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Re: NPCER: Why do all kids menus suck ass?
This is true for purees, too. I remember PTS completely rejected the purees and I though, well sh!t, what am I going to do with my underweight infant who won't eat solids. Turned out she would eat hummus and guac by the spoonful. I told our cardiologist about it and she said that in the UK, the purees are much more flavorful than here. They have tandori chicken and tikka masala. There's an organic purees company that I can't remember the name of that has a "gourmet" line that includes things like "Chicken apple compote" and "Mango chicken curry." It's $1.19 a jar, but K loves that stuff. But the typical Gerber purees, I was looking at the other day to see if they'd come out with their own gourmet line to compete and they haven't. Their purees are still "macaroni and cheese", "turkey and corn." I mean, I barely like that sh!t as a solid with lots of butter and salt.
Anyway, yeah, kids like flavor on account of kids being people.
I looked at the link curly posted, yeah that is not that typical here. They do have the typical "kid" options but there are generally 2-3 other options of grilled chicken / steak or maybe fish w/ veggies that they characterize as their healthier options and most italian restaurants have pasta options.
In general though, DS is so unpredictable (unless it is breakfast in which case he could probably eat an adult portion of pancakes) that it is not economical for us to order a meal just for him. In addition he is much more likely to eat something that is the same as what we are eating.
i'm just sad to see a lot of grilled cheese hate in this thread. grilled cheese is awesome.
anyway, my kid will eat lots of non-kid menu stuff so i order her non-kid menu stuff. lots LOTS of places will bring you a half order of pretty much anything.
and sometimes i order her a grilled cheese. holla.
But that's because that's what we're giving them.
DD stayed with my sister for the first 15 months of her life and then went to a daycare with a good menu (home cooked meals full of flavor). She loved veggies and all sorts of foods. At 18 months we had to switch her daycare b/c of $ and the place serves hot dogs and chicken nuggets on the regular. "Toddler food". Now she barely touches anything that isn't bland crap.
If we don't offer this crap to our kids, they won't know they like it and grow up healthier b/c of it. But we do, b/c it's cheap and easy.
One of the things I liked about our day care was that their menu - relatively speaking - is fairly healthy. Their snacks are generally fruit or some kind of thing that essentially amounts to trail mix. They don't serve dessert with any of the meals. Breakfast is usually something like cold cereal unsugared, oatmeal, once a week they have either pancakes or waffles... It's pretty healthy. The school that PTS is going to next year has a completely organic and locally grown lunch program. Before people decide to roll their eyes about how not everyone has the money for that, the cost is $.30 more a meal than the regular lunch program which is also offered at that school. Most, not all, but MOST people can afford that.
I know Sprout baby food has different flavor options. I bought tons of it for Scarlett on amazon (subscribe & save/amazon mom discount) for so cheap when we did purees with her. I had a bunch left over so I gave them to a friend of ours - we mostly move to table food really quickly.
Anyway, lots of places we go have reasonable kid menu options, but we also will order entrees w/ extra sides/apps and split with the kids. Or have the two of them split something.
I do think that the idea that kids won't eat anything is weirdly perpetuated by restaurants and kids menus, though, and I can see the annoyance there.
Finally, one of my friends has a grilled cheese restaurant by her house and I am so jealous. I would eat there all the time. Grilled cheese is the best.
I knew this thread would go there.
There are things my son would eat every single day. And one day he would just suddenly refuse it. Not because there was some other unhealthy option, but because that is not unusual in kids. Unless my ped was lying to me, going through phases with food is typical.
At that age, I ordered L an appetizer. Usually hummus with veggies and pita. She still to this day will not eat Kraft mac&cheese.
Now, she usually asks for a grilled cheese with vegetables. Even the restaurants that don't have kid menus will accommodate usually.
Indeed, it is! Now I wish there were some place I could get a grilled cheese sammich for lunch. Mmm, grilled cheese.
This is true. My parents were hippies and did not let us eat at lot of processed foods. As a consequence I did not like it. The list of foods I wouldn't eat as a kid included:
Oreos
American Cheese
Spaghettios
White bread (texture bothered me)
Soft serve ice cream (texture)
Anything from Taco Bell
Anything from KFC
Most of these things are foods I started to like during college when I was poor and couldn't afford good food, so had to develop a taste for them.
jlt - B's daycare menu is actually pretty healthy. The only thing I won't let him have off it is the fruit juices (i'm of the mindset that if he needs a fruit serving just feed him actual fruit). They occasionally have pizza day, but that's maybe twice a month.
I've gotten side-eyed by servers for ordering off the main menu for B. We went out for Mexican last Friday... H and I ordered our food and the server walked away. I had to call her back to take B's order. She was all like "Uh, I thought he'd just eat part of yours." And then handed me a kid menu, which was fish fry, burgers, etc. And then when I was like "He'll have a chicken taco with a flour tortilla." she got all weirded out.
This clearly must be a regional thing. *shakes fist at WI*
We do occasionally get B grilled cheeses. I have nothing against them. But, depending what he's already eaten that day (see: pizza day at daycare), it may be more appropriate to have some grilled chicken with broccoli. KWIM? Child won't touch mac n cheese though, even fancy-shmancy mac.
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No No, I completely agree with you. It can be hard sometimes, because no matter what we feed DD at home, she might get crap from other sources (relatives ect.) Luckily, DD loves her fruit, veggies and most of what we give her.
I get the feeling this thread is about to blow up.
Surely you all realize kids aren't fat because they're eating pizza and chicken nuggets at restaurants here and there, yes?
Nor are they getting fat because they're eating cheezits at day care.
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Okay, I have 2 thoughts.
If going out for dinner is a treat, then let the kids have a treat. In this case, chicken fingers and fries or a burger. You're treating yourself to beer and probably an appetizer and a nice entree - certainly a little more of a treat than a dinner at home.
But I have a sinking feeling that the mindset is more that kids are picky because their parents let them eat nothing but pizza and fries, and therefore they won't eat kid-sized portions of vegetables or anything "weird" like salmon. :-/ When I was a kid my cousin's mom would make him a grilled cheese if he didn't like anything they were eating - she would go as far as to ask restaurants to just make him a grilled cheese. My own mother was kind of appalled by this, because we ate what we were served, or we didn't eat. But 20+ years ago, I guess catering to kids like that was rare, and now I think it's more common than not.
40/112
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My kids are totes fat b/c of eating out at restaurants. Even though we only eat out at most, once per week.
Actually, my kids aren't fat at all, but I do seriously worry about what kind of relationship they will have with food b/c like their parents were at their age, they are skinny and can eat anything and it won't stick. MH has no problem keeping weight off, but for me it is a huge struggle and concern. Mostly because I have terrible eating habits, but I am very cognizant of trying to keep from passing those habits onto them and I am working on them. One day, I woke up, and realized I couldn't eat funyuns, orange cupcakes and a dr. pepper for breakfast after eating cheese bread at 4am and drinking beer all night long. Sad day...
My parents tried really hard to get me to eat healthy, and my siblings were better about it. I was just super stubborn and, well, phobic about foods.
if we encounter a bad kids menu, we order him an adult meal and ask them to pack half of it up in a take away before they serve and then feed it the next day as well.
Additionally, if you ask, they often are willing to sub steamed veggies for a fried side (like if it says fries, you can ask for steamed veggies that they have) or fruit.
Anyways-- yes, while it sucks, you also can order some kids favorites as healthier... like pizza. I have ordered it with no cheese and added chopped mixed veggies and then ask them to add a touch of shaker cheese (like parm) on it after. that is how my family eats pizza anyways (we don't like the high cal/high fat mozz cheese explosion). Anyways-- almost any pizza place will do this if you ask. It is cheaper for them and does not take any extra effort.
More evidence I live in a bubble... I honestly don't know anyone that feeds their kids "crap". In my circle you would be side-eyed for feeding your kid ice cream or chocolate chip cookies every day. Most of the moms I know are crazy on the organic, showing off that their kid will eat Indian, does not like typical kids stuff bandwagon... I find that exhausting myself.
My favorite brunch place offers grilled PB&Js on the brunch kiddie menu. I'm dying to give that a whirl at home.
Grilled cheese restaurants. JUST SAYIN.
would that not be heaven? I might look into opening one here in Rocky Top.
Can I just complain about this for a minute?
first off, I always thought the problem was "hearing" kids being loud and obnoxious, that well behaved (read: quiet) kids were OK... now, apparently, the problem is seeing kids when out on a date?
There's a big swath of restaurants between those that pretty much serve burgers and chicken nuggets to both kids AND adults and those that charge $200 a plate for some humanely raised somethingsomething.
If you're saying that you don't ever want to "see" kids in restaurants that serve foods other than burgers and nuggets...well...
Maybe I live in a very child-centric world, but the vast majority of restaurants, even those that wouldn't dream of serving nuggets to adults, have kids' menus. Our kids go out to all kinds of places, with the big exception of spendy, very nice (what I would consider to be "fine dining") restaurants.
If you can't get out for under, say, $100 a couple, then, yes, the only kids in there should be exceptionally well behaved. But as a child, I was really into "fine dining", and my parents would take us to really nice, very grown up places for special events (like for birthdays). We were dressed up and had very high expectations on our behavior. And we met those expectations.
/rant
As far as what we do... our kids are little, and kind of hard to control at this age. We do breakfast out probably as our most common meal out.... at breakfast places, which are almost always loud and coocoo, so it works well with kid energy. Dinners out are often ethnic (pho and authentic-Chinese-in-Chinatown are big favorites), so no nuggets on the menu there, either.
I am the 99%.
It's super good. I may or may not have a panini press. Also good is peanut butter and chocolate.
H has a co-worker who did a "proud pappa" FB post the day his child ate an entire Big Mac value meal by themselves.
Child in question was 2.
They do exist. Trust.
And, yes, I know that kids aren't getting fat because of the occasional treat. But would it kill restaurants like the one I linked to to include a grilled chicken sandwich or whatever on their kid's menu? They've got healthy kid sides, like fruit or applesauce....
food blog | garden blog | curly dogs blog
I don't feel bad anymore. Nae can now start eating the food they serve at the daycare and today for lunch - chicken nuggets. No thanks. I sent my kid's lunch of grilled chicken and sweet potato and squash medley. My oldest tries all kinds of veggies and foods. We're not going to start the NOOOO! I just want chicken nuggets trend here.
For the longest, my oldest wouldn't eat a hamburger. Healthy eating choices =/= eating disorder. I'll take fruit any day over a bag of chips in a box lunch. There is a local sandwich shop that I love and hate because they don't offer sides other than chips. A fruit cup ain't gonna kill you.
Because for many restaurants, the kiddie menu is a loss leader. It's rarely priced to make a profit. I guess that's not abuse as much as it's a restaurant looking at their costs.
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Preach it CDL. If you can offer up chicken fingers for kids, you can offer grilled chicken fingers for kids. Same dayum chicken, just one isn't breaded and dropped into a vat of dayum grease. And on the realz, (contrary to the popular stereotype) I don't eat fried chicken often. I prefer grilled and with my family's health history, I just try to avoid it as much as possible.