Why do toddlers prefer processed food?!

[~*Nicole*~]

Quote from: ~*Nicole*~ on June 28, 2012, 06:02:16 PM
I actually food process and GRIND up the chicken to mimick the consistency of the processed stuff but so I KNOW what is in them and can modify as needed.
I've done this quite a few times with little success.

I didn't realize this read as though I had already done this....I meant for it to say that I WOULD do that as I have not made them that way yet. I've made them from chicken breast tenderized but not ground...for DD. She "tolerated" them but they were not as preferred as the store bought processed kind.

I do love cooking and I don't mind making additional items for DS (for him to eat at a different time to the family meal because I still think the family meal should be what we eat which any way is adapted to his needs, a compromise of sorts) but I do find it a drag to go through a whole cooking stint purely for DS to then have him only eat one tiny bit or reject it the same as he would if I just gave him what we are eating.

This is my problem. I do NOT love cooking. I find no pleasure in it at all. I want to make food in the quickest, easiest way possible. But, I do agree that I hate to make something special just to find it is rejected and therefore wasted. I end up eating a lot of DS's and DD's rejected foods. I end up making things that DS will eat for me and DD (DH isn't home for most of our meals as he is working). So if I make some type of nugget...I will eat them as well. I do enjoy fresh foods myself, but I was raised on boxed processed garbage or quick and easy meals. Mac n' cheese, nuggets, fish sticks, cheese sandwiches....etc. So I have a taste for both and crave different things at different times. My mom was a single mother who relied heavily on that type of thing. I did grow to LOVE fresh and more varied foods as I got older....so I don't think her choices were any detriment to me overall. I even enjoy a lot more vegetables than she ever made/offered. My sister on the other hand is a different story. She will NOT eat a vegetable and she prefers processed, quick, and/or fairly unhealthy meals.

[Lemonthyme]

Ha ha, one of my friends is trying to persuade me to launch ready meals based on my blog.  I'm trying to say "no, that's not the point..." but I'm surprised the more and more people I find who hate cooking.

[creations]

Interesting article Deb
"Today there are not even enough fruits and vegetables in this country to allow all Americans to follow the government guidelines to eat five to nine servings a day." scary!

Great site for recipes Sara, thanks for sharing.  I've book marked it.  Already looked at the beans recipe as DS loves beans but they have to be in a sauce of some sort.  I can give him almost any sort of beans so long as there is a teaspoon of ketchup or BBQ sauce or something like that mixed through, just a coating really...but he loves canned baked beans in the tom sauce (or course he does, more processed food!).  I noticed that the recipe for the bean sauce has sugar in it which is something I avoid, think I'll try it without and see what happens.

Nicole, it's really interesting to read about the foods you had as a child.  We has ready foods and real fresh food.  Marvellous stews and 'concoctions' (my mum called them) although she would often put a 'cook in sauce' into the fresh meat and veg in the pot and a proper Sunday Roast for much of my childhood.  I grew up loving healthy foods (more and more) and my sister became a fast food and chocolate junky, super morbidly obese, no energy, depression...all the symptoms of a body being starved of nutrients.
I did read something once though (no link) that the fast food or 'our generation' was SO much healthier than the junk food of today.  We used to love those pies in a tin (Fray Bentos) and frozen filled crispy pancakes, both of which are just hugely better than the majority of today's options on junk food/convenience food.

One thing that I think about is that when I provide DS with a healthy alternative, be it sugar free fruit/veg filled pancakes, muffins, fish cakes or chicken nuggets, whatever, am I really helping him to make a better choice later in life?  If someone is brought up eating lots of healthy cakes do they then just go and buy lots of unhealthy cakes as soon as they are independent?  If I feed healthy chicken nuggets, wouldn't he have a habit of liking chicken nuggets and just buy crap?  I am prob way over thinking it.  I would rather he have the food I make him and I suppose part of his education is to teach him the different between THIS cake and THAT cake.  But even so...

Anyway, he didn't touch the swordfish and yesterday he put a piece of roast turkey leg in his mouth chewed for about 20 seconds then took it out and politely put it back on his plate.  He did get some protein in the day though, a canned tuna and mayo sandwich, so again processed and bares just about no resemblance to real tuna at all.

[deb]

When Josie was jut turning 4YO, we began our extremely restricted diet. At the time, the working theory was that carbs were feeding candida in the body, which in turn could cause physical and behavioral symptoms, so the diet was to starve them out. We do still keep this in the backs of our minds when we choose foods, as candida can indeed do all kinds of weird stuff in our bodies, including reinforcing that addictive feeling. We simplified the explanation for Josie, explained about "yeasties" in the body and what they could do, and how we wanted to starve them out. We were up front that there could be "die-off" reactions (the technical term is Herxheimer Response) where her body and "the yeasties" would be wanting their regular food back but that this would pass in a couple of days. And we told her WHY the bad food WAS bad for her, and what good nutrients were in the good foods.

She is now, at 10YO, a very well-informed food consumer. She reads labels possibly a little too obsessively, but as we're now dealing with a possible gluten allergy in her case, that's probably OK for now. She knows that on the rare occasions we have actual dessert food (like at restaurants, not the yogurt or fruit or dark chocolate we have at home dessert), she'll probably have a tummy-ache, and she's happy to share a dessert 2 or 3 ways to minimize it.

That's how we deal with that stuff: with information. We let the girls know what nutrients are in what foods - they were shocked once they realized that pizza basically has nothing but calories and little bits of other stuff like calcium (cheese) and the few nutrients in the toppings and tomato sauce, and happy to snarf down spinach sauteed in butter (as long as there's enough garlic LOL) - and they also plan and help prepare a meal once a week (with guidance). As we pick foods for that meal, we talk about the nutrition that goes into it, and try to pick a variety of foods with the challenge being to get as many nutrients into the meal as possible.

[creations]

That's really interesting Deb, thanks for sharing your experiences.
I think it will be natural for me to do this sort of explaining as DS gets older and can understand more.  I'm sure i am just over thinking things atm and that in time he will gradually begin to get a taste for the fresh fish and meat on offer.

[~*Nicole*~]

I am of the belief that information and moderation are the keys to success in this area. DD has an obvious preference for the taste of processed foods, but the more we talk about things and the more open and honest we are the better she seems to understand. A few examples are:

*She loves juice. I keep explaining that juice is something we can have (diluted for her) sometimes but should not be what we have all the time. She came back with but I LIKE juice. So we talked about how that was fine, but that water or milk were healthier choices and so if she's already had one or two cups of juice that day, then she may have water or milk at this point (usually dinnertime). She dug her heels in a few times, but now generally chooses milk. She will also tell others that milk and water are healthy for your body.

*In the store, she picked up one of those horribly sugar filled overly colored yogurts with something like Spongebob on the box. She was DELIGHTED. It looked bright and cheery and she LOVES yogurt. I told her that we had yogurt at home (plain greek yogurt) and that it was better than that brightly colored stuff. I explained how they just use colors to make it pretty and add a lot of sugar which tastes really good but is not so great for your body to have that much and they put a picture on it to trick kids into buying it! She put it back gladly once she understood that it wasn't any better.

*DD is allergic to celery and knows about DS's MSPI to the extent that she can. She tells people that "Lukey is allergic to cheese." or whatever....and that she is "allergic to celery" because we have talked to her about these things.

Overall, I think that not exposing them to certain things on occasion (barring a true need to avoid completely like an allergy or behavioral component or other health related need) leads them to want to try them out and go overboard when left to their own devices. But explanations and information and letting them enjoy things in moderation lead to more wise choices when they are older. So we allow for "ready" made stuff and also do some homemade fresher stuff (less often now that I am trying to juggle both kids, and with my dislike for cooking, etc.). It works for us and DD seems to really take in the information.

[creations]

Yes I think you are absolutely right.
I think the consistency and information and helping children needs to continue and continue.  I think one of my worries (not that I am hugely worried because i know DS has a good diet even if the protein aspect is tricky) has been seeing my sister with her daughter, who started on a great, varied and healthy diet when she was very young but at some point (I think around age 5 or 7) my sister just seemed to give up and by the time her DD went to high school there wasn't a uniform to fit her she had grown so big and unhealthy   It really really saddened me.
Of course I shouldn't be worried by things my sister has done, she has her issues and I am a completely different person.  I suppose I just saw first hand what can happen when the 'reigns' are released.
Like you have said, there were forbidden foods, SO forbidden that they became THE goal to eat them as much as possible.
I'm glad that you reminded me of that as it is something I already noted with my niece but wasn't thinking about in terms of the odd bit of processed food or home made alternatives.

[ZacsMumme]

when I provide DS with a healthy alternative, be it sugar free fruit/veg filled pancakes, muffins, fish cakes or chicken nuggets, whatever, am I really helping him to make a better choice later in life?

At this age I think you are doing what you need to do to get the 'good stuff' in really. At this age they aren't being 'picky' as such, it seems to be a common stage for 12-24mth olds especially. I got very stressed over this when Z started being a bit fussy and now I focus on his overall diet over 3 days. Esp with teething in the mix, and textural/temp sensitivities they get I found once I did this Zs diet was actually ok YK? Dinner is always tough, but he eats a good breakie, good AM snack, good lunch...and his vege intake is low, but fruit is high...and I just keep offering one day he will eat the broccoli

[creations]

I focus on his overall diet over 3 days.

It's at about this point that I resort to home made falafel, baked beans or bean/lentil burgers etc to get some protein in.
DS's fruit intake was also very high.  I knew there were a couple of veg he didn't like but on the whole he DOES like veg but wasn't eating much.  I cut down on his fruit (which didn't go down too well for a day or two) and he increased his veg.

one day he will eat the broccoli

I know it's going a bit OT but I found just recently DS will eat the long stalk variety if I remove the flower head.  I serve it to his plate whole but then cut it so he can see and he will eat the stalk part.

At this age I think you are doing what you need to do to get the 'good stuff' in really.

Yes I think you're right.

I wonder if I really should start to serve DS's protein differently for his main meal.  When we had the swordfish a couple of days back, maybe if I'd cut a piece off and bread-crumbed and fried it he might have eaten it.  I've been so against doing this as I wanted him to see we all have the same, but it might at least get him used to the flavour and texture of the different foods INSIDE the crumb coating and perhaps eventually I could reduce the crumb.

Anyone know how to store home made breadcrumbs?  Can I make one slice worth and keep it for a few days in the fridge or freezer to make cooking a separate item a bit quicker?

[amayzie]

Anyone know how to store home made breadcrumbs?  Can I make one slice worth and keep it for a few days in the fridge or freezer to make cooking a separate item a bit quicker?

I think if you dry them out in the oven (dry out the bread first- then process it) that you can keep them in an airtight container. Otherwise you could probably keep them in the freezer. Possibly you could keep them in little zip-lock bags- then you'd be able to pop the meat right in to the bag and coat it in the bag?

[Lemonthyme]

I just use stale bread, whizz in a food processor and then freeze.  I then use straight from frozen.

[creations]

Thanks ladies, I thought it was ok to freeze whizzed crumbs but thought I better check.  Good to know they can be used from frozen too.

[amayzie]

You could probably freeze whizzed crumbs- but then they would possibly clump more when frozen and you'd have to defrost them. either way!

[Lemonthyme]

No they don't clump, they break apart really easily and you can use them from frozen.  Honest!

[creations]

you can use them from frozen

I'm certainly going to do this.  It's not really a big deal to whizz fresh as I have a small whizzer so can do just one piece of bread, or half, but even so that is quite a lot of bread crumbs when I am only going to crumb DS's bits.

I'm wondering about something 'sticky' to coat the meat/fish in prior to the crumbs to avoid wasting a whole egg just for one little dip.  Pesto sounds great, what else?  I'm thinking a little tom puree? cream cheese? mustard?