If you’re the frustrated mum of a broccoli dodger, a tempestuous mini food critic or a diminutive diner with distaste for variety – there is hope.
Annabel Karmel, the UK’s number one children’s cookery author and one of the most trusted nutritional experts for mums, has launched her supermarket frozen food range – aka by Annabel Karmel – in Australia. Kidspot sat down with Annabel and quizzed her on the best solutions for weary mums of tiny, fussy eaters.
How many times do you advise presenting foods to fussy eating babies or toddlers before success happens?
It’s a difficult one. You should try three times and if you’re not having success, leave a gap and try again sometime down the track.
You also have to respect children have dislikes just as we do. I don’t like beetroot and it doesn’t matter how many times you give me beetroot – I’m not going to love it! However if you fry beetroot – lightly – I do like it.
So try different ways of cooking a certain food to see if they like it that way. There are many different ways of cooking and presenting food. Don’t keep trying to give children the same thing again if they’ve made it clear they don’t like it.
My 2.5 year old gets ‘hooked’ on certain foods – wanting them over and over – until the next favourite food tickles her fancy. How do you break the ‘same-same’ cycle?
Children can get stuck in a rut and that’s quite bad. The problem is, we give into them. We can sometimes lose the will to live when they get quite fussy and we give them what they want and it tends to be a very narrow range.
It’s better if they don’t eat a meal you’ve put in front of them (because they want something else) than constantly giving them the same things over and over because they’re not getting the nutrition they need.
Children need variety. It is difficult but sometimes you’ve got to let them be hungry. Very often we don’t let our children get hungry, we’re always giving them ‘something’ and it’s not always healthy.
Should you offer children a ‘choice’ for dinner?
Yes, I think you should give them a choice. The good thing about my range is there is such a lot of choice – you can give them so much to experiment with – without having spent hours in the kitchen making it.
So you’re also not as ‘put out’ if they don’t eat it. Then you find out the ones they do like and you can build from there.
How important is presentation with food for children?
It’s very important. It does make a difference. Children do eat with their eyes. It’s worth going to a little effort to make things look good.
Fish pie in a little container always looks much more appetising than a dollop of fish pie on a plate.
Threading pieces of fruit onto a straw so they’ve got little bite-sized pieces will always get eaten rather than fruit sitting in a fruit bowl.
Many mums (and dads) are time poor – dashing from work to pick up children, heading home to feed, bath and put them to bed. The end of the day can be a nightmare. How can you make this time of day easier with fewer tantrums?
Have healthy prepared snacks sitting in your fridge ready. When your child comes home, sometimes you miss the window of opportunity of when they’re hungry.
If you give them a biscuit or a packet of crisps to keep them quiet whilst you get their dinner ready, you miss the time where they might actually eat something good and healthy.
A hungry child is a less fussy child. A small container of pasta salad, raw vegetables and dip or a wrap in the fridge ready to go is perfect because they don’t want to wait.
It doesn’t matter if they’re eating their dinner at 4.30pm or whatever time they come home, it matters that they’re eating the right food. If they fill up on snacks, they’re not going to eat dinner.
Of course, my range really helps. It’s in your freezer and you whip it out, put it in the microwave and in a few minutes, you do have a quality, nutritious meal.
At what age do you advise getting kids involved in the cooking process?
From early on they can stir things in bowls; cut out cookie shapes or make cupcakes; they can mash potatoes. Get children involved around three years old. When children learn to cook they tend to be more interested in food and often will eat something more readily if they’ve had a hand in preparing it.
When my children were around five and six, they made supper on Fridays. I would chop everything up for them but they would actually make dinner and they loved that. The responsibility of being a part of the adult world was amazing.
Every Friday they would cook something different and they learnt how to cook.
Do you think it’s helpful to get children involved in the shopping for food or growing of food too?
Yes I do. When you go to the supermarket – and your children want a treat – tell them they must choose six healthy things for the trolley before they can choose a treat. It helps them to distinguish between treats and healthy.
I am not a purist. Treats are part of everyday life. If you ban them, children will find them even more enticing.
Kids will love helping you make these nutritious Mice in Jackets.
How do we tackle childhood obesity? Where are some families going wrong?
Unfortunately – for some families – fast food has become an every day food. It’s OK to have McDonald’s, chicken nuggets or pizza occasionally. But everyday is not on. Those foods are high in salt and saturated fat. Then there are the ‘hidden’ things like certain breakfast cereals, some fruit smoothies – they all add to the sugar intake your child is eating.
If you make foods yourself from quality ingredients – you will see a difference.
It is also about training your child. If they eat salty hamburgers, salty chicken nuggets or salty pizzas – you try to give them something that isn’t high in salt, they won’t like it. It will taste strange to them and it is difficult to fix. So the best thing is to not let them get into those foods every day.
Healthy food can taste just as good as treats. My kids would get home from school and would want to eat salad because my dressings were so good. They were not interested in things like crisps because I made them delicious, healthy food. And you can too.
Tell me about your supermarket food range you’re about to launch here…
I’ve always felt baby food is potentially older than your baby by the time your baby eats it. Most commercial baby foods have a shelf life for a year! So my dream was to do a range of frozen baby food, locking in all the goodness.
When you give babies food, you’re training them and if you give them lots of variety when they’re young, they tend to be not so fussy when they’re older.
Blueberry, banana and pear puree, from Annabel’s frozen baby food range.
Your three children are now 25, 23 and 22. Do any foods in the range hail back to favourites of theirs?
There are so many of them. My inspiration has always been my kids. My chicken, apple and pumpkin puree was one of my children’s favourite and the salmon and hoki with orange, they loved that! My fish pie has always been popular too.
When my son was little, he wouldn’t eat chicken so I made these little chicken and apple bites from minced chicken, grated apple and thyme, rolled in breadcrumbs – they’re really delicious and they’re finger food for kids, which is perfect because they become independent and they want to feed themselves.
We recently had a Hepatitis A scare linked to frozen raspberries – which has made many consumers question where their food is sourced and made – where does your range source ingredients from and where is it made?
Absolutely everything is locally produced. Everything has been carefully sourced because it is for children and you want to be 100 percent sure of where it comes from.
Can you share some of your top tips for feeding babies 12 months-to-two years?
- Finger foods are great to keep your little ones entertained while you prepare their lunch or dinner. Give them a lightly steamed carrot stick, toast finger or a homemade fish finger.
- Pack in veggies to your dishes. If you chop them up really fine then children are unable to pick out what they can’t see. Hidden veggies are a great way to ensure children get their five-a-day.
- Get the kids involved in the cooking and preparing of food. Kids are much more likely to eat what they have cooked/helped with, so let them put their own toppings on toast or a pizza and get them involved in making homemade muffins.
- Without going to unnecessary lengths, try to make your child’s food not only taste good but look good too. Make mini portions in ramekins, make chicken skewers or thread bite sized pieces of fruit onto a straw.
