Picky Eaters

My kids are not just picky eaters, they eat next to nothing. And still manage to grow and have endless amounts of energy. Often at mealtime you can find me with my eyes closed taking deep breaths. Usually while I am doing this William smashes and throws whatever was on his tray. I am not really sure how this exact situation can occur day after day, but it does.

Picky eaters stressed me out before I had kids. Sorry if you are a picky eater.

I felt pretty determined that my kids would like a wide range of healthy foods. They would be able to travel and eat foods in other countries. And they would never go to someone's house and NOT eat what was served to them. Obviously the travel and the eating at other people's houses thing isn't really affecting us now. But I can feel it coming.

I once asked Bella what her favorite dinner was and she said she couldn't think of anything. For her birthday dinner she requested asparagus frittata. She is now claiming this as her favorite dinner.

Don't think I didn't give it my best shot from the beginning. I used Super Baby Food for both kids- making my own super porridge and I still to this day make their yogurt (more on that later). I ground various grains and beans and added veg and fruit puree cubes. I know it doesn't sound pleasant but it's supposed to be the healthiest food ever and the kids ate it! To expose them to different food combinations I used Annabel Karmel with Bella and Baby Love with William. This all worked great until they started being able to feed themselves. Which eventually seemed to lead to not eating. William may or may not eat something like fruit for breakfast, and rarely eats dinner. Dinner is also a challenge for Bella. And it's not like I am offering them different choices, they will just NOT eat and not even ask for something different!

They do fairly well with eating things separately like pieces of turkey, fruit, crackers, you get the idea. But once I combine foods I rarely find anything they will eat other than maybe mac and cheese and pb&j. Both kids still eat yogurt almost every day and my friend, Kate, and I have determined this must be solely responsible for the health and well being of my (our) kids. They also love kefir. They would drink kefir for breakfast and eat yogurt for lunch. Some days they do!

So I saw this idea today:



And although it doesn't really solve the dinner problem, I thought it might help make it fun to try new foods. I am not super excited/ sold on having to "decorate" food to make it edible, but maybe the presentation might help?? I would also rather spend my money on quality food than accessories for the food. So I improvised tonight. I put raw broccoli, grape tomatoes and baby carrots in ramekins and let them dip it in buttermilk ranch. William basically used the veg to scoop ranch into his mouth (he also does this with hummus, which he loves!). It did look like he was trying to eat the broccoli but it was hard to chew. I had to force Bella to eat a few bites of everything, although she defintely loved the presentation. Our main course was chicken pot pie. William ate nothing, and Bella obeyed and ate what she was served. I need more ideas!

Here are the websites for the muffin tin meals: Cookie Cutter Lunch and Muffin Tin Mom.