This is the third installment in my series on Intentional Parenting. You can read about My Goals for 2019 here.
So, I have a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition & Dietetics degree. I planned from the day I graduated on not only curating for myself the greatest diet ever, but also feeding my kids THE most optimal diet known to man. I just knew they would be the type to eat whatever I put in front of them. I would not have picky kids. I wouldn’t take no for an answer.
And then I had said kids. And it all went to pot.
Seriously, is there anything more difficult about parenting than feeding a toddler? I’ll tell you the answer. No. If you don’t have a hard time with it, please write a book and I will buy it. And I mean eating a healthy diet. Anyone can toss goldfish at a kid and find success.
But none of us actually want to do that. We all want to feed our kids the best way we know how. We all want to be intentional and not just survive dinner time. But they make it so hard and so unpleasant. *Eye Twitch*
The One Book That Gave Me HOPE
Last year I read this book that has been the most help so far on my child-feeding journey. It’s called French Kids Eat Everything.
Borrowed from Jonas’ speech therapist, French Kids Eat Everything was, first of all, such a pleasant read. It centers around the food culture of France and how closely social norms and cues are tied in with mealtimes. Second of all, the tactics outlined for feeding kids a healthy diet without fuss were extremely practical, albeit, that’s not to say easy.
If you have kids and they eat food, I recommend you read this book.
Different Types of Eaters
The Refined Yet Finicky Toddler
When I try to explain to people the type of eater my three-year-old is, I can never fully make people understand. He isn’t picky because he eats many strange things for a toddler. For example, the other night I made caprese pizza with a balsamic drizzle on mine. Naturally, I left it off of his because he’s three and probably won’t appreciate that sort of posh pizzazz. But he refused to eat it until I put balsamic on his also. Then he lapped it up!
Last night he DRANK a chipotle yogurt dressing I made. And the kid loves pesto, mushrooms, and ate a banana that was three days too ripe for banana bread. *Shudder* And he’s become “burnt out” on Chick-Fil-A waffle fries, for crying out loud. He chose pistachios over fries last week. Who does that!?
The difficult part with my three-year-old isn’t WHAT he eats. But HOW he eats. He has a very varied palate, but may like something one day and shun it for the next three weeks. One day he wants his sandwich whole, another cut in strips, another I must feed it to him, another he wants a fork, and every day I have to figured out his combination of preferences for that particular day.
The Hungry Yet Picky Infant
My one-year-old, on the other hand, eats starch. I cannot get him to eat a plant to save my life. Not a pineapple, a strawberry, an apple, or a carrot. When I make rice bowls I have to disguise a hair of a broccoli floret with clumps of rice and vegan butter so I can get something with leaves in him. I totally rely on purees and pouches to get him any vegetables or fruits.
The upside is his appetite. My toddler spends so much time fighting for things to be a certain way that he ends up eating like a bird most of the time. But his brother, once he’s locked in an approved food, he’s ride or die. I actually have to cut him off.
And somehow I’m supposed to feed both of these kids without becoming a short order cook. (I refuse to be a short order cook.)
Luckily, with time and trial, I’ve come up with a few tricks to make sure they both get a balanced (and fairly sophisticated) diet.
Breakfast
There are basically three options for breakfast at our house on a typical day: quick oats, dry cereal and almond milk, or almond yogurt and granola.
You may be the dairy eating type, but we avoid dairy as much as possible here. But that’s ok! If you decide to take a tip from our eating habits, it’s an easy swap.
Quick Oats
We don’t oatmeal packets which can be, and usually are, full of flavorings, preservatives, and just junk you don’t need. It’s just as easy to buy a big canister of plain quick oats and heat them up the same way and flavor them yourself.
For the toddler, I use Earth Balance vegan butter (which has some good fats and omega 3’s), pure maple syrup, and cinnamon. For the baby, sometimes I will do the same. But sometimes I will take the opportunity to sneak in a little bit of “fruit” and flavor his oats with unsweetened apple sauce and cinnamon.
On the rare occasion that I have the energy at the end of the day, I’ll make some overnight oats for all of us which is met with equal approval from both kids.
Dry Cereal
When I just want to sip my tea and have an easy morning, I break out the dry cereal. Putting the cereal in milk completely defeats the purpose of making it an easy meal because then I have to feed it to both of them. Plus when it’s dry, they think they are getting a snack.
There are extremely few cereals that I buy. Especially because we shop at Walmart, the choices are limited. I typically buy either Kashi of some sort or one of Walmart brand’s organic cereals. I do not buy any kind of sugary cereal or even cereals that have been sprayed with the entire list of vitamins.
I always give them almond milk to drink with their cereal, usually half plain unsweetened and half Protein almond milk.
Yogurt & Granola
The last typical breakfast we have is almond milk yogurt and granola. There’s nothing particularly special to note about it. I buy granola in bulk from Earth Fare when I can and Bear Naked the rest of the time. This is again, a food that both kids love.
My one-year-old can’t quite do the yogurt granola combo, so sometimes I will make him something of a “milk shake.” with his yogurt. A friend gave me this idea. She does greek. yogurt and peanut butter for her son. I changed it up a little bit: I combine almond yogurt, peanut butter, cinnamon, and a little bit of honey and feed it with a spoon. He loves it and it’s a great way to get in some plant based fat and protein!
Lunch
We eat a variety of things for lunch, but most days it comes down to a few basics for the babes: quesadillas, lentil pasta, a snack tray, or smoothies. Smoothies being the biggest opportunity I have to cram a TON of good stuff into their diets.
Quesadillas
This is fairly straight forward. A lot of times it’s just cheese, but sometimes I will sneak in some rice or refried beans. As long as it’s nice and crispy, they go for it. Sometimes I cut it into strips and Jonas loves to dip it in hummus. Hummus is somehow his favorite thing, so I roll it in anywhere it’s appropriate.
Lentil Pasta
This is another great way I’ve found to get some kind of legume into their bellies without a fuss. We really don’t ever cook wheat pasta anymore–it’s almost always a pasta made of lentil, chick pea, or some other kind of legume flour. My kids happen to love their pasta with basil or sun dried tomato pesto, which I’m all for because of the fat content! My kids don’t eat a lot of meat, so I’m always looking for ways to squeeze in some good sources of mono and poly-unsaturated fats.
Snack Tray
It took me a while to catch up to the snack platter trend, but I learned to just prep a variety of healthy snacks and call it lunch. Here are some of the things I like to mix and match for the kids’ lunch:
- Hummus
- Tortilla chips
- Berries
- Apples & peanut butter
- Mango
- Guacamole
- Bell peppers
- Crackers
- Trail mix
- Pistachios
- Grapes
- Raisins
- Unsweetened applesauce
- Clif Bars/Lara bars
- Veggie straws
- Rice cakes & apple butter
- Dried fruit
- Sliced almonds
Smoothies
THIS is the big one for us. Many, many days we have smoothies for lunch with maybe something a little crunchy on the side. I make it a few different ways, but I’ve narrowed it down to one staple recipe that, I feel, acts as a great supplement for both my boys’ diets.
I remember at one point the doc suggesting I give Jonas Pediasure to drink since he was on the skinny side. I bought it ONE time and looked at the label and said uhhh HECK NO. That stuff may have the vitamin and mineral numbers, but it is absolute crap. I said to myself, “Why can’t I make a supplemental drink for him myself?” And from then on started using smoothies as a supplement. Here’s my recipe:
- 1 banana
- 1/2 cup frozen strawberries
- 1 Tbs. natural peanut butter (not that processed crap)
- handful of spinach
- 3/4 cup plain unsweetened almond milk
- 1 scoop Orgain vegan vanilla protein powder
- 1 Tbs. chia seeds
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 cup of ice
That is the basic recipe I make at least twice a week. However, it changes based on what I have or when I feel like they could use more fruit or a different flavor. Sometimes I throw in some medjool dates or raw honey. Sometimes some coconut flakes. Sometimes some cocoa powder. I just try to make sure the flavors won’t clash and proceed to cram every good thing in that I can!
Snacks
Snacks are obviously the easiest thing to get little ones to eat. I have to constantly distract them from the pantry when we are at home so they will STOP snacking.
Generally, our snacks are the same things I listed above in the lunch list. Often times we do Lara bars because they are a great source of fruit (dates) for my one-year-old and a good place to get some nuts in both of my kids’ diets. I try as much as I can to avoid highly processed foods, though it’s not totally avoidable with friends, extended family, church and other parts of our social life bleeding over. Sometimes you just have to let your hair down.
Related: My Plant-Based Fridge & Snack List
Dinner
By the time dinner rolls around, I’m not too concerned with trying to “balance” there diets anymore for the day because they’e usually had a good variety by then. Especially if they had a smoothie for lunch and a couple of healthy snacks. I refuse to be a short order cook and start bad habits, so my kids are expected to eat what I cook for my husband and I.
We eat a plant based diet, but I cook meat for my husband. I offer to the kids whatever we eat in a more simplified version (i.e. burritos will be served as separate ingredients instead of rolled up together). If all they eat for dinner is the bread served with the meal (for example), then I don’t worry about it because it was something on the table that was part of the meal.
My main goal at dinner time is cooperation. If they eat with a cooperative attitude, I let them eat whatever portion they want and I’m not stingy with a bedtime snack. If they throw tantrums over their meal, they are not offered anything else except maybe a banana before bed so they don’t go to bed starving. (I can’t send my toddler to bed with an empty stomach because he tends to get sick on his stomach the next morning and barely have any energy.)
Things We Don’t Eat
Now, I’m not terribly strict when it comes to what I won’t let my kids eat when we are away from home. I don’t have the energy to be a nazi about snacks when friends or family are involved. But at home, I keep pretty tight reigns on the foods we eat for one reason: the more you eat junk food, the more you will eat junk food. And when my kids start to get a taste for junk food, they no longer eat good food.
Here are a few things I try to avoid feeding my kids:
- Gummy snacks
- Candy of ANY kind
- Dairy of all kinds except occasional cheese (for quesadillas)
- That includes cow milk yogurt, ice cream, pudding, cream cheese, etc.
- Cheese crackers
- Sugar cereals or really any kind of cereal with a long list of ingredients
- Individually pre-packaged anything (oatmeal, grits, granola or cereal bars, etc.) with the exception of Clif bars and Lara bars
- Store bought cakes, cookies, brownies, or any other desserts with the exception of one package of Oreos on occasion for the like for giving my toddler when he is cooperative at dinnertime (I don’t do this very often because I end up eating most of them)
- Deli meat
- Juice
Again, these are foods I do not buy and feed my kids at home. So if you see my toddler out on the playground with a juice box, it’s probably because we stopped at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and he deserves a treat.
Do You Struggle with Picky Kids?
So that’s us! I do my very best to make sure my picky kids are getting a balanced diet, even with very different food preferences. I’ve found a few tricks that work like supplementing with a nutrient dense smoothie and avoiding almost all junk food.
We still have a rough time most days trying to get them to cooperate. But I can rest easy knowing that when my kids DO eat, they are getting good stuff.
What’s your experience with picky kids? What have been your solutions? Are you as much of a healthy diet guru as I am?
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