Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Mommy of the Year Award (NOT!!)

Ok, ladies :) I seriously need your oppinions and tried and true tips! I can barely get my 3 yr old to eat anything besides chicken nuggets or hot dogs!!! No fruits. No veggies. Nothing!!! (Well besides mac and cheese and fettucine alfredo) How do you get your kids to eat a variety? Try new things? Heck, I'll even go for how you trick them into eating something else, ya know, healthy?!?

5 comments:

Cindee said...

Oh, you totally need to read KimC's post over at Life In A Shoe (she's got 8 kids). She just posted about this very recently. The post is entitled: 10 ways to avoid raising a picky eater. It's a must-read! I do most of the things on her list but I have to say that I'm terrible about #4: Don't avoid serving the foods you dislike. Other than that we're doing pretty good with our four kids (ages 21 months to 11 years). They'll eat pretty much anything.

Anonymous said...

oh thats a tough one. My boys aren't to bad of eaters but my middle child WILL NOT eat veggies honestly I make him sit there until he eats them sometimes. Other times I mix things in... like one thing my kids LOVE is homemade fried rice... all I do is make rice mix in some scrambled eggs and peas, throw in a little soy sauce and wah-lah! Sometimes I cut up broccli into micro pieces or squash or even carrots into micro pieces they don't even know its there! Also ... you might want to try NOT giving them the things they like instead of chicken nuggets and hot dogs try pieces of chicken breast breaded with some ketchup.

Mrs. Brownstone @ XBOX Wife said...

Oh! This was my WFMW post last week!

http://xboxwife.blogspot.com/2007/09/mommy-can-we-have-steamed-spinach-for.html If that link doesn't copy correctly, just go to my blog and click on Works-For-Me-Wednesday in the sidebar. The post is titled "Mommy, Can We Have Steamed Spinach For Dinner?"

Hope this helps! I've been doing it since my kids were tiny.

Qtpies7 said...

I am in the same boat. I can't believe a kid will not eat chicken nuggets. It took my 6 kids to find one, but I still can't believe it. She finally will eat corn dogs, but that still is not healthy.
Sneak some veggies into alfredo. Really chopped up spinach is good. I hide chopped spinach in pizza sauce, the kids have no clue! I also hide it in meatloaf, and shredded carrots, but Trinity won't eat that, either.
Good luck!

jen said...

When my oldest was a newborn, I heard a nutritionist speak at a MOPS meeting. She told us that it takes people something like 10 times of being exposed to a food before it is appealing/familiar. And I can see that is true; I'm an adult, but I'm skeptical when I don't know what is being served to me. She encouraged us to just keep serving kids different foods. She said not to make them eat them or bribe them or any of that, but just to always have something new on the plate. The kids will eventually eat it.

That hasn't totally worked for us, but our kids do eat a great variety and are willing to try new stuff. We just always give them a small bit of everything that's for dinner. When they were three, the first couple times we would just ask that they not push it off their plate. After that, we would ask that they try it. Soon enough, they'd be eating it all. Now (at 4 & 6), we still do the same thing with new foods.

Another idea, when I am serving a meal that might cause some frustration ('cause there's lots o veggies), we'll tell them they can pick one thing out. They can pick what that is, but ONE THING - that's it.

Blessings!