[Rach42]

Hi

My DS1 (8) seems to dislike lamb, beef and pork. I thought it was the taste, although I'm not sure because he eats beef mince and sausages sometimes and he likes corned beef. So maybe it's tough for him to chew - that's what he said the problem was but I make sure it's tender and cut it up small for him. DS2 (5.5) on the other hand loves lamb and meat in general. Last night I did lamb cutlets, baked potatoes, peas and carrots. DS1 ate everything apart from the lamb (DS2 ate his lamb as well as DS1s left overs). They both like chicken.

My dilemma is what do I give DS1 instead of red meat when I'm cooking meat for the rest of us to make sure he's getting enough iron?

Any suggestions appreciated!

[laurs]

My DS is the same. Not the best substitute but I tend to cook him up some fish fingers for protein if I know he won't eat the meat I am cooking.

[~flaxen~]

No suggestions, but I'll be watching this thread. DS2 will eat sausages and on occasion a tiny bit of corned beef or spag bol...very tiny

[AvadaKedavra]

Needing red meat for iron is just a marketing ploy from the meat industry.

As long as he eats a variety of other foods including vegetables, grains and dairy, I wouldn't worry too much about extra iron and protein.

[SarahM72]

I find this with some of my kids as well. They will however eat mince and sausages. I get the butcher to make up low salt, no preservative batch of sausages for me. I find kids much prefer the skinny sausages. Maybe try different sorts of sausages, including lamb and chicken. I usually get lamb sausages (grass fed).

I have given up trying to get my kids to eat with more expensive cuts of meat - they just waste it. So for family meals we all now just have a lot of mince, sausages and chicken. Mince can be done various ways, such as rissoles, kebabs, kofta, meatballs (with tomato sauce etc), meatloaf, curried with vegies, curried without vegies, pasta, lasagne, cottage pie, meat pies (home made), sausages rolls, shephard's pie.

I do also cook stuff like roasts in the slow cooker which makes the meat tender, which they tend to eat reasonably okay. I also find that they like beef strips which are very fine. I get the butcher to cut very thinly. I use this to make stroganoff, stiry fries, curries etc.

Otherwise if I'm cooking something that the fussy ones won't eat I give them a couple of sausages, a rissole or a couple of fried eggs, or even some tinned tuna.

[laridae]

Can you ask him why he doesn't eat/like meat?

I know my little brother at the same age would eat very little meat, but he told us the reason.

He had quite crooked teeth - with some growing in behind the others and some gap - he just found it too hard to bite/chew.

Fixed by braces a few years later.



This post has been edited by laridae: 07/04/2012, 06:44 PM

[Rach42]

Thanks for the suggestions

Fish fingers are a good standby as he does like those and we always have them in the freezer.

Needing red meat for iron is just a marketing ploy from the meat industry.

As long as he eats a variety of other foods including vegetables, grains and dairy, I wouldn't worry too much about extra iron and protein.

Yes and no IMO - we can get iron from non-meat sources but it's not as readily absorbed. When I was vego I managed it for a while but as I have a tendency towards anaemia it was quite hard work and eventually I couldn't manage it. Also B12 is only available in meat and mushrooms (IIRC) and he doesn't eat mushrooms (yet).

Then, we'd try to build up to other things. It seemed to be things that were attractive to him that helped, meats that looked like something. So, we'd make rissoles made out of quality meat, flavoured with nice herbs, that sort of thing and he loved it. Or we'd give him a blunt knife to cut his meat with, that was a novelty that encouraged him to have a go.

He's five now, and I just found out he's colour blind, also that sometimes colour blind preschoolers think a lot of food is yucky looking, that was certainly his experience, lol! Not saying that's the case with any kids in this thread, but I'm just sharing what the case was for us.

No matter what, stick with it, try to keep teaching an attitude of having a try before saying you hate it, that's what got/is still getting us through

I think I'll try rissoles ... he eats burgers so that should be ok for him. Also yes, if it looks yucky it's hard to convince them to eat it but then I'd probably be the same!

He's actually really good with trying new things, and I've even managed to give him something to try a second time (after a month or so) and explained that tastes change. But red meat mostly seems to get left on the plate.

Can you ask him why he doesn't eat/like meat?

I know my little brother at the same age would eat very little meat, but he told us the reason.

He had quite crooked teeth - with some growing in behind the others and some gap - he just found it too hard to bite/chew.

Fixed by braces a few years later.

I have asked him and he has said it's difficult to chew (he has caps on his front teeth so maybe they aren't so sharp) but he eats chicken and corned beef. I guess they are softer though.

Thanks again - I now have some new ideas to try

[ms flib]

We are a vegetarian family and my kids are robust and healthy. Grown women have higher iron needs due to having periods and babies. Kids need iron while they're growing but not as much.

Try beans and lentils and keep your overall diet healthy - less processed food, more whole foods.

You can give him a supplement if you're worried.

[Chelara]

Try stews etc over wintr, also yo could use a meat mallet to bash steak etc out until its very thin it might help with him chewing. He might also prefer his meat medium or less cooked so it is easier to chew. I would persist with offering what you eat if you can.

[domlachhan]

My 10 year old son has refused to eat what he calls 'chunky meat' since he was about 2 or 3. So basically he will eat mince, sausages and very small pieces of chicken or fish (like nuggets or fish fingers, but not chicken drumsticks or fish fillets). It used to drive me insane!

I tried everything - from 'hiding' the meat in meals through to outright bribery but nothing worked. He is also not keen on things like lentils or other protein foods, so replacing meat with those was not an option.

Now i just have a supply of rissoles, sausages etc in the freezer in individual portions. If we are having something I know he will not eat (like steak or chops) I just cook him up a rissole or sausage and he has that with whatever vegetables we are eating. For nights when we have casserole or similar I have a few individual portions of things like spag bol frozen in the freezer for him. I have found this is the easiest way around it for him and for me - mealtimes were becoming a battlefield and it was just not worth it!

For him it is a texture thing - he just finds the texture of meat unbearable, whereas things like mince have a different texture and he can tolerate that.