Europeans, Kids and Food
 

I am an American that believes that my 2 1/2 year old child should eat everything from cherrios to lobster, spicy and sweet. We take her to Vietnamese, Thai and Indian restaurants and she eats just about anything we put in front of her instead of just peanut butter, hot dogs and oreos.

I am curious to what Europeans and other folks around the world feed their kids?

Tango, my daughter, who is now a married woman and a mother of two ate what was put on the table. Pasta, meat,fish, seafood, vegtables including salads, different potato dishes, soups etc. anything really. American food, Italian food, Mexican food, various Asian foods. Anything.

I think that you and I think alike. Prepare the dinner or choose the restaurant and that is the food for the night. It is amazing how little ones can fit in quite easily with what is being served if they are not catered to. BTW, I have lived all my life in California.

I think it's a good idea, however, my brother will not eat anything with vinegar or shell fish, and so many other things that I always wondered if my mom was caring on with the milkman.

carring on...sorry

Good grief Mimi, LOL! @-)

In Italy, you rarely see "children's menus" in restaurants - kids are expected to eat what their parents eat (including wine, with parents' approval, from age 10 or so). You can ask for a half portion in most restaurants.

On the other hand, many Italian adults are conservative eaters, and are wary of anything exotic or spicy. Their kids naturally follow.

best regards,
Deirdré Straughan

http://www.straughan.com

I have two kids, with the same parents. One is an adventurous eater, and one is cautious and has very limited likes. This reflects their general temperaments too. Both are great kids.

At that age, my nephew went through a phase of eating nothing but mashed potatoes and mustard pickle. Since he's now a happily-married six-footer, I assume his parents' indulgence hasn't harmed him.

I suspect there may be some substantial national differences about this, and particularly about the age at which children are brought into adult eating habits - particularly about sitting up late in, say, France and Spain.

I'm 40-something and brought up in England to eat anything that was put in front of me. I've brought up my own (now grown up) kids to do the same and now they are 2 healthy adults, who both (son and daughter) can cook nutritious and tasty meals. As my father was Czech, we always had something of a European influence to our meals and over the years have deleloped even more exotic tastes, as a wider range of foods became available.

In many (but not all) cases it is the parents fussy attitude that is passed on to the child.

This thread got me thinking. I have a relative who married a girl from a Russian family. She basically cooks Russian food as does all her family. The two little ones eat everything. I can hardly swallow it (shame on me). I notice when the children eat with me they do not like my food which is always American/California style or Italian.