Now I have proof that he isn't always smiling! Tonight in an attempt to interest JT in some different foods, I let him get a little hungry - he wanted to eat some applesauce, but I said he should wait until dinner was ready. And he was excited to get into his "high chair" when he saw me bring the plate over. But then he realized that I hadn't been making mac&cheese, but instead he got noodles with alfredo sauce, brocolli, and a meatball. YUCK! He looked so disappointed and did try to eat a few of the noodles, but the whole wheat-ness of them just wasn't right, and all the food ended up on the floor along with the applesauce, which I did offer to him as an ersatz.
Supposedly you need to introduce a food 10-15 before a child will even try it. Sounds easy, but it is not fun to pick up food you spent time cooking and then mopping the floor everyday.
I ended up cooking the mac&cheese (with spinach), because he was one sad and hungry little guy, and he had been brave enough to try a couple more bites of the whole wheat noodles. (By the way, I am not such a huge fan of the whole wheat noodles, either. If they weren't "good for you" I wouldn't bother.)
3 comments:
Feeding a toddler can be frustrating! I've read something like "Providing healthy choices is the parent's job, eating is the kid's job" meaning that it is up to them what they eat. It's hard not to stress about it, though.
i think the 10-15 times rule works with older children (i.e., me) too - we're still trying to eat whole wheat pasta at our house.
I've been thinking about this issue, too. I heard about a study that found that toddlers make up for lost calories at their next few meals--they took a group of toddlers and gave half lowfat yogurt and half full-fat yogurt and lo and behold, the lowfat-getting kids made up for their 'lost' calories at their next meal. So this, to me, gives credence to steph's idea that you "provide them with healthy choices and allow them to decide to eat." If it's any consolation, this is exactly what my mom--the pediatric nutritionist--recommends, too. She's right, but it doesn't matter how many times I tell myself he won't starve if he doesn't eat much at a meal, I still get my undies in a bunch over when he turns his nose up. I hate wasting food, plus there's the cooking and cleaning you mentioned. Oy. Clearly, we need a staff for this job.
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