Sugestions/Thoughts on my Lunch Menu

[Brooke91]

Also how do you guys go about serving the food start with the fruit and veggies then when they're done the meet? Or all at once, if they don't finish it should they be eating it for snack? Or what ever the snack is for that day.. I have a feeling that some of the kids will leave half the food on the plate because they think they don't like it without even trying it first.. How should I go about dealing with that?

[cfred]

In my experience, kids are only as picky as they're allowed to be. I've had a few, but one little girl sticks out in my mind. Her list of likes included pasta, hot dogs, cereal and maybe 1 or 2 more things. LOL! That's NOT happening here! By the time she left my daycare, she was eating everything I served. Everything. This included meals such as grilled fish and some grilled (not breaded) calamari at a restaurant. I let the banana bread go with her as I did have to clean up vomit once (texture thing), so that's legitimate.

Serve the foods you want to serve. I don't care how 'picky' kids are. They're not going to starve to death. If they don't want to eat it at lunch, they get it back for snack. They must (MUST) try everything on their plates. If it doesn't make them gag and barf, it's edible. If they spit it out, I'm there to put it right back in. If they throw it on the floor, there's more in the kitchen. On the kinder side of the coin, I do a LOT of positive reinforcement surrounding eating. I applaud the children and yell hurray throwing my arms in the air when they try something they were resistant to. Wanting the accolades again, they continue eating (usually) and the others do as well, wanting in on the action.

When it comes to food, I'm a complete hard ass about it. So far as I can see, children being too picky to eat that many things is absolute BS. It's simply bad habits and over accommodating parenting. I've never had a child that stayed "picky" in my care.