Feeding the kids!

I have the hardest time finding foods the kids will eat. Really it is my daughter, Evie, is the pickiest eater ever! She might eat something today, but definitely won't tomorrow. Yesterday I made smoothies. 10oz juicy juice, apple banana, 2 containers Gerber 2nd foods Banana, and about 10 ice cubes (2 hand fulls). Then I blended it together, which scared Christopher to death! I felt so bad. Evie loved it. Today won't touch it! She pushed everything away and says, "No, Don't want it!" It is horrible.

I love the Graduates "Pasta Pick-ups" Christopher will always eat those! They are perfectly sized to, I take one everywhere! They also will usually eat the roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy meal to. That is the only one that Evie will eat! I feel so funny at the store because when they are on sale I buy 10 or 20 of them at a time. So when it is time to eat and she refuses everything else I can get her to eat something.

I am always searching for easy kid friendly foods. If anyone has any ideas. Let me know. My daughter is the only kid I know that won't eat PB&J or mac & cheese!

Picky eater!

I am starting to worry about my daughter's eating habits. Basically she doesn't eat. She is so tiny and always has been very skinny, which is fine. However, I fight with her all day long to get her to eat anything. The older she gets the worse it is getting. Because as she is learning she is discovering junk foods. So not only am I fighting with her to get her to eat I am also trying to ensure she eats good foods.

She says, "Yuck!" To any and all foods offered. Sometimes she will end up eating them anyways, but most times I am forced to search out foods she will eat instead. One good thing is that she loves fruits. I try to make each bite count, but that isn't always possible. Especially when others around her aren't eating healthy foods.

She is 2 now and weighs only 24 lbs. According to the pediatrician she is in the 18% percentile. He did not seem to concerned, but suggested we keep an eye on her eating, attempting to get her to eat good foods. I am at a loss for foods to give her. I have no idea what she will eat from day to day! It is driving me crazy. I am so worried for her health. I don't care about her weight as a number, but I am worried about her getting what she needs from food. As well as the relationship she is developing with food for the long run. I don't know what effect all this will have on her later in life.

Some days I don't know how she has any energy because she hardly eats. If you ask her if she wants to eat she will say, "No eat!" I have learned that you never ask her that or you open yourself up to a battle with a toddler that neither of you can win! So instead I have tried to give options do you want A or B to eat. This also gets a "No, eat!" reply.

So now I just give her food. If she won't eat it I try something else. I keep trying until I get her to eat something, even if it isn't much. If she absolutely refuses I let her up. I won't force feed her. I know her tummy is small and can't hold much. I usually try to get her to eat 4-6 small meals (snacks) a day. Depending on how much she has eaten.

If anyone has healthy meal ideas or snack ideas that have worked for picky toddlers I am all ears!

Pizza anyone?

Today is the worst day, as far as cooking goes. Nothing is working out. I was going to make Chicken Caccitore, but my husband used most of the chicken. To my horror what chicken he did leave me smelt funny. Well one piece did, and I wasn't going to chance it. So that idea went out with the trash. Then I figured spaghetti would be nice. We had no hamburger for meat sauce. I like meat sauce. So I thought sausage would be fine. I have used sausage before and it turned out fine. This was not one of those times. It tastes weird! It said regular sausage, but it tastes like it has some kind of spices in it. I don't know which ones, but their in there. So I'm thinking suck it up and eat the funky pasta, or order pizza. Money is a little tight right now so I'll wait and see what daddy thinks!

French Fries Please MA MA!

Christmas Eve we drove past McDonald's, which we always do when we head out to my mom's house. Today though my daughter shouted, "French Fries Please, Ma Ma!" I told her no we were going to eat at grandma's house. Then I thought, "how cute she knows that McDonald's has French Fries." Then I thought "Oh, crap she knows McDonald's has French Fries!"

What a horrible mother I am raising kids on junk food. No offense to McDonald's you have greatly improved the healthiness of your food, but it still is not the high quality food I want my kids eating. However, I still feed it to them and probably will continue to do so. It's just so easy.

I have so much trouble most days just getting my daughter to eat, let alone eat healthy. I know it's my fault if she doesn't eat good. In a perfect world I'd make 3 healthy meals a day and we would all sit down together and eat. Then I'd vacuum wearing pearls and high heals, LOL! For now just do the best I can. Obviously, I should cut back on the McDonald's, but we don't have to get rid of it all together.

Choking Hazard!

I think the biggest choking hazard my youngest child, my son, faces is his older sister. The other day I gave my daughter some of those Gerber Crunchies, the veggie dip type, in her Gerber snack bowl, the one that attempts to keep her from making a mess! She was in the living room playing and enjoying her snack. Her brother was enjoying his tummy time, any day now he is going to crawl. I ran into the kitchen, which is only 10-15 feet from the living room, just to get a glass of water.

When I hear my daughter laughing and clapping about something. She does this when she thinks or knows she has done a good job or done something good. At first I couldn't figure out what she had done. I was standing in the hall staring at them then I realized she had shared her crunchies with her brother. He had a crunchie hanging out his mouth almost like a cigarette. I screamed, and ran in the living room removing the crunchie as quickly as I could. I then explained to Evie that brother is a baby and can't have big girl food.

Am I stupid?

Last night I opened the refrigerator at 10 pm looking for a snack for my 17 month old daughter who through sign language told me she wanted to eat. She grabbed a pack of pork chops and while handing them to me did the sign for eat. So what did mommy do? She cooked pork chops at 10pm. We had already eaten dinner around 8, which is late for us. Since she didn't eat much due to all the excitement I was concerned and wanted to make sure she had enough to eat. We had a crazy day that completely threw us off our normal routine. We ended up at my mom's for dinner where she has 5 yorkies most of them are tiny puppies, and my 6 year old brother, 8 year old sister, 11 year old sister plus her friend, my cousin and her 19 month old son, my kids, me and my husband, my parents, and my 26 year old sister were all there. Evangeline was totally fired up and wouldn't or couldn't really sit still to eat. I kept giving her bites of green beans, corn, or chicken when ever I could catch her.

Anyways I busted out the George Foreman and cooked those pork chops. It only took about 10 minutes all together. Can you guess her reaction when I tried to give them to her? She was cuddled up on the couch with daddy watching cartoons. I came in and showed them to her. She whinnied and rolled over towards daddy so I couldn't see her face or anything. Daddy even tried to feed her a bite. "Nope" she wasn't having it. She decided now she just wanted milk. Knowing she was hungry, but to tired I made her a smoothie, sort of. I mixed 4 oz of milk with a container of banana and mixed berries second foods from Gerber. So at least she had something good. Mean while any body hungry for pork chops. Can you say, "Sucker"!