I often get asked what I feed my four year old daughter every day...
If I'm being honest, sometimes I feel like she eats the same thing(s) every damn day.
Seriously.
It can be so challenging to feed these picky kids! But she's very healthy, and she is growing, so I know she's getting adequate nutrition. And not to toot my own horn (HONK!), but she has only been truly sick (aside from the occasional runny nose) once in her lifetime. I'd say that's pretty good.
I try hard to make her meals fun & healthy. And I don't overwhelm her with too many vegetables - otherwise she won't eat them.
Here are a few samples of what she ate for lunch last week:
*Sliced Kiwi, *Cucumber slice, *Whole Milk Greek Yogurt + Honey, quesadilla (*Whole wheat tortilla, *Refried Beans + Colby Jack Cheese + *Sour Cream)
2. *Trader Joe's Macaroni & Cheese, *Strawberries, *Steamed Broccoli
3. Quesadilla (same as above), Homemade pancakes, *sliced strawberries, *cucumber, dark chocolate chips
*Organic ingredients.
People often ask if my daughter is a vegetarian & to answer that question, no she's not. She will occasionally eat chicken nuggets & salmon (when we go to sushi) but that's the only interest she has ever shown in eating meat - I'm unsure why, I assume it's because I don't eat it & we don't have it in the house very often.
I try to buy almost all organic produce, but there are times I don't. In our family, it's all about balance - I try to teach her that it's okay to have certain foods (like sugar) sometimes, but we should try not to have them a lot. It's impossible to be perfect 100 percent of the time - I tried that once & it led me to an eating disorder (we will save that for another post). I want my daughter to love food without fearing it, but I'll be honest, there are times I have to stop myself from being a little cray cray (do people still say that?). :) I wish she would eat more vegetables, but hey, I know she gets at least 1-2 servings a day. I also know that she's watching me, so as long as I continue to eat healthy, whole foods, she will follow in my footsteps some day (in her own time).
A few mistakes I think a lot of us parents make are:
1. Pushing kids to eat what we want them to - this only causes them to push back.
2. Offering kids big portions of fruits & veggies hoping they will eat it all - this overwhelms them.
3. Giving up after they reject something once - you have to keep trying!
My advice is to just allow them to eat & have fun with it! Stop pushing them to eat what you want them to (Something I'm working on too). Offer smaller pieces of the foods they may not be thrilled about - cucumbers, broccoli, peppers etc.
If they reject something, keep trying over and over. Eventually they may give in.
Teach them it's okay to eat certain foods sometimes, but not to overindulge - my favorite thing to tell Lucy is that "sugar is a sometimes food, but we don't want to eat too much of it because it's really not great for our bodies." Now she says that too!
Try not to stress about it, do your best & remember to keep offering healthy foods, even if they don't eat it right away.
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