We don't frequent fast food that often, so this post isn't about the Happy Meal as you were probably thinking. This is just a quick post about how lucky I feel sometimes as a mother to have a healthy eater. I have friends who struggle with extremely picky eaters and it's a challenge to keep them above the 10th percentile in weight. To me, that's a foreign concept and I'm grateful for that. Who knows how the next kid will be, but for now I'm so appreciative of my turkey's appetite.
Generally, Drew will eat anything you put in front of him, except for plain chicken and a few other items like peas (just like his daddy) and most fish. He's great at eating fruits and vegetables and because we don't have sweets too often in the house, he understands the occasional cookie or ice cream is a big treat. Obviously, with how obese America is, Derek and I's ultimate goal is to keep him eating a balanced diet for as long as we can. He drinks only 1% milk or water, we always have fruit or veggies with almost every meal and his snacks are something healthy as well. You won't see him sucking down fruit boxes or holding a pack of m&m's anytime soon. Not judging those who do, just a personal choice by his parents!
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| Drew and his girlfriend enjoying dinner al fresca. |
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| Enjoying a post-dinner special treat. |
Have you found it gets harder to keep them eating healthy the older your kids got, or is parental influence really the determiner?
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Also, stay tuned as I have an awesome Giveaway for dog lovers at the end of this week. It's a really fantastic prize and I'll leave you with my two-word hint: Mutts and Molecules!
My niece surprised us when we had her for 2 weeks, she wanted fruit more than anything which was amazing.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you! Ethan rarely gets milk at all -- 1% if he does, or unsweetened almond milk, whatever we happen to have on hand -- and chugs water throughout the day. No juice. I mean, one time we squeezed an orange and stuck a straw in it and he drank that, so technically that was juice -- but you know what I mean. ;) He eats everything and anything, too. His favorite foods, if you ask him, are veggie burritos or Brussel's sprouts. People are always giving me the side eye when my 2 year old is snacking on nuts or fruit and eats just about anything we put in front of him (except plain chicken! Funny, right?! Ha!). If we go to a birthday party, I do let him have cake and whatever is being served. It doesn't upset me because I know how healthy he eats at home. (Heck, his pediatrician uses our meals as guidelines to pass out to other parents! I found this out recently.)
ReplyDeleteI fully, fully admit that I am a picky, awful eater so it amazes me how well Ethan eats and it's my goal to keep it this way. When he gets his haircut, I do pop the occasional Cocoa Puff or M&M in his mouth to get him to SIT (haha), but that's it. Kid snacks on fresh veggies, hummus, homemade smoothies -- we don't do anything processed in our home as a rule.
Someone asked me how I did this, got him to be such a great eater, and I honestly don't think it's anything I do specially. Processed junk foods aren't an option in our home and so he doesn't know them. I always make sure as well to not do "kids meals" versus "adult meals." I don't see the point in us eating dinner and having something altogether different than what my son is eating and won't do that. He eats what we eat, and he EATS it, which is awesome. It's not dinner if he doesn't ask for more broccoli, and I'm cool with that.
Psh, I wish my kid ate half as well as Drew does! Natalie is SO picky, I'm lucky if she gets 1-2 servings of fruits/veggies a WEEK.
ReplyDeleteAs my child ages she is becoming pickier. She loves fruit, but she has recently turned up her nose to vegetables. I have to be creative. Although she has started requesting shrimp if we eat at Asian restaurants which is new.
ReplyDeleteWe've been lucky with our first.. She will literally eat ANYTHING so we never had to fight with her over veggies or fruit. So it's been really easy for us to have her eat healthy. She only gets one very small glass of juice in the morning, and it's V8 juice then it's water all day until dinner and she can have milk. I think if the parents eat healthy that has a huge impact on what the kids eat.
ReplyDeleteI've been blessed with good eaters too! I just love drew sitting at that little table, so grown up!
ReplyDeleteUgh. Marcus is so hot and cold with his eating. He does great with fruits, loves his corn and peas, but I have such a hard time getting him to eat protein. The only time he seems interested in a turkey/chicken/pbj sandwich is if he's NOT in his highchair. Thank goodness he loves his milk (he's never had a sip of juice, no plans to start on that, either) and water.
ReplyDeleteCAN.NOT.WAIT for your giveaway!! :)
This is great. We try to limit sweets for my daughter too and sometimes get flack for it. I have mixed feelings about the whole picky eating thing. My daughter is a pretty good eater (for a toddler - haha), but my husband was the WORST picky eater as a toddler/kid. My mother in law tried EVERYTHING, to no avail. It wasn't until he was in his 20's that he realized he should probably learn to eat some other things outside his 5 comfortable foods or he knew I wouldn't marry him. haha! Now he is very adventurous :)
ReplyDeleteTaylor is a very picky eater and we do struggle daily to get her to eat a variety of foods, but the food she does eat is healthy (except for meat - cant get her to eat healthy meat!).
ReplyDeleteBut like you - no juice boxes, rare sweet treats and lots of fruits and veggies.
Healthy choices start at a young age! :)
Same here! Claire will try anything and everything. Max is a little picky.... especially with vegetables. It's hard when being at other people's house when they are giving out sweet treats. My friends have labeled me a "food nazi" before. I don't see it that way, I just want my kids to have healthy options!
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