Feeding a Child

This post has been brewing in my head for awhile as the experience of getting Paul to eat the foods we want him to eat has been challenging at times. Outside of my gluten intolerance, I'd say I am probably one of the least pickiest eaters you'll encounter.

Enjoy his at home milk and banana muffin breakfast before heading to school at 6:50 am

Lately I've thought a lot about when exactly I became an open-minded eater. Was it when I was 1? 4? 7? I grew up in a big family so it was never a realistic option for my mom to make different meals for each kid. We all ate the same thing and if you didn't like what was served, you could always eat a peanut butter sandwich. Phil is also not a picky eater. There are more foods he doesn't like, such as mushrooms and chunks of tomatoes, but in general he is not picky. We want Paul to be the same way.

Eating his favorite post-meal snack - graham crackers!

But now that I have a very opinionated 14-month old that flat out refuses to eat a lot of things at home, I'm realizing that the road to creating an open-minded eater might require some detours along the way.

For example:  I had visions of us sitting down to dinner as a family to eat healthy, well-balanced meals. But Paul barely sleeps at daycare so he goes to bed around 6:30. That means he eats dinner around 5:45 which is just way too early for Phil and me. We get home around 5-5:15 so I would spend a good chunk of the limited time I get with him preparing dinner. And sometimes I want to work out after Paul goes to bed so eating at 5:45-6 just doesn't work for us.

At this current stage, it works best for us to make something for Paul and for us to eat something different after he is in bed. When prepping Paul's dinner, I make things that I know he will eat. There is not a ton of variety to what he eats - his most common meals are scrambled eggs, protein pancakes, chipotle black bean burgers, or organic mac and cheese and meatballs. He starts every meal with yogurt. We try to get him to eat vegetables at home but have had little success with the exception of cooked carrots which he gobbles up. He will eat any vegetable in puree form but I would rather he feed himself versus us spoon feeding him (he's a long ways off from mastering a spoon).

Jamming as many banana protein pancakes in his mouth as he possibly can!

At school, he is an amazing eater. He will basically eat anything they serve him and the food is very healthy. They eat a lot of beans/lentils, veggies, fruits and whole grain bread or tortillas. Everything is organic and prepared onsite. So I give myself a little bit of a pass on his dinners being heavy on protein/carbs and light on fruits/vegetables since he eats so well at school.

At some point, we'll need to adjust our approach to feeding him. But with a 4th percentile baby who is slow to put on weight, I don't have it in me to take the 'eat what we serve you or go to bed hungry' approach. I feel like that approach is more appropriate (in our opinion) when he's old enough to understand consequences (no judgment toward parents who take this approach from a very young age!). Right now he's still learning to communicate so I don't think he'd understand why he is going to bed hungry. I also have to think about the importance of a good night of sleep for all of us. Sending Paul to bed hungry could result in lots of wake ups and right now I don't have it in me to deal with interrupted sleep.

I look forward to a time when he can stay up later and we can all eat as a family, ideally around 6:15. I'll have to adjust our meals and cut back on the spices (Phil and I love spicy food!) but it will be worth it for all of us to sit down at the table and eat the same meal. In the mean time, I'm telling myself that we are all doing the best we can and his potential to be an open-minded eater is not dependent upon what he eats in the first 12-18 months of his life (other moms, please chime in and tell me this is true!).