The (picky) child ate tonkatsu!

[eyesroll]

I made tonkatsu, sweet potato fries and garden veggie salad (every single item other than the oil and vinegar and salt was from our garden!) for dinner tonight...and Kiddo actually ate the katsu!

OK, so I told her it was like chicken strips. But that's not inaccurate -- it's "like" chicken strips, except it uses pork instead of chicken and panko instead of western breading. (That's all it was, too -- thin pieces of pork, dipped in egg, rolled in panko, pan-fried.)

But she ate it! :bounce:

[NMDemDist2]

1. excellent, maybe she'll be more inclined to try new things now? n/t

[eyesroll]

2. I think for her it's about packaging...

If we call something "katsu," she won't touch it.
If we call something "like chicken fingers," she will.

Same with meatballs -- she'll eat just about anything meatball-shaped.

But maybe, just maybe, she's close to outgrowing the picky phase. (She was an omnivore until she was about 2 1/2, and then just stopped eating everything except the usual kid staples.)

[NMDemDist2]

3. is it the TV she watches?

advertising is so insidious esp on "children's" programing

but call it whatever if she'll eat it :rofl:

[eyesroll]

4. If it's TV-influenced, it's not here.

We zoom through the commercials...in fact, if she's watching without us, she'll holler and ask one of us to fast-forward. She doesn't watch a ton of TV here. (Can't say for certain what she watches at her mom's.)

But you may have a point...peer influence at the preschool probably has something to do with it, too.

I convinced her once that new potatoes fried in olive oil (Spanish-style) were just round french fries. I don't think she'll go for that again.

[politicat]

5. How old is she?

There's a known picky stage that most children go through between about 2.5 and 5; it has almost nothing to do with peers, advertising or parental preferences; it's probably evolutionary. The idea is that the picky stage allows children who are old enough to venture away from the "cave" to only eat food that is likely to be safe for them. (There's another picky stage that seems to happen around puberty that may be connected with the fact that hormonal changes screw up taste and smell, so people have to relearn what is safe to eat.) The toddler-preschool picky stage seems to be totally geared towards children learning what in their environment is safe to eat, and giving them a grounding in foods they need to have to survive. Since that is also a high growth stage, the need for carbs and fats is a bit higher than in other stages of life, so kids tend to pick foods that provide them their caloric requirements.

The only bad thing about that picky stage is that once the child is through it, continuing to let the child choose not to eat a variety of foods will pretty much ensure that the child won't develop a taste appropriate palate.

(Of course, this is highly simplified, but hey, this is a message board, not my thesis committee.)

[eyesroll]

6. Aha! She's almost four.

And that makes total sense. (They didn't go into diet in my child-development classes -- those were geared toward classroom teaching.)

I never went through much of the picky stage myself (although my sister did). But my parents continued to offer a variety of foods to both of us, and eventually we developed broad palates. We hope to do the same thing with kiddo.

I can see the advertising/peer stuff coming through, though, when we're at the grocery store (and she mentions a jingle or that her friend Kate has Froot Loops and she wants some). I don't know how that translates into actual taste, though -- her out-of-the-picky-stage friend Ruby (age six) eats just about everything, and kiddo won't imitate her lead.

[Tab]

7. Beware the sugar monster

The majority of kid's foods today have sugar, and not just natural sugar but this high-fructose corn syrup crap, which is both highly sugary, and physically unhealthy as well. We're raising a nation of diabetics.

Kids respond very well to sugar, a fact the food industry figured out long ago. For a while it was okay, market-wise, but eventually those kids grew up and didn't want the same for their kids. "Sugar Pops" cereal is now sold as "Corn Pops". Imagine that! It's still the same shit, different name.

Anyway, my point is, as a parent, is that the only way to succeed is to not allow them to have sugary foods on anything remotely approaching a regular basis. Once you do, you can't turn them back.

So, you can pull this off until they're about 6 or 7, but after that, it get damned difficult.

Case in point: My son, now 10, grew up loving peanut butter. But what he ate was natural, unsweetened peanut butter.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the line, he got introduced to peanut butter like Skippy which has added sugar. He never would accept natural peanut butter again.

Ultimately, if exposed to enough foods with sugar, they always have one of them as an option, and reject healthier foods. The only approach, I believe, is to defer for as long as possible, exposure to the more industrial foods.

That said, I've found that if they ask for a snack, and you bring out a plate (or offer them a choice) of banana, apple, cucumber, cheese, and strawberries (or whatever), they'll choose. If it's an open-ended offer ("What do you want for a snack?") you're just asking for trouble.

- Tab

[eyesroll]

8. We do the natural peanut butter, and whole-wheat bread, too.

I don't even like the sugared peanut butter, especially if I'm eating it with jelly or a banana -- who needs all that sweetness?

We avoid HFCS as much as possible; treats are usually from independent bakeries or our kitchen, not from packages. We don't keep packaged cookies or candy in the house unless someone brings it as a gift, in fact.

And we've found the exact same trouble with "what do you want to eat?" We've found: "I'm hungry!" "Would you like some yogurt?" "Yes." to work. She'll take what she's offered unless she's contrary (and then, she probably isn't hungry, just fussy or bored).

[eleny]

9. Thanks for this thread

Embarrassed to admit I didn't know about panko crumbs. But I do now! I picked up a box at the grocery today. I hope to find some oven-fry recipes for using it. It's going to be great getting that lovely crispy texture.

Edit: I found an oven fry recipe using panko:
Oven Fried Green Tomatoes
3 large green tomatoes
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (preferably Panko)
1 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup buttermilk



Turn on your broiler and place oven rack about 4 inchs away. Grease a baking sheet with cooking spray.
Slice tomatoes into 1/4 inch thick slices.
Whisk together flour, cornmeal, breadcrumbs, and spices. Pour into a flat, shallow dish. Whisk together egg and buttermilk in a small bowl.
Dip tomato slices in egg mixture and then dredge in cornmeal mixture. Lay tomato slices onto baking sheet and spray lightly with vegetable oil.
Bake for 4 minutes, or until lightly browned. Flip and bake an additional 3-4 minutes, until browned.
Serve immediately with ranch dressing or salsa and sour cream.