Posts Categorized: Picky Eaters

The Summer’s Hottest Tour

by in Family, Health and Wellness, Picky Eaters

Erin Dow

It’s a tough job for a caterer like me to design meals that satisfy clients and (hopefully) the majority of their guests. It’s even harder to accommodate picky kids–and adults, frankly–and the stakes are even higher with ever-increasing food intolerances and allergies. There are obvious benefits to keeping our menus healthy and kid-friendly. All of us moms feel the pressure to provide healthful options because it’s the right thing to do, and none of us want our kids jacked up on junk food or starving because they didn’t find anything they liked. We all embrace the importance of showing love for each other through tasty food that everyone likes.

The Summer’s Hottest Tour

Think you have a Picky Eater? Think again…

by in Picky Eaters

Lori Kaley

The parent-child relationship is very important when it comes to providing for our children. We all want our children to be healthy. We know children who eat a variety of nutritious foods at meal and snack times will have the best chance to be healthy. The parent or caregiver is responsible for being the provider of nutritious meals and snacks at regular times in a place or space that is conducive to a pleasant and calm environment for eating.

Think you have a Picky Eater? Think again…

Déjà vu

by in Picky Eaters

Jen McNally

Every Sunday, I plan out a week’s worth of dinners. I make a detailed grocery list so that I will hopefully only have to take my two kids to the grocery store once. I take pride in my organizational skills and my ability to come up with healthy, kid-friendly meals that also appeal to me and my husband.

Every night, I swirl around the kitchen, doing a deliberate dance between the sink and the island, the stove and refrigerator. All while trying to keep the peace between two tired and hungry children. I give them art projects, recommend games to play, let them ‘help’ me cook. Mostly, I try to keep them from whining, or hurting themselves, so that I can accomplish the task at hand: feeding us, sustaining us, keeping us healthy.

Every night, when we sit down to eat, three-year-old Tess immediately pushes away her plate and says, “I not like that. I want something else.” This is probably because we used to give her something else when she requested it, until I got really, really tired of catering to the whims of a toddler. (Plus, the pediatrician told me I should stop.)

So now, we explain that this is her dinner, and if she doesn’t want to eat it, she’ll be hungry later, but this is her only chance to eat. I felt bad about this new strategy for a millisecond, until I realized that she wasn’t going to waste away overnight. And did I really want a child who would only eat four things, anyway? So now we sit through dinner, listening to her ask for yogurt and watching her make her ‘yucky’ face at the meal I so lovingly prepared.

And every night, when I put her in bed, she says, “Mommy, I hungry.”…

Déjà vu

The Lunch Fairy

by in Picky Eaters

Jen McNally

Fairies are a big deal at our house. My six-year-old has discovered a seemingly endless series of books about fairies. My very patient husband reenacts the stories with Grace on a regular basis (even though he always has to be the goblin), and she and her younger sister dress up as fairies and perform elaborate musical routines with much spinning and waving of wands. Grace talks about her fairy books on the way to school (and on the way home), and every morning she walks into our bedroom carrying all of them (24 books at last count). Fairies seem to have taken over our lives.

In fact, the fairies even followed us on vacation recently. Over February break, we spent a weekend with friends who are very conscientious about what they feed their daughter. I have always envied this family and their ability to prepare appealing school lunches in which all of the food groups are covered. My friend once summed up their philosophy by stating, “Food is love.” I certainly agree, although I can’t quite seem to get organized enough to show my love as deliciously as they do.

It so happens that our friends’ daughter also loves fairies (although she’s not quite as obsessed with them as our own child). Her mother made lunch for all three girls, and I was astonished to discover that she had made a fairy right there on each child’s plate. The fairy’s wings were pieces of a peanut-butter-and-banana sandwich. She had a cucumber face, purple cauliflower hair, a body made of baby carrots, and legs made of almonds.

That’s a fantastic way to put the fairy obsession to good use, and to get two kindergartners and a three-year-old to eat purple cauliflower! I was totally impressed by her creativity, and with the fact that she even had even purchased purple cauliflower, but I was even more impressed by the genuine enthusiasm with which our girls tore into their food. The next morning, I made oatmeal with a dried-cranberry smiley face on top. It wasn’t a purple-haired fairy, but the girls devoured it all the same!

The Lunch Fairy