Lunchbox - Good Eating Habits

A friend of mine mentioned, after I commented on Facebook "Stop playing the game," of hiding veggies so  your kids will eat them. She had a good point. Many young kids are not at an age of reasoning or understanding. So, you can't just explain to them that it is healthy, or explain to them about food waste, or even make strong stands to some regard. It becomes a fight, and sometimes it's just not worth the battle, and you want them to actually eat. Otherwise you set yourself up for the possibility of a crabby, hungry, baby later in the day. Not fun! 

But, I truly believe a couple of things when it comes to feeding our children.

1. It starts with the first foods you are feeding your children: What you feed them in the beginning sets up their palate. If you are feeding rice cereal, breads, pastas, and other filler foods, you are create their taste palate for those foods. There is also research that suggests that a mother's diet during pregnancy predisposes a baby to like certain foods. Fetus's have more taste buds in utero and at birth than their they will at any other time in their lives, kinda crazy and cool. 
2. It is never too late to change the palate of your children: This is a commitment. Prepare yourself for battles, to stand your ground, and to make a routine. But, with practice and patience you can help your children fall in love with healthy foods. 

I am sure some of you are asking yourselves, "What does she know about picky eaters?" Oh, but I do. Based on my own personal experiences with my two very different children and their very different dietary upbringings, I have my theories. 
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My Family Case Study: A Story of Two VERY Different Eaters From the Same Family

From the time I knew I was pregnant with my first I became a crazy nutrition freak (I was already partially there, this just threw me over the edge). I had a goal; to help my daughter develop a palate for healthy, natural foods. I took this very seriously, a little obsessive actually. I followed quite a bit of the Weston A price Foundation nutrition guidelines back then.

• I made M1's foods. Nothing to complex, I never bought a puree machine or any of the baby food gadgets. 
• I gave her food from our plates. I never really made separate baby meals for her. She ate what we ate. I was not one of the parents that strictly singled out and gave one food at a time. We just started trying things form our plates (mashed and in small portions, tastes of our foods). I wanted her to mimic our eating habits, not have separate eating habits. For many, this means changing the way YOU EAT.
• I help her in a front carry quite a bit while I cooked, or gave her fresh, raw vegetables to chew on while I cooked. One of her favorites and first foods was green onions. There is a funny story there. I was cooking dinner and she was in a sling and she kept reaching for the green onions and I finally gave in and said, "here, your not going to like it." She loved it. Go figure.
• When I did make her baby food, I gave her healthy foods we wouldn't necessarily eat all the time, like liver. I wanted her to like these healthy foods.
• I gave her full fat dairy. Any yogurt I gave her was full fat, and plain. I did not do flavored yogurts. Too much sugar and I wanted her to develop a palate for plain flavored yogurt. 
• I gave her foods that I wanted her to like. I did not flavor them, except with fresh herbs and sea salt. 
• We avoided all sweets for the first several years of her life. It was not easy. I had to reprimand grandparents frequently. My dad is notorious for buying the girls chocolate milk. For years, I had to remind him we were not giving her chocolate milk yet. I would drink it, as a good parent does, to prevent my kids access to such a delicious concoction.
• Some examples of foods we fed her from the get go: egg yolks, liver, plain full milk yogurt, berries, broccoli, green beans, green onions, beets, etc…We always did a variety of things, and tried new things as a family. This way she could mimic our eating habits.

What did we accomplish?  M1 has a palate that prefers fresh fruits and veggies, she typically chooses less processed foods. She is also willing to try new foods with gusto. How many 6 year olds are excited to try fish eyeballs, on their own. She prefers unsweetened foods, and when she does have something sweet, it is typically only a couple bites and she is done. She will tell us frequently that foods are too sweet. 

The other side of our story, is M2. I would like to say we were as dedicated with M2 and her palate, as we were with M1. There were many things that we did the same.

• We fed her from our plates. 
• We started her on foods that we wanted her to enjoy, like eggs and liver.
• We avoided most sweets for several years.

What was different with the second. 

• We already had an older daughter (4 when M2 started eating solids), who ate breads, sweets, and other things we have avoided for years. To give them to M1 and not M2 just didn't seem to happen.
• We were a bit more lax in our own eating habits. As everyone does from time to time, we went through a period of less than ideal eating habits. Not to say we eat take out pizza and hot wings every night, but we were eating out more, eating more processed foods, buying more processed foods and typically not adhering to a diet that I would have with M1. 
• When we gave M2 meals we gave her dips (ketchup, ranch, etc..) that I never would have with M1 because I wanted her to eat her foods without added flavors. To enjoy the foods as they were so to speak. 
• I fed M2 only the foods she would eat. I was buys chasing around my older daughter and working on starting up my practice again, I  thought I didn't have time to keep trying new foods, or be persistent with the foods she didn't like so much.

What did we accomplish? M2 was a picky eater. She would only eat certain foods, she would throw a fit if I made her try something new. The foods she liked, french fries, chicken nuggets, ketchup. Oh My God what had I done! She had become the kid I didn't want (dietarily speaking). She had developed a palate for junk! It was all my fault. She couldn't make her own food, she couldn't make the original choices, that was me, I did that.
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What to do next?

M2 had developed a picky, junk food diet. I am embarrassed to say. I knew it needed to change, now! She was 2 1/2 now, and pretty set in her ways. I knew it was going to take some patience, work and dedication to change things. I looked back into what I had done with M1, and tried to start from scratch. 

• I began by including her in my cooking: I would let her help chop vegetables, and eat them as we chopped. Red Bell Peppers, Carrots, Broccoli, etc… I would take a bite and make a big deal over it, and wait for her to want a bite. 
• M2 had vegetables that she did like, so I used those as gateway veggies: Broccoli was her all time favorite. I would make big batches of steamed broccoli and add in 1 piece of a new veggie (say brussels or carrot) and I wouldn't let her down until she ate the one bite of other veggie. This was a challenge, and there were tears, but after several round of being consistent, she began to understand that if she ate it, she was good. 
• This was also the start of our new family meal rule. If you don't finish your meal, that is your snack. Many parents are worried about this one, they are worried their kids will starve, be hungry and cranky. I will say, there will be those days, and you will want to cave in and give them something, but stay strong and consistent, it will pay off. We made the rule for everyone, M1, me and hubby as well as M2. Any food left on the plate stayed on the plate until you were hungry later. This one still stands, and has helped ends battles over eating all of our dinners before dessert or evening snacks. 
• One of M2's downfalls, and what she ate almost everyday was chicken nuggets. I tried to buy the best quality ones I could, but they were still chicken nuggets. I started with this one by making my own at home. I cut chicken breasts into nugget sizes and coated them in almond flour, paprika salt and pepper and baked them until cooked. A better option of a junk food. I have this recipe if anyone is interested….super easy.
• This was also the beginning of our dinnertime motto. We will all have to eat foods we don't like. By having a variety of dinners each week, we have more opportunity to eat foods we like and foods we do not like. But, just because we do not like a food, does not mean we are not going to eat it. I use myself as an example. I do not like zucchini, but in the summer I have to not only find ways to cook it and use it, but eat it until I feel I can't anymore. Hubby does the same with Mushrooms, and I aspect the girls to do the same now.
• We talk about how food makes us feel after we eat it: If we eat a bunch of sweets, most of us feel crappy afterwards. We don't do it often. When M2 complains of stomach ache, I often say its because she ate too much sugar (even if she didn't'). Now she associates eating too much sweets with feeling sick and she stops herself.

What did we accomplish? A turn around. Did it happen over night? No. Did it happen in a month? No. It has been a long journey of turn around. Now M2 is open to trying new foods, she accepts the fact that if she doesn't eat all her dinner, she will have to eventually. There is less dinner anxiety, although we do have nights that are rough still, but overall there is improvement. M2 still loves her sweets, but accepts that they are a treat. 

Main Lunch:

• Yogurt Parfait: I layered plain, full fat yogurt, raspberries, bananas, and a drizzle of raw, unfiltered honey.
• Side of Coco-Nutty Granola: M1 dislikes granola in her yogurt, but likes in on the side.

Snack Time:

• Hummus and Carrots
• Horizon Organic Cheddar Crackers: This is a junk food, and not something I would have really chased, but M1 wanted some in her snack bag today. I let her pick them out on the last grocery trip. She loves these things.