Tuesday, June 3, 2008

We Have Success

For the past week we've made huge strides in Andrei's eating habits. As we've mentioned before, the boy won't eat green vegetables except for avocados/guacamole. In fact, he would thoroughly inspect his food before putting it in his mouth. We finally got some spinach into him via ravioli, but other green vegetables were a no go.

The other day, when we were eating Chinese (not real Chinese but American Chinese) I was teaching him how to stab food to pick it up with his fork. Okay, these aren't the best table manners but allows the food to actually make it into his mouth and not on the floor. This was great fun for him, so I went out on a limb and had him stab some vegetables. Broccoli, Zucchini, and Carrot all went in without a problem. Mushrooms however weren't a hit.

Fast forward to Sunday dinner which consisted of cod and broccoli. I was really pushing my luck but figured with just the two choices, I had a good chance of success with the broccoli. Yep, the child went straight for the broccoli first and ate most of it. There were about three servings of the green veggie there and all but two little "trees" were eaten. The reason for success, cheese and letting him stab the food with a real fork rather than his toddler spork.

At this point we're at the whatever works stage of parenting. And this is a huge victory in my eyes.

5 comments:

Ryan and Katie said...

This is Katie writing...I am a fanatic about getting my kids to eat veggies. Good job! Recently we have been sticking sweet potatoes and carrots or spinach in the blender and mixing it into just about everything. We even took out all the granulated sugar in our pancakes and added the sweet potato/carrot mix instead. The kids ate them without even noticing a difference. You can also stick that mix in mac and cheese. Try spinack in brownies too.

Of course, it sounds like you might not even need any tricks with the stabbing method!

JennStar said...

That's awesome!!! I got the book The Sneaky Chef for Christmas and I LOVE it!! It has all kinds of great recipes where purees can be added and the kids are NONE the wiser!

Lauri said...

way to go... I agree.. whatever works.. for us offering a dip does wonders

Dede said...

The book Deceptively Delicious has lots of great ideas for sneaking in veggies in your kid's food.

Anonymous said...

when it comes to nourishment whatever works works...good for you...we do a lot of dipping..apple sauce is big for my boys...good luck mom and dad