So above are my three eldest boys lunches for today. Am I proud of them? Why yes I am. Is this because I am a freak and take my mothering way too seriously? Yes possibly.....
But I do take the food side of my mothering nearly as seriously as I take my interest in educating them! (You can keep the cleaning, clothing, housework bit of caring for children, thanks ....)
My last post on S's first food - I mentioned baby led weaning. This is where you don't make purees or give babies slush. You can start them on chewable foods like cooked vegetables (pumpkin, zucchini, potato, etc) and fruit. All cut into 'holdable' strips - such that the baby can (eventually) pick it up and get it into his mouth on his own. Baby led weaning is not about food consumption - more the 'self-discovery' of food - all of the baby's nutrients are still coming from breast milk. This changes gradually until they are about one year old, when the food takes over as the main source of nutrition. They eat our food from day 1 - no separate eating.
I think the key is that children should eat like us. I do not understand the American (and Australian) 'tasting down' of children's food and meals. There are children that will only eat pasta, with butter. Children that won't eat a vegetable or even fruit. The kid's meals in some restaurants are insulting to the taste buds (let alone health) of human beings.
There I said it. (It is my blog so I can make judgements - stop reading if you don't like it!!!)
So how do you make kids eat a VARIETY of foods? Because that is the key I think. The French do it and it is normal for kids to eat like adults there.
My thoughts in no particular order (my mind has stopped being able to do things in order any more due to sleep deprivation and over dosing on multi-tasking):
1) One family - one meal. No separate foods for kids. Ever. No exception.
2) Teach kids to try foods. Just one bite is fine. Train them that when they are bigger they will like a food - if they don't like it now, they will when they become a big boy/girl. Nothing like implying that they are still a baby if they won't eat it. But it is actually the truth. Taste is developed and refined as we mature and try more things. Keep trying, keep serving it up.
3) No snacking. Only morning tea and afternoon tea - which should be a sit at the table/counter affair (not running around) or proper picnic box if out and about. Absolutely no use of food as a soother or 'here have food so please just be quiet whilst we ...." during the day. No food in the car (unless it is picnic box because you must travel at meal time). No food at the park or playing (unless again it is as a specific meal time). Generally snacks should be fruit, nuts or one treat (normally afternoon tea). My kids have watermelon and cashews and yoghurt for afternoon tea. Morning tea is also a fruit (pear, apple, banana) and perhaps a piece of sourdough bread with butter (if they are home).
4) For lunch offer a smorgasboard of options. Cherry tomatoes, cucumber strips, carrot strips, cheese strips (home made - cut off block with a knife - I know, crazy concept), ham strips, tuna in a bowl with some cream cheese with baked crackers, grapes, artichokes, asparagus, boiled eggs, sushi (if I have made), leftover dinner, yoghurt. My kids love all of these and they watch as I cut it up and present it (as nicely as I can) on each of their plates. Sometimes they don't eat much of one thing or another - sometimes they eat the lot.
5) Hydration from water, and water only. No need for cordials or fizzy drinks. I provide a glass of milk for afternoon tea. No fruit juices. Sometimes I a make a green smoothie - but they don't love that .... yet.
6) I would love to wean the kids off sweetened yoghurt - but no luck yet. So I look for the lowest sugar content yoghurt I can find (around 15% sugar is the best I can get).
7) I try and make an entrée of vegetables before dinner each night. Once again - very French way. Cut up celery, carrot, cucumber, broccoli and serve on plate with a home made dip (easy with Mr Gray) or just on their own. I let them grab this as much as they want whilst waiting for dinner to cook. This means, that I don't need to worry about too many vegies in the main meal.
8) Lunchboxes - when preparing think - is there a complex carbohydrate, a protein, 2 - 3 vegetable serves and a fruit serve. I don't worry about a calcium serve as I give them milk, cheese, yoghurt for afternoon tea or in the dinner. Also think about what should not be in there - preservatives, additives, 'numbers', fillers, all that YUCK stuff in prepackaged foods. It is cheaper, but more time consuming to provide a healthy lunch. And I am a cheapskate.
9) Dinner - vary it up. Try two new meals a week. Vary the region and flavours. Tonight my kid's are trying home made butter chicken. I don't know if they will like it. But frankly, if they are hungry enough they will eat it. If they are not, at least they will have had some carrot/vegie sticks. And a big breakfast tomorrow no doubt. Don't hold back on what to cook because they are just kids - they can enjoy all we do - this is a widely promoted fallacy. Use parmesan cheese, use spices, use exotic foods - they don't know it is 'exotic'. I love that my 2 year old asks for asparagus, and the 4 year old loves beetroot. They don't know they are weird.
10) Breakfast - go for at least two course. I have gone off packaged cereal completely. We used to buy a very expensive gluten free brand for T (full of sugar and 'numbers') - and a very expensive seed mix for D. Now we make 'cereal/muesli' from scratch (quinoa flakes, chia seeds, almonds, green apple, coconut, dried cranberries, pepitas, cacoa nibs) in Mr Gray. Some kids add milk, others yoghurt. After this, they have scrambled eggs or soft boiled eggs served with cherry tomatoes and carrots and cucumber. Sometimes they have peanut butter toast as well. All with water. I feel a huge sense of achievement (I know, I know - I am a freak) when my kids consume a huge breakfast - that has carbs, protein and vegies. Before we get up, my kids have also generally helped themselves to a piece of fruit as well - I find the peel all over the house when I arise. Sometimes I think I need to hide the fruit - but there could be worse food they are sneaking?!
11) As much as possible eat with your kids as a family. If you are all eating - they will more likely it. Also have a rule - that everyone sits at the table until everyone is finished. Lots of time out to enforce this for us at the start. But they get it now. And often at the start of a meal, I get "I don't like it". I say, fine, but that is what's for dinner so that is all you are getting. By the end, I can see out of the corner of my eye they are eating it whilst talking about other things etc. Mostly it goes down. If it doesn't I do keep it in the fridge in case, after we all get down, they decide they do want it.
12) Serve kid's meals in ramekins or small dishes. Serve small quantities. So that it doesn't look daunting. They can always have seconds, thirds.
13) Treats are completely okay. Any food is okay - every so often - think parties, special nights out etc. Just not everyday, as a matter of course. Funnily enough, my kids don't hanker after treats, like you might think they would. T likes chocolate - but his Easter eggs are still in the downstairs fridge. I put them away after they had had heaps on Easter Sunday. No one has asked for them since. D and I don't like chocolate like that (I do like chocolate but more in foods) so it has remained uneaten. Lots of them (like six big bunnies, twenty small eggs) - anyone want them??!!
14) Baking is still a dilemma for me. I love to bake and my kids love to bake. But I struggle to find healthy baking recipes - that is, low sugar and gluten free, that actually still taste good. If I bake unhealthy stuff - I squaff it down myself which does nothing to help my diet! Am looking further into concept of 'whole food baking'.
15) Another dilemma for me - is that my kids eat more healthily than me some days. This is not so much a dilemma as a personal challenge - to ensure that I look after my body as much as I am trying to look after theirs. A friend brought over choc chip cookies (homemade). E turned his nose up at them. T couldn't eat them (wheat). I had eaten them all before W got home. Three of them. So I need to follow my own mantras re healthy eating ... note to self, and a keeping it real reality for my blog!
