Get cooking with the Creative Chef
Fussy eating can be a very difficult part of family life. Children refusing certain foods can lead to unhealthy eating patterns, a loss of routine and is often linked to challenging behaviour in other areas.
To explore this problem we’ve been running group cook, play and eat sessions for local families as part of our Creative Homes Hub at the Lee Green Lives community centre.
Decorating our food Superhero with fruit skewers
The Creative Chef has a song for every cooking occasion
The project was made possible by a generous grant from Affinity Sutton, which also allowed us to work one to one with families living on their Lee Green estate. One of the families we met through door-knocking were Perla* and Derek, their two sons aged 6 and 4 and their daughter aged 6 months, who came to the UK from Iraq ten years ago.
When we met on their doorstep we hit it off immediately and were soon back for a consultation. During the consultation Perla and Derek told us they were struggling with fussy eating, lots of tantrums and quarrels with both boys. So, we decided to send the Creative Chef for a visit to help them explore food in a new way.
Making rainbow wands
With songs, stories, and delicious ingredients, the Creative Chef showed the family the fun they could have cooking together. Chopping, grating, stirring, shaping; Perla was surprised at how much her sons enjoyed cooking and at all the things they were able to do.
To help Perla and Derek’s family start building a routine around mealtimes, the Creative Chef left them with a challenge to cook and eat together at least three times that week. Not surprisingly they embraced the challenge and came out victorious with a well-deserved reward!
Since then Perla and Derek have opened the kitchen to their children and they now choose, prepare and eat together as a family on a regular basis. Another change: with a full belly, tantrums and quarrels are getting scarce.
Through our Creative Homes Pathways service, Perla and Simon have also been able to access extended housing services helping them to connect with other residents, gain new skills and deal with housing and work issues.
On our check up visit with the family Perla confided in us
“Thanks to Creative Homes, my children now eat every day a balanced meal for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This means that we now have more time for more play as a family on a daily basis.”
Hats off to our new family of creative chefs and bon appetit!
If you have concerns about fussy eating or family mealtimes and would like to learn more about how we can help, please get in touch.
*All names have been changed to protect the family’s privacy