Meet my friend, Aubrey. This is a person I admired from afar long before we became close friends, at which time I began to admire her even more. She is a true feminist in the best and most beautiful sense of the word, because she embraces and exemplifies the true virtues of womanhood! She is a stay-at-home mom who cleans and cooks (very well) with a cheerful heart. She is smart, she is lovely, and sings with such grace and beauty as to warm your soul to the very center. Her example makes me want to be more gracious, kind, and forgiving. I bet she could make a movie star jealous of her job as a homemaker!
Last summer I visited their family in Texas. When we gathered to eat breakfast, I was surprised to see her 1-year-old son drink an ENTIRE sippy cup of green smoothie! Then he happily ate a full plate of quinoa and black beans for dinner. My Eva, who eats unusually healthily for a toddler, didn't come close in comparison. As I read her tips for healthy eating, I wasn't at all surprised to find that consistency is a major factor. I think we could apply these tricks to many other aspects of parenting as well. Here's what Aubrey has to say:
I realize as I write this that there are many women much more qualified to talk about tips and tricks of being a mother – in large part because they have more children! I’m expecting my second right now, so while I am my son’s major playmate, which can be frustrating, (try having a day-long conversation with a 2 year old) we also have a lot of easy mobility for outings and other things which keep us from getting on each other’s nerves too much. :^)
I know that getting your kids to eat well is a major problem for every mom though, and as we’ve gone through some big diet changes in the past few years, I can share some of my tips that go along with getting a toddler to say yes to green smoothies, and be disinterested in cupcakes. We became about 95% vegetarian over a year ago, and also drink no cow’s milk, and (try to) limit our cheese intake. Here are a few of my tricks to get my toddler to eat the whole foods that I put in front of him.
*Say no to snacks! I’m not saying that you should never give your kid a snack. But think about what snacks tend to be – prepackaged, non-living food. I notice that on the days that I give into a lot of snacking (and I’m guilty of giving the graham crackers just like everyone else) that my son is much less inclined to eat the veggies and lentils that I put on his plate at lunch or dinner.
*Serve what you want them to eat the most first. If I give my son a bowl of watermelon as his appetizer, and then try to get him to eat the bean and rice stew after that, my likelihood of getting him to chow down is minimal. When you’re hungry, everything tastes good, so save the fruit/sweet/most desirable part of the meal for last!
*Never do “two more bites, and then you can have a brownie for dessert”! Children need to learn to try new foods because we as parents are doing our best to help them understand that good food is important. Offering an unhealthy food as a treat afterwards is giving the wrong message. The rule at our house (for now) is that you have to try one bite of everything. If you don’t want more than that, you don’t have to eat it, but you also don’t get seconds of the more favored food unless you eat more of the less favored food. While this rule has produced more tantrums that I care to count, the funny thing is that more than half the time, he’ll try the food, and then want the whole bowl after all! When we have older children, the rule will be that you have to have a small serving of every food that is offered without complaint. I feel that this also teaches the child respect for the person who made the food, and the person who provided the money for the food. ***If you feel the need to add an inducement to get a few more bites of veggies down, start using fresh fruit as your dessert!
*Unhealthy desserts (basically anything with white flour and white sugar) should be held off for special occasions – they don’t need to be a weekly, or even a month occurrence! For example, we celebrated my son’s second birthday last week. Because we were on vacation, I decided to use a cake box mix (an almost unheard of item in our house) to make cupcakes to share with the cousins. We gave it to Tommy, and we watched as he took a few licks of frosting, a few bites of cake, and then pushed it away. I wanted to cheer! (This of course, didn’t stop me from eating the rest of his cupcake, as well as a few of my own. J) He is so used the wonderful taste of ripe fresh fruit that the sickly sweet taste of the cupcake was unappealing to him. I don’t feel that he is living a deprived life because that was the first time he’s ever tasted a cupcake!
*Your reaction is very important. If you never eat your own salad or veggies, how can you expect your kid to want to? Do as I say and not as I do? Not so much. YOU need to love the good foods too! Be animated and excited as you eat your salad. We have gotten Tommy to eat so many good foods by showing him that we eat them too. Then we all say ‘mmmmm’ together. J
One of the major ways that we influence our childrens’ lives and health is by what we feed them. I know you all have felt like I do – all I ever do is feed the kid, clean up after him, and start working on the next meal. The food that we put into our bodies is so important, and even more so for a child who is growing so quickly and whose brain is developing so rapidly. Heavenly Father gave us a wonderful variety of food on this earth, and in this day of food blogging, you can find a healthy recipe for just about anything! So try it! Stick a few new veggies in your cart this week!
I struggle with consistency in these things, but the more I do them, the easier they become. The tantrums will be there along the way, but we are here to help our kids learn and grow, not keep them blissfully happy by giving them everything they ever want. Along the way you’ll discover some fun things too – like the fact that my son loves beets. Who knew? I sure didn’t until I gave them to him for the first time this week. I sure wish now that I had gotten over my fear of cooking them about a year ago, ah well.
