Feeding Different Ages

I know how you feel I have 2 boys and a husband who are all picky eaters. We try to cook extra at the weekends, like Chicken on the bbq etc then my husband and I will eat stir fry with rice and my kids eat chicken not in the stir fry but with ketchup or bbq sauce and the rice as a side. I often put raw veggies like carrots and cut up apples etc in the middle of the table so they can pick, I find this works as they don't feel forced into eating them and often it becomes a secret challenge to see who can eat them! ofcourse there are days they don't want to eat them but if you want dessert you have to eat atleast 3 pieces of veg or fruit. good luck and check out Racheal Rays books she has good ideas.

You have to remember that you are in charge here. You do the grocery shopping and you have control over what goes on your children's plate. If they don't want to eat it, that's their decision. Don't become a short order cook. Cook one meal for the entire family and don't give them the option of anything else. You need to set a good example so you should eat healthy as well, especially since you are pregnant. Stop buying the chicken fingers, mac & cheese and candy and they won't have access to them. Don't make a big deal out of it- don't argue with them over eating or not eating. The only rule should be that they have to try everything on their plates. If they do not want any more, then that's fine. They will eventually realize that this is what is for dinner and will eat a wider variety of foods.

I have three children 9, 4, and 1. My 4 year old is extremely picky. Every night I make one meal for dinner, and I make sure there is something in the meal that he likes. There will always be a meat, a veggie, and a starch. He loves noodles, and so I try to make them as much as possible as the starch to our meal. The meat and veggie are always available to him, and on a rare occasian he will ask to have some. I do not force him because I am tired, and do not want the fight. He will only drink Milk througout the day, and he eats yogurt every day as a snack, and so he does get protein at least few times a day. He has started eating peas and carrots, and broccoli (stems only), just because they were on the table and the rest of us were eating them. The trick was I did not force him to eat them. He just asked, and now if he sees them on the table he asks for some, and eats a lot of them. It was important to me to only make one meal and have us all eat together. I did not want to come home from a long day at work and have to make two seperate meals. I also did not want him to feel that he was given special meals.

I'll tell you what worked for me when I was in your situation (about 8 years ago). Also, I have to tell you that for me it was important not only how much my kids ate, but what they ate, as I am a strong believer that a very important aspect of good health is what we eat. I did not want to give in to just serving what I knew my kids were going to eat without my coercing them.

My husband and I would cook freezable dishes on the weekend. If something we wanted to eat could not be frozen I would do the prep work first thing in the morning (because I was not tired again and the kids had just had breakfast) Do this when it works for you. Also, my husband and I both love to cook and eat, but we gave up time-consuming meals during that period of our lives. That doesn't mean that you give up on taste and nutrition. There are lots of things that you can fix in a jiffy. At each meal there was always at least one thing that I knew my kids liked. When I served them dinner, in their plates there would be some protein, some veggies & some grains- sometimes these would be combined if I served, for example, beef barley soup with peas and carrots (there was always bread on the table). The portions of each thing were always small, even for their age. My one rule that I stuck to it even on the hardest days was that to have seconds of anything you first had to eat what was on your plate. Since first servings were always small, that was something that my kids could do. Since at each meal there was always something they liked I NEVER had to bring anything else to the table if they were not liking what they were eating. My kids are older now (three kids ages 7 to 12), and they are all adventurous and healthy eaters.
If you decide to follow this, you may want to start at lunch time when the kids are less cranky. It will be hardest with your 3 y.o. but don't give up too easily.
Good luck!

Hi J.,
So sorry you are stressed. I think your sister in law is right but since I have one child who is only 15 months, I don't have a lot of suggestions about how to implement it. Sorry! I did want to tell you our favorite dinner that is super quick and maybe it would work for you. I get a bag of frozen organic vegetables at Costco. It is peas, carrots, corn and green beans. I like the mix because when I serve it my son seems to pick out a different veggie he is interested in each night or sometimes all. We also get turkey kielbasa at the grocery store, cut it up and put it on the stove to cook while the veggies are microwaving. Once the veggies are done, we put a little butter and garlic powder on top, put some kielbasa on a plate with a little sauce like ketchup or my personal fave boar's head honey mustard sauce (YUM!) and you are done. Takes about 10 minutes. Good luck to you and congrats on being pregnant! Hope this helps.