Its just me and the girls 5 nights of the week. Dh is only ever home for brekky every other day. The girls are fruit fiends, they will virtually eat any type of fruit which is great through out the day but dinner time is an absolute nightmare. So I will make anything that they will eat just to make sure they wont go to bed on an emtpy tummy. They are vegetable phobic, and its a very slow process. They also arent too keen on trying anything too new either.
Im over it, I want to eat healthy but dont want the battles every night, those battles are bad enough at the moment.
So I want to know, do you eat differently to your kids? How do you eat healthy and enjoy your meals when the LO's arent interested?
It's not easy hun, but I found that you have to stop thinking of them going to bed without eating as being such a big problem. I made the mistake of always offering DS1 something I knew he'd eat so he wouldn't be hungry - the result was that he never ate anything he didn't want to. His diet ended up being vegemite or cheese sandwiches, yoghurt, weet-bix and bananas. It was only when I stopped giving him a choice that he started to eat well. It took a few weeks but he soon learnt to try what he was given because there was no back up plan coming. It was never a battle, just here is dinner, eat it if you want. If he didn't, then no big deal, off to bed. As I said, it's not easy. It's very hard as a parent to do it, but in my experience it does work.
The other problem I had was that I was giving DS too much milk and that wasn't helping his appetite. Cutting that back helped too.
We no longer have too many problems with eating (and none at all with DS2), but there are some foods that are real favourites in our house. Curry (can be as mild or spicy as you like) is a huge hit and you can put tonnes of veggies in a curry. Same with spaghetti bolognaise. I do "magic crumbed chicken" with broccoli or cauliflower in the crumbs and they really love it. Also any sort of meat and veggies in a wrap (like a tortilla) is a huge novelty that they love.
The past 4wks I have been on a diet and i was worried about dinner time, as obviously my girls don't need to diet LOL
I have cut out carbs, we used to have alot of pasta dinners, i mean nearly every night! and the girls love pasta! Their favourite being Spag bog! so if i am cooking that than they have theirs with pasta, i have mine with salad and no pasta.
In this case my girls are pretty good with their vegies but i hate them, so if they are having chicken, mash and vegies i will have chicken and salad.
If they are having sausages i will opt for a small piece of steak (less fatty).
Umm not sure if that will help you much, you could try hiding the vegies by grating them into things like spag bog, you can grate carrot, zucchini, even broccoli and you can hardly taste it. Zucchini slice is even a nice healthy yummy option that your girls might like? My little secret with vegies too if it is something they don't like, is tomato sauce LOL DD2 is the fussy eater around here but if it has tomato sauce she can dunk it in she will eat just about anything
I'm like Manta Ray. I used to give in and give DS1 some fruit or something else healthy if he didn't eat dinner. But gave that up because he would hear me say 'dinner' and he would say no I want.... and not even try to eat any of his dinner. It is still a huge effort to get him to even try alot of dinner things, but I always make sure there is something in the meal he will eat. So if it's chicken for dinner, I make sure we have a cob of corn, or some oven chips or something I know he likes and will eat if he really is hungry. Often he will not eat anything, and will go to bed without having eaten since about 3.30pm. But I figure if he really was hungry he would have eaten something off his dinner plate. It's not like I'm not feedinghim and starving him. He eats well thgouh the day. A paed once said to me that you should look at a child's diet over a whole day, and a whole week even. If they ate copious amounts yesterday, it's possible today they will only peck at their food, and vice versa.
I know it's hard (beacause I still do it too!) but try not to worry. Your kids won't starve themselves. And they actually need alot less food than we think they really do.
Pretty much just dishing up to the girls what we eat at night (it is snacks I sturggle with mainly). There is the odd night where I may give them something different, but is mainly when DH and I aren't feeling like a proper dinner. In which case they get a meal that I have pre frozen, like spag bol, which gives them their pasta fix.
I agree with making sure there is something on the plate they will eat. So if we are having salad, then I make sure there is capsicum for DD1 and snow peas for DD2.
Amazing what they will eat when you do try it. DD1 actually eats salmon and even asks for it!
I think the hardest thing when it comes to eating with my girls is I can never be sure that will like it just because they liked it last time. I swear they are phobic of trying anything new (thats DD1's personality anyhow)
I used to be the same in giving them something healthy if they didnt want dinner now I dont offer them anything else. They started doing the same as your Ds, 3lm. So then I would just cook a normal dinner and if they didnt eat, well bad luck. But what I've noticed is that my range of recipes has decreased over time and now I am only making the set range of dinners that have average success rates.
Dinner stresses me out, I hate that they waste food just, I resent spending ages in the kitchen cooking a meal (which they have asked for), being nagged about being hungry and when is dinner for them not to eat anything.
Maybe I should have put this thread in the baby and toddler section, but I really really really want to get healthy, I want to get skinny, I want to eat the foods I love without the stress of non eating kids.
Im even resenting them for my lack of timme to exercise at the moment...
Some diet help needed please
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks