Do you make separate meals for your child?

I have a 3 year old and a 1 year old. I don't cook seperate meals for them, if they are hungry, they will eat. My three year old has to try everything on his plate, he doesn't have to eat everything, but he must try it. At least one bite. Also, we allow him to have a few sips of water/juice before he eats, and then use the rest of it for happier eating. We usually tell him, You cannot have another sip of juice/water until you take 5 more bites, then he'll count out five bites, and take his one drink. It works well for us.. as he doesn't fill up on drink and eats well that way. If he decides he doesn't want to eat what's put before him, that's fine, he doesn't have to, but he does have to stay at the table a reasonable amount of time, he's not allowed to get down and play, and he must remain respectful while he waits to be dismissed. I then take the food he did not eat, and put it in the refridgerator. I must add, I never cook things that he hates. Actually there really isn't anything that I have made yet, that he doesn't like. He's always liked what i've put in front of him, I am expecting one day for him to say that he doesn't like something, when that happens, I'll prob. cook less of it, or put less of it on his plate. And only require of him to try it, not eat it all, B/c you never know, kids taste buds change, so something they hate today, they may love tommorrow. I personally hate fish, but I will try it, and if I were served it in someone's home, I would eat it out of respect. If my son is hungry later, it will be there for him. Also, if he does not eat dinner, he's not allowed snacks at all. It really has changed the way he eats. The one year old isn't quite old enough to understand all that yet. but we do similiar things with him. If he doesn't eat it.. he's prob. just not hungry yet, so we save it for later.

Well,I always made seperate food for my children when they were small,now they are grown up so they eat normal food and also sometimes they don't like the meal.Then they take those food which I make delicious and serve them,which they eat cooly without grumbling.

Hello maapav. My son has ADHD, when it comes to the food thing, he do not like every thing that are made. So to prevent making more than one meal I do meals that we both eat. He want his things on a plate so he can see what it is. I do the meal and put a sauce beside for my self. sometimes I do give him something he like and I make something els for me, otherwise it would be boring for me.

my son is six years old and hes always been such a fussy eater, even when he was on baby foods it was so hard to find something that he would eat. He won;t eat anything that has any gravies or sauces on them. No cooked veggies, and I swear hes gonna turn into a piece of chicken. It has just become part of my regular dinner routine to basically make my little man a separate dinner. He'll usually eat the meat I make but than I'll have to give him uncooked carrots or uncooked celery for his veggie, and than usually he likes plain pasta with it. It use to be sort of a pain to do so much extra work but like I said now its just part of the whole dinner routine.

My parents made me go hungry. My mother cooked one meal. If we didn't like it, we didn't eat. She didn't cook off the wall things such as broccoli and kipper snacks, but if we didn't like it, we didn't eat. Simple as that. She didn't have time to make meals for each of us. She made one meal. That was it. It taught us to taste other foods that we don't normally like or wouldn't consider liking. If we got caught snacking, we got into trouble.

we normally make meals are boys like. but their are times that we will fix a meal that they do not like everything. But they still have to eat the meal that i fix. They seem ok with this. It just takes a long time for the youngest child to eat his dinner. because he would rather talk then to eat.

Hi maapav, My kids are 10, 8 and 5 years old and with all of them we had the issue of "I don't like it...". Well, normally I can tell, when they really don't like something, or they just play their "game". The oldest is ok now, and I trust her, when she tells me, what she likes and what not. My boy in the middle doesn't play up too often anymore. Only the little one still keeps trying, so I do with her, what worked for the others. If it's something new, she tries it usually when I cook and she is helping and I see right away, if she likes it. I found, the more involved with the cooking my kids were, the more they liked their food. Even broccoli & spinach! When she plays up, she can have a sandwich instead but no special treats. If she plays the "I'm really not hungry" - card, she stays with us at the table until everyone is finished and about half an hour before bed-time I ask her again to eat her meal (sometimes by then she already came back to her plate and finished her tea). Hunger is the best cook! Only twice she had to go to bed hungry, because she tried to stretch her bed-time out as much as possible and when it was time to go to bed: "I aaaam soooo hungry!!!" Yes, poor you, than you will love your breakfast in the morning...! We didn't need to do this more than twice for the other two too, so this worked for us. However, Daniel (the now 8 year old one) was a bit older when he still tried to muck around, so he was able to make his own sandwich instead of having the cooked meal. He always knows his alternative now and seems to be quite happy with our cooking lol. But getting them involved with the cooking was the best we could do. They even nibble raw beans, carrots, onions and even potatoes... while we are preparing our food. Good to see :-)