My son, Ryan, is about 16 months old. He has generally been a good eater as in willing to try new things, but lately he has become extremely picky. Foods that he liked before, he has decided he doesn't want now. It seems like he has decided what his favorite foods are and that is all he wants. We gave him animal cookies for a while, but he decided that was all he wanted, so now the poor guy gets none.
What he likes and will usually eat with little or no trouble:
oatmeal with applesauce mixed in bananas, pears, peaches and a few other fruits cottage cheese cheese cream cheese and bread bread
He won't eat any meat, although he did eat Vienna sausages for a short while. He used to eat veggies, but now he turns up his nose.
We've been told that what he will eat is sufficient for his nutrition. My concern is whether we need to be encouraging him to eat a bigger selection at this age and how hard we should push him. We try to feed him broccoli, then carrots, then something else, then something else before finally giving him something we know he'll eat. I think this is a bad idea, because it's reinforcing that if he refuses and cries, he'll get his way. But we hate to send him to bed hungry.
How have the other parents here dealt with this? What about from the pediatric like standpoint?
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
Ranch dressing.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
Why broccoli? Horrible stuff, no wonder he refuses. Are you serving the carrots raw? If so, you could try boiling them. Or vice-versa. Maybe mash them up, potato-style? Mix them with something else, that he likes?
Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :
I would be careful with the cheese. When I was little I would eat almost nothing but cheese and peanut butter (not together), and was probably the only four year old who had to be put on a special diet because of high cholesterol.
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
I think (as a professional) that the biggest mistake is to permit long-standing malnutrition. You aren't doing that. The second biggest is to introduce food into the realm of power struggles. So long as you can avoid the former, by all means avoid the latter.
There are a lot of sneaky ways to get veggies into kids -- pureed into tomato sauce for spaghetti, baked a'la zucchini (or broccoli! ) bread, etc. [and some great suggestions above] But most importantly, if food doesn't become an issue now, then it won't be in the future. Once he's old enough, you can involve him in picking out the freshest produce, fixing meals for the family, and so forth. Believe me, that's a lot easier than being dogmatic now.
Of course, I'd defer to your family physician regarding nutrition, and I would defer to you regarding what is best for your little guy. This is just an opinion. It is, however, based on a lot of informed reading and some clinical experience.
[ December 30, 2004, 03:05 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
Broccoli was just an example. And that is one of the foods that he seemed to like up til recently. Same with the carrots. And peas. And green beans. And sausage.
Scott, are you being serious?
Posted by Cashew (Member # 6023) on :
Stir fry it with soy sauce so it's still crunchy - yum!
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
If it is helpful, you should know that most children go through bizarre food fetishes or restrictions as they go from infanthood to school-age. Just preventing malnutrition and hanging in there is an awesome goal, IMHO.
Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
I don't know if he's the age for it, but could it be teething troubles? It seems to me that the foods he still eats are all fairly soft and mushy. Raw carrots could be pretty tough on sore gums. If that is the trouble, you may just have to wait it out.
Posted by kaioshin00 (Member # 3740) on :
Have you tried the airplane trick?
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
Thanks Sara. That's one of the things I really wanted to know. Is it too early to be having this kind of power struggle? If he's getting the nutrition he needs, should we deal with getting him a variety of foods at a later date?
BTW, he hates tomato sauce and pasta and he spit the zucchini bread right back out. His mom was very sad about that since she had baked it just for him.
Posted by solo (Member # 3148) on :
My son turned 2 in September. He started off eating pretty much anything. Now (and for the last couple of months) he refuses to eat anything that looks strange to him. The other night my wife made pizza with green peppers and tomatoes on it. He started out eating it fine but any of the vegetables he saw he refused to eat. He ate lots of them that he didn't see though. There are very few vegetables he will eat. He loves pasta, pizza, cheese, plain rice, pepperoni/sausage/ham, pickles and olives (pretty much the only vegetables he will eat), most fruit, and yogurt. He will eat almost anything if he doesn't see it first though. It's pretty frustrating and it is hard to let him eat other things as that makes my daughter think it should be okay for her as well.
I like the suggestion of pureeing stuff and mixing it into pasta sauce as that would fix the problem of seeing it.
Any other suggestions would be appreciated here as well.
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
KOM, we have considered that. He actually has more teeth than typical for his age. He's got 8 teeth up front and already has molars coming in. But this happens constantly now, not just when he showing the other signs of teething. We've never actually given him raw carrots anyway.
He doesn't fall for the airplane trick anymore.
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
Sure, no problem.
This is prime age for food power struggles, in my experience. He has enough going on his brain to process wants and desires, but he can't communicate. Thus, the lead-in to the "terrible twos." It's great to be creative and try new ways of serving or new items, but I'd avoid burning yourself out on this particular issue. Avoid malnutrition, and once you and he can communicate, make it a fun and exciting privilege to be involved with food.
You're a great dad. Posted by Richard Gere (Member # 6534) on :
The trick is in how you cook it. Overcooked or undercooked broccoli is a crime. Cut it into small pieces lengthwise and steam it just until it's bright green and a knife slides easily into the stem.
Cooked this way it's irresistable. Any other way, it's disgusting.
Posted by beverly (Member # 6246) on :
We got our kids to eat broccoli by calling them "little trees" and saying, "Awww, look at the cute widdle twee!"
16 months might be a bit young for that though.
Actually, our 18-month-old-who-used-to-eat-everything has suddenly become fickle. I am interested in the advice given here also.
Posted by eslaine (Member # 5433) on :
Scott has the right idea.
Posted by dread pirate romany (Member # 6869) on :
Make sure it is not too bland. My kids would eat old shoes if I put fresh pesto on them. Keep presenting the veggies, but don't make it an issue. If you're worried about nutrition, give him a multi.
Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :
I read somewhere that it often takes like 30 presentations on a new food in order to get a young child to accept it. That's been proven right with my own kids.
space opera
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
I always liked broccoli as a kid. Though I must admit that I liked it even more when I saw on TV that you could pour melted Cheez Wiz on it...
Posted by signal (Member # 6828) on :
Feeding your child broccoli?! How inhumane! haha, jk.
^^Anyways, what he said. If he's already eating cheese, why not pour cheese over the broccoli.
Admittedly I don't know anything about kids, but what about reverse psychology? You could present the food and if he doesn't eat at first, you could still eat it and show him you enjoy it and maybe that'll get him to want to try it?
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
Doesn't too much cheese cause problems with constipation in children?
FG
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Indeed. I remember once when my little sister went for weeks on a diet of bread and cheese. They had to take her to the hospital to get her unplugged. I believe my little brother went through much the same thing. She's smartened up, but he still hates almost all vegetables.
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
The broccoli we give him always has cheese on it. And he doesn't fall for the reverse psychology trick anymore than he does for the airplane trick.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
Make vegetable (lentil, if you want) soup and put whizzed-up brocolli in it. Ta daa! Brocolli that doesn't look like broccoli!
My mother used this method to get my brother to eat vegetables.
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
You can hide almost any pureed veggie in chili.
Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :
zgator, I would also try not to stress about it too much. My son, starting from 15 months on, was extremely picky. We were actually on WIC at that time, and before your appt. you have to keep a food "diary" of everything the child has had in the last 24 hours. I was told at one appt. that obviously I wasn't giving him adequate nutrition. I showed up the next time with a diary that showed what was offered versus what he actually ate. I was then given an apology by the nutritionist.
He did grow out of it. I just kept offering healthy foods. Today he is still somewhat picky (for example the only fruit that he truly likes are apples) but he eats almost no junk food.
Just keep trying to be low-key about it, and I'm sure things will turn out fine.
space opera
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Or, in the interests of keeping things colourful, you could try threats. Sharp pointy objects can be used as props, should the need arise. Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
Alas, digging holes, I wished for a son that would not be afeared of things, because he needs to be able to ride roller coasters with his daddy. That's what I got - a boy with no fear.
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Pity.
Posted by zgator (Member # 3833) on :
Yeah, but at 33", he's only got 9 more to go before he ride the small coasters. 15 more for the big boys.
Posted by digging_holes (Member # 6237) on :
Are roller coasters such a big thing in your life?
I've only ever been on a roller coaster once, and it was a tame, boring one in Niagara Falls.
Posted by Da_Goat (Member # 5529) on :
Coat everything with chocolate. Trust me.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Can't help you. My girls have always been wonderful eaters. The few things they would not eat, I would not replace--they could either eat it or be hungry. But then I never served them again. I can count on one hand how many things I am talking about: jelly (for Banana, but we have "discovered" this numerous times through numerous incarnations of jelly) and olives for both, and one particularly disgusting line of Lunchbuckets. So since it's so few foods, I don't feel any need to change them.
It sounds like most Hatrack experts would disapprove of my "eat it or be hungry--the choice is yours" method, but it worked for us. As I've said, though, we've been lucky. I wouldn't say that we made eating a power struggle, because there was no fighting, no screaming or shouting. Just, "You don't like that? Okay. Don't eat it."
Banana did go through a little phase of saying "Oh, I don't like that" before even knowing what something way. Mango helped us cure that beautifully, when I served Mango, but not Banana, things like that, but we would not give to Banana. ("Oh no! You don't like eggnog! You told me so! I would not want to give you something you don't like! Maybe some other time you'll like it.")
Our biggest problem is when we eat out, because a lot of restaurants automatically bring the kids' food early. We always specifically tell them not to, but . . . The worst was the other night, when we went to Fridays. I specifically asked the waitress to bring their salad with our salad, and their meal with our meal. Their salad and meal came together with our salad, and they were completely done with all of their food before our meal arrived. Normally we would try to slow the girls down in that circumstance, but I was feeling particularly ornery, so I just let them eat away, knowing that this would make them a bit borefidgety while they waited for us to eat our meals. Every time the waitress came by, I just met her eyes and said, "I tried to warn you!" Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
quote:It sounds like most Hatrack experts would disapprove of my "eat it or be hungry--the choice is yours" method, but it worked for us. As I've said, though, we've been lucky. I wouldn't say that we made eating a power struggle, because there was no fighting, no screaming or shouting. Just, "You don't like that? Okay. Don't eat it."
Oh, no, at least not for me. I think that's a fine way of handling things. It's when it gets emotional investment and becomes a battle of wills that I think you set up a future battleground for disordered body/eating issues.
Posted by Boon (Member # 4646) on :
Well.
Dan has been my only even semi-picky eater. And he won't refuse much.
For a while, he didn't like certain vegetables. Problem was, I never knew which veggie until, about once a week or so, he'd announce "I don't like corn." Or green beans. Or carrots. Or whatever. He liked it fine the next time it was offered though.
We gave him a very simple choice. Two bites, or no dinner at all. No fuss. No arguing. He only missed one meal ever. Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Ic, I do the same thing. But as you, it helps if they're not extremely picky.
It also helps -- as was true for my kids, but is clearly not true for some of the others mentioned in this thread -- if the pickiness doesn't really manifest until after the kid is old enough to really understand "You have two choices: you can eat it, or you can not eat it. Up to you! "
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
I've never had a child that would eat normal food. We only have the one and he's a freak about food. He refused baby cereal after the first time he ate it and refused baby food altogether. The only thing he eats today is Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal bars for breakfast, peanutbutter (no jelly) sandwiche, capri sun juice, Pringles and a Swiss Roll for lunch and for dinner, he usually eats a frozen pepperoni pizza or chicken noodle soup. And sometimes he'll eat vanilla ice cream.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
On a similar note, how does a grownup acquire a taste for vegetables he doesn't like?
I have horrible vegetable and fruit habits: 2 fruits, maybe 10 vegetables total. And that includes lettuce, onions, and tomatoe.
I'd like to learn to like others, but I never get past the second or third attempt to eat them regularly.
Dagonee
Posted by jeniwren (Member # 2002) on :
Rainbow is a picky eater too...but she always has been, and she's always had terrible table habits. But there are some things that work when we decide to assert ourselves.
One is not putting very much food on her plate. We put almost nothing on her plate. Just a tiny bit of each food we're having for dinner. When she finishes that, we give her more. I've seen that when we load her plate up, she eats almost nothing. Another thing that seems to work sometimes is looking like we're enjoying the meal enormously and being reluctant to give her very much of it so we can have more for ourselves.
Rainbow is extremely fond of sauces and being able to dip whatever she's eating. This sometimes works for getting her to eat more, but more often than not, the sauces aren't all that good for her (duh) and that's what she gets more of than the food.
I'm more in the camp of offering only what is being served, and letting a child go hungry until the next meal time. (My husband and I aren't entirely on the same page about this, so I've let it go with Rainbow, where my son -- pre-hubby -- would never have gotten away with it.) I'm assured that there are no documented cases of small children starving to death via this method. This is not very fun with really little kids, since they just get grouchy and can't be reasoned with. But if it's really a big concern, you might set aside a day or two where you plan to have a grouchy Ryan so you can help him break his bad eating habit. That method worked great with my son on all kinds of things. Setting aside time, and making a plan, not only for breaking the habit but also for whatever we can think of he might do and how we'll respond to his response.
Good luck! I am reassured with the knowledge that somehow I survived childhood subsisting almost solely on cheerios and peanut butter. I was a horribly picky eater, yet somehow managed to survive. It helps me when I want to start forcefeeding Rainy broccoli intraveneously.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Dag, I don't know, but I frequently make peas, green beans, and lima beans, all of which I hate, because I know they're good for you, I'm not the only one eating, and I think eating a variety of different vegetables is good for my family. I season my plateful with seasoned salt, which works pretty well for me, and, with the peas and lime beans at least, I don't chew, 'cause it's the cruddy stuff inside that I really hate. Maybe something in there will prove useful to you.
You could also try cooking things you don't like in a variety of flavored mediums. I have used cinnamon schnapps to good effect. Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
I've recently added zuccini and squash because I found a good way to roast or grill them. And I do tend to eat them when I make dinner for several people.
I'm with you on the insides of peas and lima beans. Yuck! It's the texture of most vegetables that gets me more than the taste.
Maybe casseroles would work. I have a mini-prep now.
Dagonee
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
If it's the textures of beans and peas you dislike, try (when possible) to get them FRESH, rather than cooked.
Fresh peas are AWESOME. And while I mostly dislike limas, fresh they're pretty ok.
Posted by Hobbes (Member # 433) on :
If he doesn't like the taste of broccoli, perhaps the taste of the back of your hand is appropriate.
Kidding!
Really!
Hobbes Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
*hides from Hobbes*
Posted by gnixing (Member # 768) on :
i've got a daughter that turned 2 in september. she's always been a fairly good eater. then, we've always taken the stance that if we put it in front of her, she can eat what she chooses. when she's done, we toss the rest and that's her meal. she's healthy and if she needs something, she has the option to try it. the only thing she has consistently put in her mouth and taken back out is mushrooms. other things she goes through phases.
my advice, keep offering the different types of food, but don't force feed any of it or make a big deal if they don't eat it. just give them another chance next time.
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
What a great topic! Here are my 2 cents!
A) Children have a gazillion more tastebuds than adults, hence they tend to be a little more choosy about things because of the extreme sensitivity to taste.
B) It's the adult's job to serve healthy foods and the child's job to figure out how much to eat.
C) Most children need to see a new food 10 or more times before they are willing to even consider trying it - families that "model" eating and enjoying these foods with no pressure on the wee ones tend to report more success with the wee ones eventually trying the new food.
And finally! Each family has a little different approach to choosy eating (whether it be a "stage" or a "lifetime") - and that's great!
Posted by SteveRogers (Member # 7130) on :
Cheese?
Oh and what I did:
I tricked him into eating it. I told him if he didn't eat his brocoli then his parents would disappear........he realizes I lied now but it doesn't matter because he likes it now. But this was talking to my cousin....
[ December 30, 2004, 10:49 PM: Message edited by: SteveRogers ]
Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :
quote: but don't force feed any of it or make a big deal if they don't eat it.
That's really good advice. Even now if there is something that I know I haven't liked in the past, and I want to try it again my parents make a huge deal out of it so I avoid changing any patterns because I don't feel like putting up with it.
Posted by Coccinelle (Member # 5832) on :
In my family growing up there were two "rules" about eating:
1. You had to taste everything on your plate. You didn't have to eat all of anything, but you had to taste everything before you decided to leave the table.
2. If you didn't like what was served for the meal, then you didn't have a meal, no second options were served. However, there were often leftover meals where you could choose from like- five different leftovers what you wanted. I liked that!
We were also allowed to choose a food to hate. My mom hates peas, my dad hates oysters and I detest cooked celery.
Posted by quidscribis (Member # 5124) on :
In my family, we were forced to eat what was on our plate. There were no leftovers, and there were no options.
However. We also ate the same dang thing every day, six days a week until I moved away from the parents when I was 16. I can no longer look at a boiled to glue potatoe, hockey puck hamburger patties, or mushy peas or carrots. It took me until five years ago before I could eat hamburger again, and until this last year until I could eat potatoes, carrots, or peas. Well, I still have a hard time with peas.
Yep, emotional scarring can result from food choices. . .
But remember, I had *that* family.
Now curries. That's a whole other ballgame. I LOVE curries.
[/derail]
Posted by Yozhik (Member # 89) on :
If he'll eat fruits, perhaps he might like baked apples, chopped and mixed with baked sweet potatoes and walnuts, flavored with maple syrup and brown sugar and with a little dollop ofvanilla yogurt on top.
Posted by Shan (Member # 4550) on :
That's a great idea - being allowed a food to hate!
Was that a permanent choice or could it change?
I have permanently hated milk since I was little.
[ December 31, 2004, 11:12 AM: Message edited by: Shan ]
Posted by Coccinelle (Member # 5832) on :
We could change it, but celery has always been my least favorite. I've started to enjoy it raw in the past few years, but that is one food that isn't meant to be cooked.
Thinking about it, it was pretty smart on my parent's part. We had to try everything in order to know which one food we hated the most.
Posted by dread pirate romany (Member # 6869) on :
quote: I've never had a child that would eat normal food. We only have the one and he's a freak about food. He refused baby cereal after the first time he ate it and refused baby food altogether.
Yeah, that stuff's nasty. I have never asked my kids to eat something I wouldn't eat.
(Stuff they ask to eat, now that's a different matter. They adore shrimp, and I would have to be weak from starvation before I ate seafood.
I do think fresh veggies will tend to be tastier than cooked. I basically never serve cooked veggies, except in stews or soups ( or mashed potatos). I just make crudite plates for the table and the kids serve themselves.
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
I'm curious. Out of the parents that had picky eaters, were either of the parents picky?
My nieces don't like to eat food in general if it isn't dripping with high fructose corn syrup, processed sugars, and trans fats. But then, their mom only likes dry bologna on white bread and their dad hates vegetables. And the parents can't figure out why they have trouble getting the kids to eat their good food.
In my family, food was fun. We didn't have our own plates when we were little. We sat in mom or dad's lap and ate their dinner. We didn't have to eat dinner if we didn't want to. We could have a peanut butter sandwich or whatever. But we didn't have junk food in the house. Snack time was apple slices, ants on a log (raisins, no chocolate), or homemade turkey jerky. (Mom had a dehydrator so she could salt it lightly.)
Oh, and I second the broccoli trees idea. That's what my mom called them. To this day, they're still my favorite veggie, raw or cooked. But they have to be florets; I don't like the stems.
Edit to add: We also took turns picking out what was for dinner when I was a kid. I think empowering kids with choices to start with cuts down on some of that. But you could get stuck with some odd combos. My dad still talks about the night we had fishsticks and spaghetti because I wanted it.
[ December 31, 2004, 01:22 PM: Message edited by: AvidReader ]
Posted by MidnightBlue (Member # 6146) on :
I was supposed to eat everything on my plate, but I usually managed to barter my way down to half of the vegetables at least once a night. (For nights where I really didn't like what we were having I would sit at the table for hours until my parents told me that if I ate just that little bite, I could leave.) My problem is that I can't stand frozen vegetables, which is all that my mom has ever cooked. They taste like plastic. She likes them because she grew up on canned vegetables, so I can see that frozen must be an improvement. I have tried over and over again but I can't seem to get her to serve raw vegetables, or even cooked fresh veggies, except for asperagus (I know that's spelled really wrong) sometimes in the summer.
Posted by Dagonee (Member # 5818) on :
You could volunteer to cook them yourself. Prove to her how much better they are. Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
My sister's girls got popcorn and pizza and fast food so often when they were growing up that the thing they adore most is a real home cooked meal with vegetables. I didn't start feeling that way until after I was in college for a while. Because I know how much trouble it is to cook one, and because I live by myself and it hardly ever seems worth it to cook just for me, I still find home cooked meals with vegetables to be the greatest food on earth. <laughs> I think vitamin deficiencies must really help a person crave veggies, or something. Posted by Space Opera (Member # 6504) on :
AR and quid brought up interesting points about how our eating preferences are formed. Even before I became a vegetarian, I absolutely refused to eat homemade hamburgers cooked in a skillet. Why? Because my mother served them practically every single night. If it wasn't that, it was cubed steaks.
I find that I avoid almost all foods that I grew up on - simply because there was very little variety. The foods I make most often for my family, such as pasta and fresh veggies, were never served in my home growing up. I was a picky eater as a child I think in large part because our dinners were always meat-based, and even as a small child I remember hating the texture and taste of meat. Most dinners I ended up making a peanut butter sandwich and eating that.
space opera
Posted by dread pirate romany (Member # 6869) on :
AR, when I make the weekly menu, everyone gets to pick a meal (within budgetary constraints). Yeah, that means we eat some of the same things every week, but that's OK.
Posted by LadyDove (Member # 3000) on :
Ic- I've tried the "eat it or go hungry" route. It worked with my oldest, but the youngest said "fine" and just didn't eat. He would go a whole day without eating until I finally offered him one of "his foods". I finally found a compromise by offering at least one of "his foods" with every meal so that he has something to eat.
It hasn't worked yet with the youngest, but my favorite way of introducing new foods to the oldest is through having him cook with me. He gets to pick the recipe, but makes a solemn promise to try at least one portion of the finshed dish. This method works with most of my nieces and nephews too. If they get to see all the things that go into a dish and are involved in the creative process, the food doesn't seem so strange to them.
[ December 31, 2004, 11:07 PM: Message edited by: LadyDove ]
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Avid Reader, my husband isn't a picky eater and I never really thought I was either till recently.
We always offer our son the food we eat, he just never wants it. We decided early that we weren't going to perpetuate the "clean plate" thing, and I didn't want power struggles over food at all. When he started refusing to eat, we let him. I had been a nanny for a boy who only drank chocolate milk and maybe eat a banana and a peanut butter sandwich a week. The doctor said with his vitamins and milk, he'd survive, so we just let him eat what he wanted. He turned out fine.
With our son, when he was old enough, I told him that he either ate what we were eating, or he cooked his own food. He cooks his own food.
Posted by Ryuko (Member # 5125) on :
My mom is of the 'clean your plate or go hungry' school. I really have no concept of the mechanics of any other format... But of course, as such a young child, the actual carrying out of the plan might be difficult.
All I know is that I have a pair of cousins for whom eating is a battle. One of them, the girl, (who is RAIL thin) has taken on her mom's propensity for talking about not wanting to get fat et cetera et cetera. It's a struggle to get the boy to eat anything but peanut butter sandwiches. As a result, he is quite skinny.
Of course, it's all relative. His FATHER (who I am SO glad is no longer in the family...) seems to think that it's preferrable to resemble a starving ethiopian child, compared to being a doughy mound of flesh like me and my brother and sister are. (scoff) Asshat.
Which is not to say that by letting your kid eat whatever they want, you'll be condemning them to an early death. I think that you're doing the right thing continuing to offer him the food, but even though it's tough to say, things like this can become battlefields. Part of the reason my cousins have such trouble over food is because the kids realized that in that area, they were able to win over their parents.
Anyway. I'm not being coherent about this. Food is good. Ummm... Feed your kid food.
Posted by Kayla (Member # 2403) on :
Well, our point was that my husbands side of the family has weight problems and we didn't want to perpetuate that or add food battles. We let him eat what he wants, when he wants (within reason) and he's stayed at a nice healthy weight. By this age, my husband was a good 75 - 100 pounds overweight.
My problem was being starved to death and the clean plate. I remember being hungry all through childhood and when I was finally on my own, I ate and ate. (My mother even cut out milk at dinner (milk only on cereal in the morning) because she was worried we'd get fat. Now, at the time, I was 5' 7" and weighed 105 pounds. I swam at least three hours a day and did gymnastics at least three hours a day.
Anyway, we didn't want food to be an issue and I heard that kids know when they are full. We didn't want to do the clean plate thing because we didn't want him to lose that innate ability. And it seems to be working. No matter how much he likes ice cream, if he's full, he actually says no to it. Or any of his favorite junk foods. If he's not hungry, he just says no thank you. It floored my parents the first time he did that when they were around.
Posted by Megachirops (Member # 4325) on :
quote:. . . I heard that kids know when they are full. . . . And it seems to be working. No matter how much he likes ice cream, if he's full, he actually says no to it. Or any of his favorite junk foods. If he's not hungry, he just says no thank you.
Not my girls. They always want to eat, and they always want more. (And they never seem to grow, but that's another issue.) They never seem to realize that they are full. We discovered early on that if we didn't cut them off, they would literally eat until they puked. I almost never give them ice cream anymore, because they will make themselves sick, or at least have tummyaches, almost every time they have it.
I think they have developed the ability to tell when they are full in general, now, but not when it comes to dessert.
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
Alton Brown's Good Eats meatloaf is a way to get in extra veggies that has gotten rave reviews from adults and kids alike.
Made it yesterday. Mmmmm mmmm.
[ January 02, 2005, 11:16 AM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posted by gnixing (Member # 768) on :
that recipe looks like an awful lot of work just to make a meatloaf...
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
Took about 15 min to prep. I made substitutions as per our pantry (we still haven't been paid yet! Darn universities.)
Stale dry bread into blender, added poultry seasoning, salt and cumin. Whizz. Dumped 1 lb beef and 1/2 lb pork into Big Stone Mixing Bowl* ( ), dumped bread crumbs on top.
Whizzed veggies in blender with 1 egg and a little extra hot sauce. Mixed into meat with Big Wooden Spoon* ( ), molded, and turned out onto parchment.
Baked for an estimated time (no temp probe handy). Glazed twice.
*I have all the things in my life I ever wanted. I am so happy.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
) bread, etc. [and some great suggestions above] But most importantly, if food doesn't become an issue now, then it won't be in the future. Once he's old enough, you can involve him in picking out the freshest produce, fixing meals for the family, and so forth. Believe me, that's a lot easier than being dogmatic now.![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Grumble]](graemlins/grumble.gif)
The worst was the other night, when we went to Fridays. I specifically asked the waitress to bring their salad with our salad, and their meal with our meal. Their salad and meal came together with our salad, and they were completely done with all of their food before our meal arrived. ![[Wall Bash]](graemlins/wallbash.gif)
Normally we would try to slow the girls down in that circumstance, but I was feeling particularly ornery, so I just let them eat away, knowing that this would make them a bit borefidgety while they waited for us to eat our meals. Every time the waitress came by, I just met her eyes and said, "I tried to warn you!" ![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
Darn universities.)