Annabel Karmel Q&A

Thank you for the book. It's been packed to take with us tomorrow as it has some very nice recipes just flicking through it.

Thankyou, GNHQ. My Toddler Recipes book has just arrived. It's got some great ideas in it, all of which adults would enjoy, too. I'm giving it to my daughter, who has 20 month old twins

I saw you somewhere (can't remember if it was on television or in a book or magazine) decorating fairy cakes like fish using white chocolate buttons. I haven't been able to find a picture so I can try this out - can you help?

Hello Annabel, I grew up in the era where every meal was followed by a "proper" pudding - which has done nothing for my waistline or my sweet tooth alas. My grandchildren always have fruit for dessert which is great - but I would love some ideas for alternatives that are easy to make and still pretty healthy.

How do you explain to young children that eating too much of the wrong foods (or even too much of good stuff) is not a good thing to do. It's all very well saying that foods are healthy and unhealthy (which they have grasped admirably) but how to put across the message that if you eat more than you need you will put on weight when you don't want to use the F word (fat) or trigger issues over body image? There are major (over)weight issues in the wider family

Good questions on here! I have a few one.. What's the best way to shield children from this junk food culture we have in the UK? Is encouraging healthy eating and diverse meals at home enough?

What do you think about the meals provided at schools and nurseries? Could more be done to encourage healthy eating - or is that the parents job?

DGS's nursery give him breakfast (choice of cereal) and a slice of toast, fruit snack, lunch, snack and tea at 4pm. What is 'tea'? Sometimes it's couscous, sometimes it's spaghetti hoops on toast. Is 'tea' meant to be dinner? If so, the latter isn't enough.

Hi Annabel! There's much debate between brestfeeding/bottle feeding - does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Where do you stand?

She sounds like the perfect match for my grandson, ticktock!

A friend's daughter is 8 and she refuses to eat almost everything. She only like bland foods - plain rice, pasta with no sauce, dry toast. The only veg she eats are broccoli and spinach, and not regularly. She goes crazy for junk food.

How can you change a child's perspective on food? What's the best approach without making her push away even further?

My grandson is almost six years' old. From the moment he started weaning from the breast, he has been a difficult eater. He used to barely open his mouth, and reject most of the food offered to him. Now, it's as if someone has devised a list of bad things to eat, and they are the only foods he will accept. He insists on plain pasta, plain rice, bread without butter, will only eat a sandwich if it has jam on it. He has a high carb diet, - loves crisps, sweeties etc. no amount of cajoling, insisting or keeping him at the table has any effect. He has gone to bed hungry on many occasions, and my daughter, who has tried the most obvious things, is at her wits end. I should point out that he has two brothers - both perfectly normal eaters! Any hints / advice?

My DGS is 8 at the end of the month and has just had a growth spurt. There's not a pick of fat on him and he's always hungry.

I asked him what he had for school lunch on Friday and it was 3 fish fingers, 2 potatoes and some peas. The pudding was cake - which he doesn't like - or a piece of fruit. There is also dry bread (but only 1 slice) available. So he had gone all day on what I think is a very meagre meal for a growing child.

We never had fish fingers when I had school dinners, which were cooked on the premises and were delicious. We always had a proper pudding usually with custard. School meals these days just match up at all and I think it's a crying shame and no wonder children are overeating on sweets, crisps etc. They are not getting the right nutrition.

My 8month DGS is, so far eating, lots of tasty stuff, except DD is paranoid about too much salt. Marmite never did her any harm! mutter mutter.
He loves lentil dals and spinach, sweet potatoes. Tahini, hummous. Mind you both his parents eat just about every thing and line strong flavours.
He was enjoying some Wagamamma noodles the other day after they had been rinsed in water. We used to be a lot more careful about not giving spicy stuff than DD is. She has been eating curried stuff all the while she has been feeding him.

I don't know if there is an hereditary factor in what sort of tastes people like. My two children would just about eat anything when they were small they were very unfussy eaters indeed. DGS is nicely rounded. You could as my inlaws used to say, "just bite his bottom!"

Is there any nutritional value in fish fingers and beans at all? Where would you place them on the healthy scale - absolutely awful, neither here nor there, or healthy?

These two foods often appear on DS's nursery menu. It would be good if I could say Annabel Karmel condemns them and they should get rid

How important is baby-led weaning?

My GD aged 2 years 9 months ate such a varied diet but recently has become quite picky, declining certain fruit, veg and meat just need inspiration to persuade her to reintroduce different foods.

Annabel - Are there any tips for persuading youngsters ( 2 - 4 year olds in our case) to try something new, when they don't seem to want to try anything different?

Well, we all know that anything green is either off or poison!

Any ideas for meals that can be prepared in advance. When my GC visits he likes to wait for Gramps to come home from work before eating. Also will not try anything coloured Green any suggestions please

My 18 month old was an excellent eater but has suddenly gone off everything and says 'don't like it'. What can I entice her with? At the moment I am wasting food making up nice little dishes for her of chicken, sweet potato, broccoli etc. Luckily she is a stonker but I worry about her lack of nutrition. All she will eat is yogurts? How many are too many?

Your books are famous and deservedly so.

Hi
My grand daughters, (one is 3 in July and the other is 2 in July) both have at least two to three bottles of milk a day. Neither if them eat much at meal times. This is not a surprise to me but mum and Dad insist that milk is good for them, and of course the girls find it easier than eating. All I saw them eat when we met up for a holiday was chips, frankfurters and mash potato. I think they like chicken nuggets as well and our older grand daughter does eat quite a lot of fruit when home. Am I being unfair in wanting to suggest they drop the milk feeds?? Incidentally they live in Guyana, South America where my daughter in law comes from.
I have enjoyed making your recipes for my grand children in this counrtry! Thanks for all the good ideas!

My granddaughter is approaching 4. She has a restricted diet as she won't eat anything green, vegetables are a no-no, will only have fruit in puree form from a pouch and seems to survive on pasta, fish fingers, chicken, omlette, boiled/fried eggs, frankfurter sausages, milk, yogurt (in tubes), small portions of pizza, crackers, biscuits & cheese. That's about it. She won't try anything new even though it's offered.

Her energy levels seem quite normal but her strength/stamina seems lower.
We try and try and don't make a big issue about food, but I'd like to see her eating a more balanced diet. Help/suggestions please!

My 6-year-old grandson A is a very picky eater. His 7-year-old twin cousins T and G eat anything and everything. I think the reason is that A's mother is so concerned he eats the 'right' things that at mealtimes she constantly urges him to eat, with cajoling, persuading, pointing out how good something is for him, telling him he needs his 5 a day and so on. There are restrictions and caveats so mealtimes are almost always tension-filled and stressful, with her always watchful. I have just had him for a 5-day stay and give him good food, with things he likes and, for those he says he doesn't like, I give him very small quantities (e.g. 5 peas) and say I expect him to eat them (and he almost always does), but I don't badger him. I don't comment on what he does and doesn't eat so our mealtimes are relaxed and enjoyable with conversations not about food, and he always eats well. I know my daughter-in-law is acting out of concern but I think her style is having the opposite effect to what she wants. Although our relationship is very good, she is very hostile to anything she doesn't want to hear and I'm not sure how to raise this subject. But it does worry me because A's relationship with food is presently not good and when he arbitrarily says he doesn't like something, this gives rise to the same round of chivvying. How can I open a dialogue with her, without alienating her and sounding critical?