Hi, I am Donna: Eric's wife, stay-at-home mom to 3 beautiful children, and now blogger! I'll be starting a regular series at Eat Like No One Else called "Food For Our Brood" where I will take you through each day of food for our 3 kids, the good, the bad and the ugly. I believe that teaching our children good nutrition and eating habits when they are very young will carry them to make good food decisions when they are adults. We constantly strive to provide healthy foods for our kids, and limit processed products as much as possible. It is difficult in the society we live in to get away from boxed foods, frozen dinners and commit make things from scratch, but it is a priority for us. In this series I will highlight areas I think need some work, offer some tips and tricks I've learned along the way, and certainly there will be plenty to make you smile! Let me begin by introducing you to our amazing subjects (I've given them nicknames for safety reasons).
Grace: Our almost-5-year-old girl who, in past years, was a very finicky eater and has always had difficulty gaining weight. She has now been more willing to at least TRY new foods. She loves vegetables, fruit, cheese, and chocolate. We love to include our kids in the process of preparing foods so they understand the time and care it takes to make great food, and to entice their senses into trying the food once it is served.
Faithy: Our precious 2 year old girl who actually fears new foods. Her eating repertoire consists mostly of cereal with milk on it, fruit, and crackers. A lot of this series is going to focus on how we get vegetables and protein into this kid! When she finds something she likes, she'll eat a TON of it, but she'll also go days and days on a bowl of cheerios and bananas.
Little Guy: Our 8 month old boy who is just beginning to eat table foods. He has a suspected wheat/gluten allergy so we have to get creative with mealtimes for him. He will eat just about anything he can manage to chew with his two tiny teeth. We have always made homemade baby food for all 3 of our kids, and we continue to learn more about infant nutrition. We want to expose him to bold flavors and interesting textures as a baby, so hopefully when he hits the 2-year-old food battles, his palette will be a little less restrictive.
I hope you all find this series helpful and interesting, and I plan to utilize it as a tool for myself to improve how we "Eat Like No One Else" in our own home.
Joylynn
Hi Donna, I look forward to reading your blog because I'm struggling with knowing how to help Sonya grow in her willingness to eat new things (she'll be 1 tomorrow and is already quite different from my experience with Pascal who ate everything and anything and still does). She puts a lot of things into her mouth that she lets come back out if it seems like she doesn't like the texture. Example: she loves pureed carrots, but not soft cooked carrots, pureed peas but not whole cooked peas, etc... It's stressing me out a little to be honest. So any wisdom you can share will be wonderful!
Donna Samuelson
I have had similar feeding issues with Faithy, and I have struggled with it stressing me out too! She seems to be very sensitive to textures, and if something doesn't feel right she will spit it out, and then will not try that food again for a LONG time (or ever). Although I still have days when I get stressed out about her not eating enough veggies, I think the best approach is to continue offering the foods over and over again, in fun and exciting ways, and I believe eventually she will choose to eat those healthy foods. I'll be writing about how to hide vegetables and fruits into beloved kid foods like macaroni and cheese and cookies, so maybe that will be helpful! One thing I believe above all else, try to keep meal time free from battles- it only makes the child more resistant the next time.