The Hospital for Sick Children Better Food For Kids ISBN #0-7788-0045-8 - I think this book is out of print now, not sure, so including the ISBN.
Feeding Little Boy can be a BIT of a challenge, so in desperation I bought these 2 books. I have spent a good portion of the past week reading up on feeding a Toddler and trying out new recipes. I HIGHLY recommend that anyone with a small child run out and buy these 2 great books (or they would make a good gift for any Mom you know) - both loaded with lots of good information and recipes (some recipes are "no-brainers", but sometimes in a Mommy foggy state of mind, we need to be reminded of these things!). The Hospital for Sick Children also has another book - Better Baby Food, but the store didn't have that one - I am ordering that one now that I have had a chance to read the one I did buy.
What have I learned? We cut WAY back on juice. And, after a mere 2 days of temper tantrums, we have decided that we do indeed like water if we are thirsty. Toddlers love to turn juice/milk into a meal so they are full when it actually comes to eating - ah yes - hit the nail on the head! We are drinking milk with meals - and milk is a challenge with Little Boy so every 1/4 cup portion is a celebration. Snacks all pre- ready (carrot sticks, watermelon chunck, cut grapes, sliced peppers) so when he is hungry - I am prepared with something healthy! And, a normal toddler portion size is a mere 1/4 - 1/3 cup - yes, I measured everything out in a little measuring cup until I became familiar with what that looked like. We have a new cup with a built in straw for milk ony! And special seperated trays which happily just so happen to be divided up into about 1/3 cup portion sections. And, a new Dora the Explorer placemat. Our new eating schedule is breakfast, snack, lunch, nap, snack, dinner, 1-2 more snacks, bed. And most of the snacks are actually something that I would put on his meal plate anyway, but by breaking it all down into little segments - he is actually eating. Yeah! Relief! The snacks are something I constantly have to remember.
Freezing smaller portions of healthy meals is a life saver! And... get kid sized silverware...A good set will be used for years.
Next up is a good cookbook for Vegetarian children since he will barely touch any meat - can we all say tofu? And he likes nuts, kidney beans, chick peas and eggs, so protein (at the recommended 2 portions a day) is not a problem.
So far this week we have tried out sweet potatoe/oatmeal cookies (a little sweet, but I will play with the recipe - and they have to be better than store bought chocolate chip), turkey/apple meatballs (Little Boy approved which is amazing since he is just about refuses any and all meat), and frozen yogurt pops (bonus diary points - again too sweet, but I will play with it). We are going to try out many more of the recipes too - the frying canned tuna into patties looks interesting... A good week to try out new recipes since today is the first day I've seen a blue sky in days.
And, to keep it quilty - I managed to put the final 2 borders on my Mitre Box quilt. Plus, I have been plugging along with my oceans waves blocks.
8 comments:
The top looks great - I love those colors.
I like your approach to the problem - I always turn to books when I need to figure something out. I was lucky and didn't have too much trouble feeding my boys when they were young. Adam however loves sweets and we had to make sure we didn't keep them in the house or he'd eat them all.
Cheery quilt top :-) Good going on introducing healthy eating for Little Boy !
Sounds like you are well on your way to healthy eating.
We have a couple of picky eaters in my family. I will never forget when Drew ate raw spaghetti after his mother went to all the work of preparing Thanksgiving dinner. He is 18 now and apparently it is still not much better. At his sister's graduation dinner at a Chinese restaurant his mom turned to him and said "that rice just cost $10 if that is all you ate" Fortunately some other ingredients did make their way into the "you pick/they cook" bowl.
Oh your box quilt looks great!
I love the idea of those books for new moms - like a shower gift! Oh I remember those days when my kids were little and not having enough brain power to think of simple things!
Hmmm, it is now 10:30pm and my 17 yr old son just fried eggs for a "snack". Wonder if they have feeding teens for dummies! :)
Actually, this is Triller's Mum. ;-)
My son was the same way when he was Little Boy's age. He grew out of it though. Not sure that was such a good thing! LOL
I really enjoy reading your blog and seeing your wonderful quilts.
Patty
Evelyn, what a marvelous idea to buy some books specifically for feeding toddlers. Wish I had know that to offer to my DIL...I must have the pickiest grandsons ever!
It amazes me that meals, even now at 12, 10, and 8 yrs. are just a bite of this and a bite of that, and "can we be done"? I'm wondering if juice hasn't been the culprit in their house also? It's great that you are changing this now, not 6 years from now.
Love the mitre boxes...it's a really great quilt!
Juice is tricky that way I guess. It seems like it should be so great, fruit, yeah! But then there's no fiber, etc. Figures. I am trying to keep more fruits in the house, but they go bad so fast. Was Little Boy not putting on weight like he should? Sounds like you've got a good new schedule. Love the mitre box quilt!
The quilt looks wonderful!
Hooray for such a wonderful feeding plan for little boy. We have saved juice for a special treat at our house, and I think that makes a huge difference, plus is better for teeth, so, bravo to you! Mine are decent eaters, and we generally don't have too much trouble. Although, during berry season, I worry we could spend our entire mortgage payment on blue, black, and raspberries for these kids!
Oh- avocado is a huge healthy hit with train boy. Does Little Boy like it?
Post a Comment