I now have an additional 10 new links opened in my phone with all the recs pulling me in. I also relate on the rollercoaster ride of trying to keep a child fed. I have no guidance, only commiseration. It’s 24/7 charcuterie style meals in our house RN. 🧀 🍇 🥖 🫒
Clare, I relate to the toddler pickiness and trying not to eat kid-centric meals for the next 6-18 months! 😅 I’ve found that if I either give a meal a fun name (stir fry rice noodles became “silly noodles”) or make it interactive in some way (let them sprinkle cheese or another topping on their own food) then they are almost guaranteed to eat it! For now anyway...they’ll probably change the game now that I’ve said this because toddlers.
Claire — I have also seen (and perhaps you already have too) fun utensils as a way to get them interested. Chopsticks, forks that are attached to bulldozers, mini tongs, etc. I don’t have any anecdotal evidence this works as I’m occasionally still trying to get my toddler not to throw his food but it’s saved to my Amazon for when I need to change things up.
I have heard of this! I'm anxious about it because he already has a tendency to play with his food -- which would be fine, except that it rapidly escalates and suddenly he's out of control laughing and getting food everywhere. Maybe every kid is like this?? But I've started to feel like encouraging any food play is setting him up to fail because I can't just let him throw food all over, and that's where it always leads.
Cartoon plates, Spidey stickers on veggie bags, naming things fun names, making sure the kid is very hungry and starting a/veg & protein… there are tons of tricks & techniques AND I’m guessing you’ve tried a ton. So for our family, the only real overarching technique that’s worked is to change our attitude as parents. My husband (a physician) said one day at dinner, “You know, none of this is a super huge deal.” And I was like, “What?!?!” And then I thought about it and realized my kid was picking up on all my stress and manipulation attempts. So we relaxed! It’s still not perfect, but letting go of my agenda at least helped our mental health and upped the family happiness and positive feeling at the dinner table. So I guess my advice would be to focus on what YOU like to eat and then positive energy will bring you guys together and leave lifelong healthy feelings around eating in general.
I probably should try more! I’m not very good at the “make everything fun/a game” part of parenting. My main tactic used to be keeping it low-pressure, but that has definitely fallen away recently — this is a good reminder that stressing everyone out about dinner is counterproductive!
Oh I never did any if the fun things either! 😂 I think it’s another one of those things you kinda gotta muddle through and hope they’ll be okay. Honestly, there are so many ideas out there and even that gets overwhelming and can feed my “I’m not doing enough,” instead of being helpful. Ach!
Welp, know that you’re not in this alone.
"Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."
I now have an additional 10 new links opened in my phone with all the recs pulling me in. I also relate on the rollercoaster ride of trying to keep a child fed. I have no guidance, only commiseration. It’s 24/7 charcuterie style meals in our house RN. 🧀 🍇 🥖 🫒
Oooh, charcuterie meals! The perfect summer dinner.
Clare, I relate to the toddler pickiness and trying not to eat kid-centric meals for the next 6-18 months! 😅 I’ve found that if I either give a meal a fun name (stir fry rice noodles became “silly noodles”) or make it interactive in some way (let them sprinkle cheese or another topping on their own food) then they are almost guaranteed to eat it! For now anyway...they’ll probably change the game now that I’ve said this because toddlers.
Ooh, great ideas, thank you!
Claire — I have also seen (and perhaps you already have too) fun utensils as a way to get them interested. Chopsticks, forks that are attached to bulldozers, mini tongs, etc. I don’t have any anecdotal evidence this works as I’m occasionally still trying to get my toddler not to throw his food but it’s saved to my Amazon for when I need to change things up.
I have heard of this! I'm anxious about it because he already has a tendency to play with his food -- which would be fine, except that it rapidly escalates and suddenly he's out of control laughing and getting food everywhere. Maybe every kid is like this?? But I've started to feel like encouraging any food play is setting him up to fail because I can't just let him throw food all over, and that's where it always leads.
I love how everyone is relating to the kid-food situation 😆.
Danielle Walker is good for non-dairy options:
https://daniellewalker.com/easy-dairy-free-dinner-ideas-for-families/
Cartoon plates, Spidey stickers on veggie bags, naming things fun names, making sure the kid is very hungry and starting a/veg & protein… there are tons of tricks & techniques AND I’m guessing you’ve tried a ton. So for our family, the only real overarching technique that’s worked is to change our attitude as parents. My husband (a physician) said one day at dinner, “You know, none of this is a super huge deal.” And I was like, “What?!?!” And then I thought about it and realized my kid was picking up on all my stress and manipulation attempts. So we relaxed! It’s still not perfect, but letting go of my agenda at least helped our mental health and upped the family happiness and positive feeling at the dinner table. So I guess my advice would be to focus on what YOU like to eat and then positive energy will bring you guys together and leave lifelong healthy feelings around eating in general.
I probably should try more! I’m not very good at the “make everything fun/a game” part of parenting. My main tactic used to be keeping it low-pressure, but that has definitely fallen away recently — this is a good reminder that stressing everyone out about dinner is counterproductive!
Oh I never did any if the fun things either! 😂 I think it’s another one of those things you kinda gotta muddle through and hope they’ll be okay. Honestly, there are so many ideas out there and even that gets overwhelming and can feed my “I’m not doing enough,” instead of being helpful. Ach!
Welp, know that you’re not in this alone.
"Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together."