As I sautéed veggies (onions, poblano chiles, asparagus and mushrooms) to add to a box of 2% Velveeta mac and cheese Monday night for dinner, it occurred to me that I need to start menu planning again. I did so well for months and months, and then this year I’m pretty sure I haven’t done it at all – more than 3 months. I don’t know about planning for a whole month like Jennie, but certainly back to weekly or even biweekly. Hubby is trying to start cooking instead since he feels a little useless on the job front. Does anyone have any suggestions for somewhat healthy recipes he can make?
Also regarding food, I’m struggling with the toddler-eating situation. Here’s how it goes: I’ve never been a food pusher. Spencer spent two years of not really eating dinner, and I never cared. He eats ridiculous amounts of food for breakfast (he could out-eat me and my husband combined) but as the day goes on he eats less and less. We are not a dessert household, so there’s no “treat” hanging over his head if he doesn’t eat.
All that being said, lately he’s been telling me he’s hungry, so I make him a (very small plate) and about 30 seconds after I put it in front of him he starts to get up and says he’s not hungry. At this point we usually make him eat half of his dinner but I feel so conflicted about forcing him to eat! And then Hubby’s favorite threat is to tell S if he doesn’t eat it, daddy is going to eat it which completely gets my goat. Every night, same thing.
So Help! On both fronts, help please.
4 comments:
Fuss does the EXACT same thing. So maybe it's the age?
But my husband is the world's least picky eater from a family of incredibly picky eaters and he is determined to make sure that our children aren't picky eaters. So we have the policy that fine, you don't have to eat it tonight, but you will see it for breakfast if you don't make an effort tonight. It usually works, but one day last week, she literally didn't eat anything all day until I finally gave her a different dinner that night (I guess she REALLY didn't want that meal).
I heard that works pretty well. My small group leader did it to all 3 of her kids when they tried to get picky, and it only took one incident of holding out for them to stop.
And I think you are on the right track of not forcing him to finish the whole meal. Is there something he REALLY loves (since you don't do dessert), that can be a reward for eating a little bit of everything?
Let me know what ends up working. I'm taking notes :)
I usually hold out on bread, so he has to eat some of his other food before he can get bread. And if I'm really pushing the other food, I'll break off bites and give him one bite of bread for a couple bites of other stuff. It doesn't work with veggies though - he'd even rather forsake the bread than eat the veggies.
I'm late on this...but here's what I teach my students from the research and textbooks I have. Put the plate down in front of him. If he says he doesn't want it, don't make ANY reaction or say anything. Just pick up the plate and put it in the fridge. When he comes back and he's hungry, take the plate out and warm it up. If he won't eat it, same thing. Now, if he gets to a point where he is losing weight, they suggest that you have one or two healthy items that he can make himself, like a peanut butter sandwich. Apparently, making themselves food is time consuming and makes them not want to do that so they will eat their dinner. Anywho....I have no real experience in this just yet, so take it for what it is. LOL!
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