“Your kids are such great eaters!”

“I wish my kids ate as good as yours!”

These are common statements I hear from other moms, either from daycare or just friends. Truth is, they don’t have any other option but than to eat what I make for them. Thankfully they are only 3.5 and 1.5, and they have eaten this way since day 0, because I refused from the beginning to play the “short order cook” role. I don’t have time for picky eaters. I could say the same thing about my husband. If he wasn’t as happy-go-lucky as he is when it comes to food, he’d be SOL because he’d have to make his own dinner if he wasn’t going to eat what I make for dinner each night.

Thankfully, I do love cooking, I think I’m pretty good at it, and besides a few minor food avoidances, I don’t have to worry about food allergies or anything like that.

With Teagan, we do 99% gluten free, and unless we are out and about or it’s a little treat, we don’t do bread products/wheat products and we do very little dairy (unless it’s cheese). Teagan just has a sensitive tummy, wasn’t sleeping well, was having constipation or diarrhea, and a very distended belly. That is when we started avoiding gluten for her and started noticing a big difference.

This was a video I did in true “Mommy Feeding Family” fashion with my girls talking about picky eating.

Tips include:

• Division of Responsibility- Parents decide what to eat and when, allow kid to choose how much
• Give 2 food options, not the whole pantry
• Try new plates/silverware, we like these from amazon
• Take away the pressure around meal time- this is A BIG ONE!
• Try serving food family style
• Serve kids higher fat, lower carb/sugar meals and snacks to decrease snacking
• Remove distractions around meal time
• Set boundaries and rules and stick to it!

 

What do you struggle with for your kids? Ask away and I’ll do my best to help!