Would you serve dessert at dinnertime to your kids?

Would you serve dessert at dinnertime to your kids?

Do you give your kids dessert at the same time as dinner?

Are you mad, I hear you say? Sure all they’d do is eat the dessert and leave the rest … Yes? Well, maybe not ..

I spoke to Ciara Attwell, from My Fussy Eater and creator of the fab Pick Plate (which is a best seller here) who does exactly this with her kids - serving dessert alongside the main course - on a pick plate of course!

Ciara says

“as my kids are growing up I’m trying to teach them that all food is “good” food. Of course some foods we eat more of (fruits, veggies, proteins etc) and other foods less of (cake, chocolate, crisps) but I try not to demonise any food nor put any food on a pedestal”.

So by serving dessert at the same time as the rest of the meal, the allure of it is somewhat lost. Kids realise it’s not something to be worked for - it’s not something that they get as a “prize” for eating the rest of their dinner. They don’t need to “earn” dessert and us parents can’t use it as a stick/carrot to threaten/entice our kids with eat their dinner either!

I know this is fairly radical thinking but more and more I see this approach being recommended by people involved in feeding children. In Ciara’s house she says :

“So what if the kids reach for the brownie first? Aoife will tend to leave it until last but Finn would always go for the brownie first. That’s no problem at all as I know that he will then eat the other foods afterwards.”

She does have some advice for those new to this approach though. She suggests starting off with very small portions of the dessert to begin with until it becomes more normalised at your dinner table.

Ciara is a food writer and cookbook author and is always looking for new ways to make food fun and interesting for kids! She specialises in fussy eating and shares tips and tricks to get your kids eating better along with lots of family friendly recipes.