Who says that kids will only eat burgers??

[Milims]

I do wonder about the claims by schools, caterers and parents that children will only eat burgers and chips etc. Recently, owing to the thing about how much fat there is in crisps I have replaced the packed lunch packet with pop corn, freshly made and costing only about £1 for a kilo of popping corn from the local chinese supermarket. After the first day my kids came back and asked if I could make extra packs for them as their mates wanted to buy it from them!! Similarly this week I have given them a small packet of hawthorn sweets for break time- chinese supermarket again - and they came home asking for more as their friends wanted some. Ok, I know that these things are in effect sweeties but it seems to me that kids aren't as closed minded about food as they are portrayed to be - I think instead its the grown ups!! I know on one occasion my daughter was happily munching on a pack of seeds and nuts from her lunch pack and a teacher asked (apparently in a sarcastic manner) if she was eating bird food!!
My daughter refuses to eat burgers and sausages - she simply hates them and when she was on school dinners she always opted for the salad rather than chips.
I was also horrified at the news story about the school who was trying to promote healthy eating only to have parents passing fish and chips thru the school gates. It horrifies me that there are parents who will actively discourage children from trying anything new - I can't stop my two from doing it!!
I agree that there are some foods that you just don't like, and thats fine - but how do you know until you try them??

What do you all think?

Helen and Chris

[red]

I had one of those proud moments. we home educate, so my 13 year old is at home for lunch. the day there was no home made soup was the day I got a 'oooooh its so unfair'
How cool is that.

and yes.. I pander to his teenager needs and make sure there is always a batch of homemade soup full of vegetables and all round goodness. guess I spoil him huh.?

[cir3ngirl]

I asked my younger sister what she thought about parents handing fish and chip to school pupils when healthy meals were in the school. "I don't blame them" she then said that portion size of lasagne had gone down in size by half but meat content by a third. She a teacher not a pupil and only has lunch when doing lunchtime supervision.

My own children at the moment are loving kale and like nothing more than a trip to our local organic farm shop. My proud moment happened the other day as both boys were playing on a cbeebies game. They were building their own town and when offered a hot dog stand they said "no were not having that its not healthy".

[2steps]

my two eat well too :) of course they rarely say no to some crisps or a buscuit but they eat so well I don't worry about that too much. they both have always been big fruit eaters but so am I I'm not a mssive vegtable fan but can eat a pound of grapes no problem mmmm my youngest brother is a very fussy eater but he doesn't like stuff like chips and burgers. his favorite meal is chilli

[jondy]

Kids don't give new foods a chance, they decided on sight if they like it, or not. Disguise what you have for them. I am no cook but a home made burger with decent stuff including veg., will appeal. My daughter would not eat much in the way of veg. She still does'nt eat much in the way of veg. I baked some parsnips one time and cut them to look like chunks of potato, I told her they were simply sweet potatoes. She tasted them and liked them. After that it was a question of do you want sweet potatoes with that, answer yes.

John

[shiney]

As far as I'm concerned it's down to the parents to feed their children good food. Saying they won't eat 'such and such' is totally down to them not feeding their children healthy meals in the first place. Their excuse is that fresh fruit, veg and healthy food is expensive to buy. That's total pants. It's just that they can't be bothered to make something from scratch. It's not rocket science is it?

My kids do eat burgers...my homemade burgers and chips are an occasional treat.

We have a freshly cooked meal everyday with whatever is in the organic veg box.

Both my children have school dinners and love the new menus.

[zombiecazz]

Did you listen to the news the other when they commenting on the fact that they think that the Change is not going to work as the amount of kids eating the healthy foods in schools have dropped and more are now taking packed lunch.
It's a shame that this is being reported in this way. How do they expect year of bad eating to just change like that. There has to be a culture shift and this will be slow, that doesn't mean it should stop.
What needs to happen now, are healthy food preparation classes for the parents. If kids get it from home and school, they will eventually change.

[2steps]

Totally agree shiney. who does the shopping? that's the person withthe power to make the choses. your the one buying it, if it's not in the house they can't eat it and no child will starve themselves. If people had that attitude from the start the problem wouldn't start anyway. I do think that children get so used to the sweet, additivy taste of processed foods that they do truely dislike 'real' food whereas those brought up eating normally dislike the over sweet, fake taste of proccessed foods. And yep, I agree it is infact cheaper often to cook from scratch than buy things ready made. It comes down to laziness or being to busy doing other things - what could be more important than feeding your children well?