab. I have been ingrained with a deep appreciation for food which has inspired creativity in the kitchen and provided me with a variety of healthy options without ever sacrificing flavor. Let’s not limit our children!

By: Julie

Julie — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 16:13:53 +0000

Great post! I totally agree with you! My three children are the same way! On the rare occasion that we go out to eat, we always order several “adult” dishes, ask for extra plates and share everything family style. People are often surprised that our children have such grown up tastes. I too, have fed my children what we eat and they prefer home cooked meals over the fast food!
I have a step son who visits us on occassion and it saddens me that he refuses to eat what the rest of the family eats and his diet consists of the traditional American fast food (grilled cheese, quesadilla, PB&J, cheese pizza and pasta with cheese). I don’t force him to eat, I just ask him to take one bite of what the rest of us are eating, sometimes he does and sometimes he cries. Which is really sad, because I don’t want him crying over food, so it’s always “what do you want with your cheese today?”
My other three children always ask why their older brother won’t eat what we eat and I just tell them that he likes what he likes. for the longest time the poor kid thought that salt was “spicy”, but he loves McD’s chicken nuggets and fries! Very food confused child, but I keep trying with every visit to expand his taste buds

By: I Believe in Real Food

I Believe in Real Food — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 22:08:54 +0000

[...] breast until their first foods and beyond. I believe in dining out with kids and in ditching the kids menus. Most importantly, I believe in nourishing our children, and fostering a love of fresh vegetables [...]

By: Dining Out with Kids

Dining Out with Kids — Fri, 10 Sep 2010 04:01:50 +0000

[...] read me rant before about deplorable children’s menus, and the need to redefine them. Even otherwise good restaurants with thoughtful cuisine offer boring and flat children’s [...]

By: Dominic P. Tremblay

Dominic P. Tremblay — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:12:28 +0000

Haley, I really like your idea of offering children portions instead of children’s menu. Maybe one option is to take the full portion for the child and bring the rest home.

By: The Straight Dope Dad

The Straight Dope Dad — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:09:05 +0000

Great article. Children's menus are truly depressing. Unfortunately the mimic the adult menus which are junk as well in most chain restaurants. Bland fried fatty foods for the adults and bland fried fatty food in smaller portions for the kids. My daughter loves sushi and Thai coconut soup. This wasn't by accident. We love to eat these things and she's been exposed to it since she was a toddler.In my home we do a child's tasting menu to liven things up.I wrote about it here Feeding Picky Eaters. Thanks.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:02:35 +0000

Pippi -

I think feeding your daughter what you prepare for yourself is spot-on, though there's been more than a few nights when I whip up scrambled eggs for my little guy when I'm exhausted and won't get supper on the plate until well after his 7:00 p.m. bedtime. We're in the let-him-go-hungry camp now that he's turned four, but I wouldn't and didn't take that approach when he was under two. I'd always offer a before bed snack regardless of whether he ate his supper or not until he was about 2.5 or so. Last night he didn't eat and chose to go straight to bed then I woke up at about 2:00 a.m. after hearing a commotion in the kitchen; he'd woken up hungry in the middle of the night and was fixing himself a midnight snack!

Take Care -

Jenny

By: Pippi

Pippi — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:13:06 +0000

I always feed my almost-2-year-old daughter whatever we eat (unless it’s taking to long to make and she’s tired — then I resort to the standby of scrambled eggs), but when she doesn’t want something she’s stubborn. I was in the “let them be hungry” camp until she would scream herself to sleep and wake up all night wanting to nurse. If she didn’t like it, the only substitute was Mama milk. She could scream all night with us trying to console her without giving in and giving her milk. So now if she doesn’t eat much at dinner I casually offer a smoothie before bed. It usually has yogurt, berries, and some nut butter in it. She loves it, it fills her up, and we all sleep. She hasn’t figured out yet that if she doesn’t eat dinner she gets a smoothie and we might need to change tactics when she does, but for now a healthy alternative seems the best option.

By: Peggy

Peggy — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:37:07 +0000

I completely agree with you-in theory! My first 2 years with kids we ate healthy, including as much organic everything as possible, tofu, sushi, etc. Then we moved to Big Agribusiness-ville Nebraska, where organic food is unheard of (except what I am able to grow in the back yard), and good restaurants don’t exist even for grown-ups, let alone kids. Now that I have a 3 y/o and 2 y/o, we have fallen into the trap of just ordering grilled cheese (1 for them to share, with a side of overcooked, limp broccoli), because it has the best chance of being edible. The stuff we order for us is hit-or-miss, and we certainly share as much of ours with the kids as they will eat, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. But the grilled cheese often gets left untouched as much as anything else.

While we’re on the subject, why doesn’t McD’s offer their Fruit and Walnut salad as a happy meal option? I’ve even asked my friend who works at McD’s corporate HQ, and got no response. So, my kids often get just a bag of apples and bottle of milk when we go to McD’s. It’s all they’ll eat anyway….

To those of you in civilization, take advantage of your location, and be sure to eat some sushi for me!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:08:44 +0000

Thank you so much for posting this! I love the picture of your son eating that soup. I am definitely going to give this some more thought. I would love for my children to enjoy real food when we go out to eat.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 04:17:12 +0000

At 9 and 11 my kids are insulted when presented with a kid’s menu. My 9 year old politely asks for the menu of “real food”. It would be nice if the children’s menu just had smaller portions of regular menu offerings. How difficult is it to serve everything with a salad instead of french fries?

By: Raine Saunders

Raine Saunders — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 20:53:05 +0000

My son is 8 years old and for the first 4 1/2 years of his life he ate the SAD with some organic foods. When I realized what I was doing to him and our whole family, we changed very drastically right off the bat. Now, there was a great deal of resistance, but one of the problems we had from early on was that I insisted he eat the food we prepared and his father continually prepared him special meals. He learned at an early age that he could get whatever he wanted because Dad gave in. I don't believe in doing that. It should be "this is what we're having for dinner, and if you don't want it then you will just have to go hungry". This may sound really cruel and harsh, but I guarantee you that if you ALLOW your kids to dictate the rules, you'll have nothing but trouble as they get older. So there should be no power struggle, just "this is how it is". And guess what? My son really only "went hungry" for about two meals. Why? Because he figured out that if he wanted to eat, he'd better do it when I put dinner on the table. And sure, he gets treats sometimes, but those are special occasions only and I try to buy something organic and minimally processed or I make it at home from scratch with good ingredients. Also, if you are like we were some years ago and feed your children processed foods with no nutrition on a regular basis, then yes, it will be that much harder to convert them over. But I maintain that if you just set the rules down and be firm (don't engage in power struggles, that never works), sooner or later (and usually it's sooner because they get hungry!), they will eventually eat the good food you have put in front of them. Otherwise, what you are setting yourself up for is a lifetime of bad eating habits and throwing fits because they want the pasta, the tortillas, and the sugar.Check out Raine Saundersâ€™s last post: The Unparalleled Health Benefits of Coconut Oil.