Jamie Oliver has admitted he gives his younger son an iPad at the dinner table to “hypnotise” him to eat.
The TV chef – who has Poppy, 17, Daisy, 16, Petal, 10, Buddy, nine and River, three, with wife Jools – said he is forced into the desperate measure to get his fussy lad to eat the “good stuff”.
He said: “I hate screens, however River is such a feral child. Sometimes, we have to have a screen.
“We hate it. I am pretty much zero-tolerance with screens at the table as it really p*sses me off.”
Admitting that the practice is “controversial”, the 44-year-old star added: “If he’s not eating, if you put a screen in front of him it hypnotises him and you can put anything in his mouth.
“He likes carbs, all the other kids have been better with veggies and salads and trying different things.
“If you want to get the good stuff with him, almost the same as blending stuff into a smoothie, me and Jools will put it on and it does work.”
Jamie also revealed he would love to say grace at mealtime. He said: “I don’t care what religion it is, I just love the idea of saying thank you for food and I get it after all these years. We all should be grateful for the food we eat.”
River will appear alongside his dad this Saturday on Jamie’s Easy Christmas Countdown, on Channel 4.
And Jamie, speaking on the Table Manners with Jessie Ware podcast, also revealed he has not ruled out having a sixth child.
He said: “I have tried to say ‘no more’ but it don’t go down very well. Jools is an incredible mum. But she’s 45. I think she knows she’s got the last window of opportunity, as it were.”
Watching TV is the lifestyle habit most strongly linked with kids being overweight, according to researchers at the Barcelona Institute of Global Health.
