I need your help! Yesterday I found myself literally, and I mean literally, shoving food into Patrick's (15 months) mouth and then manually moving his jaw up and down in the chewing motion to get him to eat his dinner. Not only was this a physical work out for me, but it was a completely ridiculous enterprise that I must confess I have done once before. You can't blame the food... It was standard chicken, peas, carrots and rotini pasta.
So in the midst of this spectacle of force feeding, I recall a babycenter.com email that I had gotten before that said, "Never force feed your child." I then had a semi out of body experience and saw how CRAZY I must have looked with my screaming toddler on my lap and me desperately poking peas through his pursed lips. Man oh man!
Ok, it was time to call on the big guns for help. Who is the patron saint of getting your kids to eat exactly what you want and when you want? I didn't know, so I settled for a less direct route and went with St. Monica for patience and St. Elizabeth of Hungary for food.
They helped me out with a quick fix with this (divine?) idea. I took some vanilla pudding and added wheat germ and the rest of his peas/carrots/chicken and pasta and mixed it all up. While he did eat every last bite, I do realize that mixing his protein with pudding is almost equally as ridiculous as my first atrocity.
I need to find the balance of having him eat, not being ridiculous, and teaching a 15 month old how to obey with out being unrealistic.
So, ladies, do you have any wise suggestions to help me 1. get him to eat dinner. 2. keep my sanity and 3. A saint who helps out in times like this?
Any help would be gladly appreciated.
6 comments:
I don't know about a patron for getting kids to eat but if you get food lodged in Patrick's throat in your attempts at force feeding--St. Blaze is your man! My Joey is a horrific eater as well- I rely on liquid calories-whole milk and vitamin/minerals in Pediasure. He otherwise eats like a bird. Everyone tells me he'll grow out of it--I hope so!
I came across a cookbook which has recipes on sneaking "healthy" foods into meals for kids. I've tried a few recipes and my husband can't even tell! Go to www.SneakyChef.com to buy the book.
Also, Jessica Seinfeld just wrote a Cookbook "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food"...
--Jennifer Smith
Yes! I was going to mention the Seinfeld book- I saw it on Oprah (yes, it is a guilty pleasure of mine that I try to indulge in at least once a week). Also- Simon loves cottage cheese, and because it already has an interesting texture I find it easy to add finely chopped ANYTHING to it!
Try St. Lawrence (Patron of cooks) and St. Benedict. The tradition of blessing meals started with him. People would put all sorts of demonic spells on his meals trying to kill him- or possess him. SO he would always have to bless his food before eating it. Often times other people would offer to taste before him- and at one point apparently a raven (or black crow) flew into a window and snatched the food from his hand as we was about to eat it to prevent him from being poisoned...hence he is shown with that black bird all the time.
Not that I am trying to imply that your food is in anyway possessed or poisoned! But maybe St. Benedict can help Pat!
Anyway- hope this helps, sorry for the book.
Don't worry about it. The "white diet" is typical for this age and once you have more children, God willing, or are around friends with children at lunchtime, your son will emulate. In the meantime, think, do I want someone shoving food in MY mouth?!?! :)
All good suggestions - I checked out the Sneaky Chef www - AWESOME! I'm going to order the book!
A principle that I have found to work in my house is to introduce the healthy thing as the only option. For example, I only use whole grains: bread, pasta, rice, flour, etc. The boys don't know the difference b/c they've never had white bread, etc, so they love and now prefer the whole grain choice. Instead of buying flavored instant oatmeal packages, I make my own using the plain stuff, milk, some dried fruit or applesauce and a touch of honey - all in the microwave. The boys love it and it really doesn't take that much extra time. We've also recently introduced this new "rule" - you don't have to eat all of it, but you have to atleast try everything on your plate. Mostly for Noah, since Ian is too young. I wouldn't say its 100% used and followed, but it planted a seed and seems to be working more and more. I find that "hiding" things in mac 'n cheese also helps. Finally, when all else fails a little "white lie" has worked for us. We convinced Noah that peas are "power pellets" and every one that he would eat we would make a big deal about a new muscle we saw sprout up b/c of the power pellet! He really got into it! Which influenced Ian to eat his too!
Also, remember, it could take 7-15 times of introducing a food to your toddler before they accept it.
And finally, at this age, all you can do is try. If you keep introducing new flavors and textures, at least he'll be exposed to them which is half the battle when they're older.
Love the power pellet idea. Too cute! Deceptively Delicious is great. I saw that Oprah, too. Thanks, Ladies.
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