Got a picky eater at your house?  I’m not sure if I have one or not.  Compared to some, I’m sure I have no room to complain.  Gabriel used to eat whatever I put in front of him, with ne’er a complaint.  He’s almost three now and in the past few months he has become very wary of pretty much every main course I make.  He doesn’t want those bits of bell pepper or celery mixed up in his food, but he eats salad every night with grape tomatoes.  He loves salad! Nathaniel, on the other hand, is already pickier from what I can tell.  He won’t eat many of the vegetables that Gabriel has always eaten.  But, the kid loves broccoli.  So I’m not really sure if they can classify as truly “picky” or not.

The thing with Gabriel is, he’s eaten most of this stuff a hundred times and only recently has decided he didn’t like it.  It’s hard to know what to do, because I’m not going to resort to nuggets and noodles, nor am I going to be a short-order cook.  You eat what I make at this house.  (The rare exception is when I can tell that he really hates whatever I made.  Then he can just eat more of the side dishes and I try not to make that main course anymore.)  Well,  I ran across a related article entitled 6 Food Mistakes Parents Make  in The New York Times a few weeks ago and I thought I share what I learned.

The six mistakes are:

1. Sending your kiddos out of the kitchen.
   Get them involved with the meal prep!  Research has shown that children who helped cook their own food not only were more likely to eat that food, but also ask for seconds.  Gabriel loves to help me!  He helps me make smoothies, oatmeal, and pizza to name a few.  He’s great at adding ingredients into the bowl for me.
2. Demanding they take a bite of everything on their plate.
   Opps!  I do this! But studies have shown that children react negatively when their parents make them eat foods.  Instead, try putting the food on the table and encouraging them to try it.
3. Keeping treats out of reach.
   Penn State researchers found that restricting cookies had a profound effect on the children in their study.  Consumption more than tripled when the cookies were in a cookie jar out of reach for a short time, than when they were served cookies on a plate.  Don’t bring foods that you will have to restrict into your home.  Buy healthy snacks that need no restriction.  (See my objection below)
4. Dieting in front of your children.
   Kids are watching and when you don’t eat or you only drink a Slim-Fast, they notice.  This can put them at risk for eating disorders or a lifetime of chronic dieting.
5. Serving just plain ‘ol veggies!
   Adding butter, ranch dressing, cheese, or brown sugar might make the difference in them liking or not liking the veggie!  Plus, adding a little fat to them unlocks their fat-soluble nutrients.
6. Giving up too soon.
   It make 10 or more attempts over several months before they try it and like it.  Susan B. Roberts suggests a “rule of 15″ – putting a food on the table at least 15 times to see if a child will accept it.  She also says that once a food is accepted, to use “food bridges”, finding similarly colored or flavored foods.  An example would be if a child likes pumpkin pie, try mashed sweet potatoes, and then mashed carrots.

I found most of this information great and very helpful.  However, I would like to point out one thing I do have a small problem with.  This article gave me the idea that keeping treats out of the reach of children only made them want them more.  Sort of the forbidden fruit idea.  But I think I’m going to stick with Dr. Sears on this one.  In The Baby Book, he talks about limiting the candy and sugary foods for little ones so that they don’t develop a sweet tooth.  His theory is that if “young taste buds and developing intestines were exposed to only healthy foods during the first three years, the child might refuse junk food later.”  Let me tell you, they have eight children, and they used this theory with all eight.  Of course, their kids ate the junk at birthday parties and special occasions, but they do not overdose. They can push the plate away half way through the cake and ice cream and say “all done”.  Dr. Sears says using this method can help them avoid excesses as a child and even as an adult.  Wow!  What a great thing to give you children!  I’d love it if I didn’t have a sweet tooth!

We’ve used this theory with Gabriel and now with Nathaniel.  And so far, it’s true for us.  Gabriel can say “no thank you” to sweets on his own.  He’s happy sharing a cookie with me and only eating half.  He arranges the candy in the grocery store line instead of asking for it.  He know that treats are for special occasions and we don’t have them often, and he doesn’t protest when you only give him a small amount of the treat.

I hope you can find some good ideas to help you get your picky eater trying some new things.  It sure can get frustrating at times.  Please comment with any more tips!  I’d love to here ‘em.

I’ve already told you how organized I am.  Remember my weekly schedule?  Well, I also have a monthly menu of dinner ideas.  I have separated this menu into weeks, and after I choose the corresponding week, I make my weekly grocery list.

I’ve had a weekly menu for almost as long as I can remember, but after Gabriel was born and I didn’t have the time to look through recipe books and magazines for hours each week.  I decided to sit down and make a menu that would cover an entire month’s worth of meals so I didn’t have to make a menu every single week.  It has saved me lots of time!  To keep it exciting I have one night per week open for dining out, and one night for new recipes I want to try.  During the warmer months we have salad as a main dish a few times per month, and during the cold months I just switch those salad nights out for soup nights. We have pizza every Friday night, so that’s an easy one to remember.  I love having this menu.  I have it saved in “my documents” on our computer and every week when I’m ready to make out my grocery list, I just sit down and look at my menu for that week to see what we’re having.

To make my shopping easy, I write my grocery list out in the same order as the items in the store.  I have what is on each aisle memorized and make my list out in this order.  It makes my shopping so much easier because I don’t have to back-track and search for things.  It saves a lot of time too, which is good when you’re shopping with kids who are ready to move on and be done at the grocery store.

I love this method of having my menu ready for me and making my list out each week.  What about you?  Got any tips on how I could improve this method even more?  I’d love to hear from ya!

Going Green is such a trendy thing these days.  I have to say, I’m glad it’s coming into fashion.  I’m not such a weirdo anymore now that most of the things I’ve been doing for several years are becoming common.  Lately I’ve been reading up on the harm of PBDEs (I will be writing more about these fire retardants later) and I ran across this great list at EWG. I know I’ve already told you some of the things that are important and easy to change around your home (see Is There BPA in Your Baby’s Bottle?  What About His Toys? and So What are Phthlates, Again?) , but I just love EWG’s A Parent’s Guide to Going Green so much, that I wanted to give you the highlights.

1. Choose better body care products. (Use EWG’s Skin Deep to find some!)
2. Go organic & eat fresh foods.  (Choose organic fruits & veggies, and milk & meat without added growth hormones.  Limit canned food and infant formula because of BPA.)
3. Avoid fire retardants. (More to come on this in a post soon.)
4. Pick your plastics carefully.  (You want to avoid BPA and phthlates!)
5. Filter your tap water.
6. Wash those hands. (Skip the anti-bacterial soap!)
7. Skip non-stick. (Toxic fumes are emitted when overheated.)
8. Use a HEPA-filter vacuum.  (They capture the widest range of particles and get rid of allergens.)
9. Get enough iodine. (Very important if you’re pregnant or have a baby.)
10. Use greener cleaners & avoid pesticides. (Look for less toxic cleaning alternatives like vinegar and make your own.)
11. Eat good fats.  (Get those Omega-3’s!)

This is a very helpful list in my opinion.  Please read the guide yourself for a few more details that I left out, if you have time.  It’s not too long and you’ll be glad you did.