My 6 year old daughter hates Fleshigs!

amother

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 6:39 pm

She throws a major tantrum if I make anything Fleshigs! I end up carrying her kicking and screaming to her room and she screams. I give her different options what to eat. What to do? It makes me want to stop making Fleshigs!

amother

Tan

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 6:41 pm

Include something pareve she likes and make more milchigs other nights.

amother

Blue

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 6:42 pm

So can’t she eat parve or milchig? What’s the problem? Like a simple bagel and cream cheese or something? Pasta?

amother

Acacia

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 6:47 pm

What about eggs, beans, nuts, dairy? I also did not really like fleishigs as a kid... Until adulthood, and even still, it really depends on the food.

amother

Moccasin

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 6:49 pm

You choose what you make, she chooses if/how much she eats.
She doesn't like any part of a meat meal? Even sides? That's kind of bizarre. She shouldn't have that much control over what you serve.

amother

Steelblue

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 6:55 pm

My oldest is a milchigs kid too. She can choose to join us for fresh dinner or have leftovers from the fridge. So she has leftovers 🤷‍♀️

amother

Emerald

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:05 pm

Chill. There are people who have never had a molecule of flesh pass their lips and yet they manage to live long, healthy, good, and fruitful lives. They even have friends and get married, sometimes to meat eaters. Contrary to a lot of frum belief, eating meat is not necessary to life.

I was never a lover of fleishik myself. While I didn't have tantrums when my mum served fleishik, I did sulk. And you know what? I still prefer dairy to fleishik. There are many days when hubby has a burger or some other flesihik dish and I have hummus or a tuna melt. In our family, there are some who don't eat red meat, others who eat meat and poultry but not on the bone, or not on weekdays. And there are the staunch carnivores who would eat beef twice a day every day if they could afford it. And yet, despite our divergent tastes and the fact that we often, often don't eat the same meals, DH and I have managed to stay together all these years and have no plans to change that.

Let your dd be herself. Her preferences are her preferences, and you won't change them by trying to force the issue. What you might do, though, is push her into an eating disorder. Trust me, an eating disorder is a whole lot harder to deal with than a perfectly healthy food preference that just happens not to mesh with yours.

Have you considered letting her eat her pareve or milchik at a separate table, something like those collapsible tray-tables called TV trays? Maybe being at the table and seeing the meat turns her off.

amother

Amber

Sun, Dec 04 2022, 11:21 pm

here are some kid friendly fleishig ideas that work for mine: meatballs, cold cut sandwiches, breaded chicken nuggets (that you buy readymade) drowned in ketchup

amother

Bluebell

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 12:48 am

Is she sensitive to the smells also? As a child the smell of certain foods (corn on the cob was the worst) was so overwhelming to me I could barely breathe. (Yes I was and am a picky eater.)

I am on team "don't make food into a power struggle."

amother

Ruby

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 3:02 am

I have the same with my dd6! It's so annoying bc if I encourage her to taste, she will, but only half a bite. And then she can't have her milchig go-tos and she's hungry! So I don't encourage and she has milchig, and dd2 who will eat anything also wants it, but she just filled herself up with fleishig. So really I almost never make fleishig, but I feel like all the "real meals" are fleishig, and I feel bad that my younger kids (and dh) never get any "real meals". Anyone have "real meal" suggestions that are not fleishig??

amother

Slateblue

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 5:41 am

Are you trying to say that she doesn't want you to cook Fleishigs at all for the whole family?
Like she may be sensitive to the smell?

amother

Hibiscus

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 1:48 pm

OP what does your daughter like to eat?

When you say she hates Fleishigs is it all Fleishigs? Even kid friendly? What about fish or eggs?

Does she seem to crave dairy?

Is she otherwise neurotypical?

Sometimes kids are addicted to dairy, because it gives them a kind of neurological fix, and so they will restrict themselves to that because they want the fix. The fact that she tantrums over Fleishigs (or is it just not getting her dairy fix??) to the point that you need to remove her from the room kind of points to a possible addiction.

Other reasons kids may avoid meat and chicken and possibly other animal proteins is because they have mineral deficiencies resulting in insufficient stomach acid and or digestive enzymes to break it down, which makes it seem kind of nauseating to them. This isn’t necessarily something they’d be able to verbalize, it’s a physiological process where one needs to have sufficient digestive juices in order for meat and foul to feel appetizing.

Either way it’s not a status quo I would personally be ok with, if it means never eating Fleishigs. Not only from a behavioral perspective but more about what it indicates about their overall health.

amother

Blue

Mon, Dec 05 2022, 1:50 pm

She is eating, she is growing, so I would NOT make a thing about this or over it. My goodness she is 6 years old.

Walk it back asap.

Tantrumming? does not have to get to that level

just hear her validate her and let her eat milchigs

do not let it escalate and get into a power or control struggle

does not work and does not help anyone