I don't know about you, but being a mom has totally changed my life. Like, forever.
Gone are the days of impromptu vacations, dual incomes, and doing whatever you want on Saturdays. Now, my days are spent reading curious george, changing diapers, playing cars, building train tracks and trying to assemble quick, healthy meals. Keeping the house clean is a bonus.
Suffice to say, motherhood is different than I expected, especially when it comes to getting a toddler to eat healthy. And it's not always pretty....
When I was in undergrad studying nutrition, we talked about strategies to help kids eat healthy. I thought it sounded pretty simple: 1.) offer a variety of healthy foods, 2.) be patient and if they refuse healthy foods, 3.) continue offering in a gentle, encouraging way. Easy, right? Yeah, at least to a 21 year old college student that sounded easy as pie.
Then reality set it when Will came along. I realized I was dealing with a little human who has his own agenda, his own preferences and his own mind. I still use the same strategies I learned in college, but now I understand that parenting is an adventure....a very unpredictable adventure. One that textbooks don't cover.
Thankfully, with a lot of patience (all credit to God) and practice, Will eats pretty healthy. I saw a special on TV about this new book Bringin Up Bebe and despite having not yet read it, what the author said resonated with me. She said that mothers should feed their children what the adults eat. Of course this assumes that your baby/toddler is old enough to tolerate a wide range of textures and doesn't have any specific allergies. This approach, combined with the 3 strategies mentioned above, has been the key to getting Will to eat healthy foods (and preserving mommy's sanity).
Now I want to hear from YOU. What are your strategies for getting the kiddo-s to eat healthy?
Having kids rocked my world too (I have 2 little boys 2 and 5). They are what brought me to nutrition. I mean, you look at this perfect little being and the last thing you want to do is mess them up, right? I am like you in the sense that I like the food that I serve to be the food that it is. No spinach in my brownies. I believe that the way to get kids to eat well is to make food fun. I make faces with fruit and brocolli forests. More importantly I keep a running dialogue with my kids about food and why things are good and bad for you. I felt pretty silly when my older son was 2 and there wasn't much interaction but now that he is 5 he is saying all of those thing back to me. It's amazing. He really gets it now. I just started a blog and am doing a web .tv show called The Truth About Food. I hope you will check it out.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply. I like your ideas for making food fun! I totally agree! I'll definitely check out your web tv show :)
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