How do you get kids to eat fish?
When it comes to food kids hate, fish is probably right up there with liver and Brussels sprouts.
Most parents probably do not hold out hope that their tots will relish a whole, skin-on, head-on fish, but it would be nice to get them to eat fish in some form that isn’t breaded and shaped like a stick.
I don’t have kids, so I don’t claim to be any kind of expert on this. I do have a big kid at home who usually requests that I bread and pan-fry fish, then serve it with homemade tartar sauce. So I kind of see what parents are up against.
I’d love to be able to offer some ideas and recipes for parents, especially as we are in the Lenten season when fish is a popular choice for religious reasons. Even outside of Lent, fish is a light and healthy supper option.
Have you had success transforming a fish hater (child or adult) into a fish lover? If so, please consider sharing your advice and/or recipes!
Meanwhile, take this fun quiz and see how much you know about fish:
1. True or false: Saltwater fish can have thicker bones than freshwater fish.
2. True or false: Flatfish (as opposed to roundfish, the other category) have both eyes on the bottom of their bodies.
3. Among these three types of fish, which is the leanest, which has a moderate amount of fat and which is the fattiest: swordfish, haddock, herring.
4. Which of the following indicates that a fish is not very fresh and you should therefore not buy it?
A. shiny skin
B. cloudy eyes
C. firm flesh that springs back when pressed with a finger
5. Fish can be tightly wrapped and stored for how long in the freezer?
A. Up to two months
B. Up to six months
C. Up to one year
6. A good rule of thumb for cooking fish is to cook it…
A. …for 8-10 minutes per inch
B. …until it registers 145 on a meat thermometer
C. …until it flakes easily with a fork
D. Any of the above.
7. Which of the following is NOT the name of an existing fish: akule, gaspergoo, opakapaka, rinkerwink, sprat, tambaquai, weakfish
Scroll down to see the answers:
Answers:
1. True — salt water provides more buoyancy.
2. False — flatfish have both eyes on the top of their bodies.
3. Haddock is leanest, swordfish is medium-fat, herring is high-fat.
4. B — Cloudy eyes indicate that a fish is not fresh, as does slimy skin, an overly fishy smell and sunken eyes.
5. B — Up to six months.
6. D — All of the above.
7. There’s no such thing as a rinkerwink fish. But it was fun coming up with that.
February 19, 2013 - 2:21 PM
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I once dated a woman with an 8 year-old “picky eater” (who, as it turned out, got it from her mother) and, I was assured, absolutely would not touch anything that came out of the water. So I made a Low Country boil with shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausage, and just a few crawfish. The little girl started with the familiar corn and potatoes, then watched me peel and eat a couple of shrimp, decided it looked like fun, and tried it. There was no turning back. By the time her mother and I broke up (one relationship hurdle I simply cannot overcome is a picky eater), she was enjoying sole meuniere with me while her mother joylessly ate Chinese takeout (beef and broccoli, of course, nothing too exotic).
And I took the quiz just for the halibut. I got 5 out of 7 correct, but I also penalized myself an extra point for the awful halibut pun.
Most kids like tacos, so why not fish tacos?
I’m with JeffF…picky eaters, whether adult or child, make me crazy. I think any mild, white fish is a good “gateway” fish…tilapia or cod. If the child likes spicy food, seasoned and grilled is a good choice. We like it placed on a bed of fennel and onions, sprinkled with parmesan, breadcrumbs, and lemon juice, and then baked.
To entice children to eat fish, the most important thing is to NOT make a big deal of it. No matter the food, I see far too many parents obsess and go into a spiel something like – ‘Now Mommy wants you to try something new. You don’t have to eat all of it if it tastes bad. But, please, for Mommy, take at least three bites…’
Instead, just prepare it however you like, then when you serve it, say – ‘This is salmon.’ If they ask more, tell them where salmon live, how big they get, and anything else to familiarize them. Do not tell them – ‘This is good for you’ or anything like that.
On the overall topic of new foods for children, we always followed a modified version of how we were raised. The child eats the one meal that is prepared. We never made it mandatory to finish the whole meal, but we were clear that snacks or dessert only were options if all of the meal was eaten. A couple of faux protest fasts were attempted, but once they realized how long it was from one meal to the next, those stopped quickly.
The kids were allowed to voice their opinion, and the opinions were taken into consideration for future meals. If they hated a certain food, that meant it might not be offered as often, very rarely was it removed completely. The decision was always left to the adults, though. Tastes change over time, so the food you hate as a five year old might be the food you love as a ten year old.
As for the quiz? I aced the first six questions, and on the seventh question the only fish I knew was real was the sprat. That was only because I knew sprat is sometimes used for sardines.
I have a friend who said he started his toddler on some smoked salmon recently. My other friend said her 4-year-old will eat white, flaky fish but does not like salmon.
I like the idea of just introducing it as dinner and not giving the kid a reason to be suspicious about it. I think sometimes the problem with foods is more the smell than the taste. Fish can smell stinky when it is cooked sometimes.
The funny thing about the seventh question on the quiz is that I tried to use three “fake” fish names before I came up with the one I used. But when I Googled my fake names to make sure there was no such thing as a flute fish, a trumpet fish or a leopard fish, all three already existed!
Any way you can get your child involved in the process definitely helps. This goes for fish, vegetables, sauces, you name it. Plus I’m teaching my child how to take care of himself and contribute to the family, which he really does love.
Fish is a little trickier. The only time my 5-year-old eats fish is if he caught the fish himself, or if his dad caught it and he happened to be there with him.
I agree with crooked road. Don’t make a big deal out of it. My kids were somewhat picky, but, when we sat down to a meal they knew they had to at least try the food. Nine times out of ten they liked what was served. Thank goodness for a daddy with a healthy appetite…no food every went to waste.
The important thing is to introduce your children to lots of variety. A steady diet of chicken nuggets does nothing except doom them to having the taste buds of your grandparents for the rest of their lives.
If we had children still in the home, I’d even do things like vegetarian a couple of days a week. Meatless Monday? How about Thursday, too? Make a point of serving at least one ethnic dinner each week. And not the same variety every time.
Another great way to introduce kids to different foods is to enlist their assistance in cooking it. Not having them handle the fish to begin, but maybe show them how to make the marinade or the sauce/salsa, etc.
Most picky kid eaters are products of their parents behavior. If any food is plopped down on the table matter of factly, it will be eaten in the same spirit.
We eat salmon patties a couple of times a month with our 8- and 11-year-old. Canned salmon is usually wild-caught, so it’s healthy and economical. (The Double Q brand was ranked a “best of” by one of the food magazines – Bon Appetit, Cook’s Illustrated, I can’t remember which one.) At first we called them “Krabby Patties” from Sponge Bob, but we’re past that now. One child puts some ketchup on it, though less than before, and one uses a sauce I make from plain yogurt, garlic, and lime juice. They both eat it like a burger, on a bun. Plain yogurt with sriracha sauce is also good if you like spicy foods.
The recipe that works for us:
Mix one egg and about one teaspoon Dijon mustard – the real kind with seeds
Add the canned salmon with bones removed.
Add breadcrumbs until you can make patties out of the mixture.
Saute in a little bit of olive oil in a non-stick pan, so you’re not using too much oil.
My five year old son has been food neophobic for years and has just recently overcome that. We made an effort to keep introducing new foods to him and it finally got his curiosity (and courage) up to where he really wanted to give new foods a shot. I’ll try some tilapia soon and see if he’s willing to give it a try.
I told my son and daughter that it was chicken. Started with fried fish, then moved on to baked fish. Never told them any different and they still both eat it.
NotFromHere, your comment brought back memories for me. My grandmother used to make salmon cakes fairly often with Double Q canned salmon. it’s a great idea for kids and I love the fact that you let them sauce it up. I have always loved fish, but one thing turned me off Grandma’s salmon cakes: She left in the fish vertebrae, or “drums,” as she called them, because she and my grandfather and others liked to eat them
That does make me ponder the role of sauces, cheese and other embellishments for foods that make kids more likely to eat them. Ketchup and ranch dressing are of course big. We used to put ketchup in navy beans as a kid. And to this day, I love sweet potatoes with maple syrup drizzled on them. Also, my mom used to make cheese sauce for broccoli and cauliflower once in a while, which got us eating them without it, too.
Edweirdo, you should definitely fix up some fish for your little one soon. I like combining bread crumbs, herbs, salt, pepper and a little Parmesan cheese, dredging in that (perhaps a scrambled egg first, if desired) and sauteeing in a little olive oil and butter. Get it nice and brown and crunchy and I’ll bet he eats it, especially if he likes ketchup.
In using sauces or dressings to encourage kids to eat certain foods, I would strongly suggest that you don’t use the grocery store versions, but that you make your own. So many of the processed sauces are laden with high fructose corn syrup and other things that aren’t healthy. You can make a good sauce in less than five minutes, and it can be stored for a pretty good while. That also gives you another chance to enlist your kids in participation. If a child makes his own salad dressing? You can bet he’s going to want to eat a salad.
The more you involve your children in meal prep, the more they’ll be interested in stretching their food boundaries.
Salmon cakes are great. Sometimes I make salmon loaf, like meatloaf but with the canned salmon. Canned salmon is a handy thing to keep in the pantry.
My almost 1 year old loves sushi!
I didn’t realize fish is a food kids typically don’t like. When I was a kid, broiled flounder was my favorite food and I had all my birthday dinners at Red Lobster. I was a pretty picky eater too. I would imagine just introducing fish fairly early and not making a big deal about it would go a long way.
I’m not sure how we’ve gotten our 4 y.o. son to eat many of the things he does, other than just giving them to him and saying “here’s dinner”. Recently, he will say “I don’t like that” to something new, so we encourage him to try it and focus on the taste rather than health benefits.
Perhaps we are just incredibly lucky, but our boy will eat just about any fish put in front of him. The only thing we know he doesn’t like is canned tuna, which I understand. I didn’t really like it until I was an adult.
I think there’s a lot of truth in what Kristen said, that picky children are products of picky parents. My husband and I are certainly not picky, and as a result our son likes a variety of foods.
And thanks to this thread, I am craving salmon cakes!
Strange that my extremely light-eating 3-year-old son started with fish as the only meat he would eat regularly. Now he eats chicken too.