Did First Class children on the Titanic (or any steamship, actually) eat off the same menu as their parents or even at the same time/table? Except for a glance of one young girl in the Cameron movie, and some license with the 1953 movie, you see no children in the fancy dining room. The menu has some pretty fancy things on it; I suppose if Filet Mignon Lili didn't float their boat (ha), there was always bread and vegetables.
My guess is that they stayed in the cabin and got their meals in there, so they wouldn't be a bother to the adults in their eyes.
There's a wonderful little poem about a child's experience on an Atlantic crossing That may explain a bit of this.
'When the porthole light goes dark and green because of the seas outside,
When the ship goes BUMP with a wiggle between
And the steward falls in rhe soup tureen
and the trunks begin to slide.
When Nanny falls to the ground in a heap
And Mama begs you to let her sleep,
And you haven't been bathed or fed or dressed,
You should know by now, if you haven't guessed.
You're at 50 north and at 40 west.'
At the time, First Class passengers often had much less contact with their children than is common today. Children were mostly left in the care of Nannies or nurses and First Class cabins normally had attached cabins where children and their caretakers stayed. The poem tells us that a young child's breakfast was normally eaten in the cabin.
It might not have been true on the Titanic but slightly later ships had a separate dining room for children and their caretakers. First Class menus were quite extensive but there was no special menu for children and the food they were served was chosen by their parents. The reference in the poem to the steward 'falling in the soup tureen' indicated that children were served at table.
Please remember that this was an era in which children were not expected to survive on pizza, chicken nuggets or Mac&Cheese. Little kids may have been helped at table by their caretakers but they were served food very similar to what their parents ate. It was also expected that children would BEHAVE at table. A good child might be rewarded by being allowed to have luncheon with her/his parents but that kid had better be GOOD!
Also, food on these ships was not quite as fancy as we would like to believe. Many of the First Class passengers were Britons and Americans who were meat and potato people. Fairly simple beef, pork or mutton dishes were the norm. Children of the time would have no problem eating this sort of food.
Oh, BTW, at the time, Mac&Cheese was called Macaroni a la Reine.
