Food Ideas for My 5 Years Old Daughter

I make the same dinner for my whole family. My son can "take it or leave it." If he leaves it he gets nothing more to eat until the next meal and doesn't get to choose what to eat until after he eats what I have chosen.

I think the first thing you should try is not making separate meals for her especially at dinner time. It becomes a bad habit and doesnt allow her to try new things. Remember when we couldnt get up from the table until we ate dinner regardless of how green it was? lol Maybe not that harsh, but she needs to start...baby steps!

I am not clear if you are preparing separated foods for her. In my house dinner is served and that is what's available for dinner. We eat family style where the plates of food are in the center of the table. When the kids were little we would put a small amount of everything on their plate. They needed to eat most of it. They would often ask am I done? If they ate little I told them they had to eat xx amount (which was equal to their age). If they didn't want to eat any more, that was fine but there was nothing else to eat after dinner. At five she would be old enough to put the food on her own plate. In general I expect then to eat what they took. Often there is some encouragement to take & eat the vegetables. I read somewhere that on average it takes 10 times of presenting a food to a child before they will accept it. I always encourage a bit of a new food. I grew up being forced to eat foods I don't like and you had to finish everything on your plate that someone else put there. I want my kids to take the amount of food they want to eat and not be forced to finish everything on your plate. American plates & portions are too big. One the other hand if you don't eat enough dinner, than you can't snack on things later.

My suggestion is this. It worked beautifully with my son and he now enjoys a wide range of foods (including vegetables) and will try everything new and different. Prepare the family meal. If your daughter balks at anything you have served, tell her it is up to her to eat it or not, but if she choses not to eat it there will be NOTHING to eat until the next meal is served. It will take some vigilance on your part to make sure she doesn't eat anything until the next meal, but I bet within a short time she will start eating what you have served. By the way, she won't starve herself.

Good luck,
N.

will she eat chicken nuggets.Or sometimes my friend would give her kids some shrimp and tell them it is chicken.

My daughter loves making egg salad sandwiches and tuna sandwiches. She also loves guacamole and "brothy" soup. Any kind of pasta is fine with her (like mother, like daughter), and she loves salmon, roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, rice, and quinoa. What I would suggest is checking out the website www.allrecipes.com to get some fresh, new ideas and signing up for their free weekly recipes. Serve your daughter whatever you and your husband are eating --- one recipe for all; after all, you are not a restaurant -- and she will eventually adapt.

Hope this helps.

Check out weelicious.com there are healthy recipes for newborn to adulthood with the focus on having 1 meal for the family - so they are kid friendly.

Hello Again Veza,
Again as the mom of 5 and the grandmother of several. I made it a point to NOT COOK the things that they would only eat. They became apart of the reward system. I would have each child help with themenu planning and they each got to pick a food for the week they wanted. We did this every Monday night until they left home! Now what I do is have Nana parties, and we cook together-- a lot of mess but thats the easy part to do. We have a rule that it can't be one of thier favorites and we make enough to take home . We have managed Thi BBQ chicken, Sweet and Sour chick, Simple rice and Tofu( took me a long timefor that one)~~ the surprize forthem was that when you cook with eggplant you don't need meat in the dish and we have made some fun dishes with it. So consider trying one of these ideas. Always remember she will only do what you allow and cave into. I have not see a child of mine starve and be hungry becasue they refused to eat what was prepared and if they did refuse they still had to sit at the table and talk and interact with the family while we ate~~ they were never allowed to pout in thier rooms or have something later. I'm not a guilt trip mom. Good Luck

I have a 4 year old that sounds just like your daughter! She loves fruit so I offer it to her at every meal, she likes spaghettios and those have a serving of veggies. She loves deli salami and crackers with cut up cheese so she eats that alot for lunch. My daughter likes nachos, not the best thing she could eat but not the worst. I give her baked chips and 2% cheese with light sour cream. She also likes wraps and quesadillas. Basically almost anything that is a finger food she will eat! She also likes ranch on everything! She eats her hotdogs with ranch, whether its on a bun or cut up on her plate! If she likes pastas my kids like tomatoe soup and elbow macaroni mixed up with parmsean cheese on top. Its actually pretty good for a quick lunch! Just keep offering her options and trying different things Good luck!