My 2yo DD used to be happy with any dipping sauce I would give her to eat with. For the last 2 weeks though, she has started rejecting everything in favor of ketchup... the least healthy of her options! lol.
If I DON'T give her ketchup, then she will either have to be hand-fed by me (fighting the whole time...) or she won't eat at all. She skipped 3 meals one day, because I decided not to 'give in' to her... until that night when I allowed her to have it again. The only exception is cold cereal, which I generally limit to one or two bowls a week. (she even wants ketchup on her oatmeal... lol.)
I have decided NOT to fight this battle... I try to get her to eat without it, but I will squirt a bit onto whatever she is eating when she asks me for it. I just try to make the meal itself as healthy as possible.
This annoys Daddy to no end! He thinks that I am being too lenient, and that I shouldn't be giving in. I told him that if it bothers him so much, then HE can be the one to sit and force-feed her... because I am not willing to fight her at EVERY MEAL... and I am also not willing to let her go the entire day without eating anything.
I figure that this is most likely one of those stages, and that turning this into a power battle will only make her more stubborn. I would much rather put my energy into making sure she is picking up her toys, and potty training... As anybody with a toddler knows, the entire day revolves around small battles of will. I spend my day getting her to get dressed, to stop playing and take a potty break, stop playing to take a nap, no more juice today because it's time to drink water, it's too hot outside to go to the park... etc etc etc. She isn't a demon child by any means, but raising a toddler is WORK... and I figure that I am allowed to pick ONE battle that I just don't want to fight! (especially when I have to do everything with her while carving out time to do all the housework and my homework...) I don't think hubby quite understands, because he works nights, so he only sees her for about an hour each day (while he is busy getting ready for work) and 2 days a week... when she is on her best behavior because she is so excited to spend time with him. He isn't around to see how often I DO stand my ground with her.
Sooo... What do you mommas think? SHOULD I be fighting my DD at every meal to nip this ketchup infatuation in the bud, or should I just keep on with what I am doing, and give her time to grow out of it? (Heck, even if she DOESN'T grow out of it...)
I personally don't see anything wrong w/ ketchup. As a kid I hid most of my food under the taste of ketchup because I couldn't stand the taste of meat.
My dd, 6, loves ketchup. I buy the organic so at least it doesn't have the HFCS. And I give her a certain amount and let her know that's all she gets so that she has to use it as a dip, not something to scoop w/ her food.
Trader Joes ketchup is HFCS free and there is also organic ketchup in the stores. Just get her better ketchup.
I don’t think ketchup is the un-healthiest choice. I am sure there are far worse dipping sauces to use.
My daughter is going to be 6 soon and she loves ketchup. I buy the Hunt's brand since it doesn’t contain HFCS. She will dip her apple slices, bananas and chicken nuggets in it. She never liked any other dipping sauce so I don’t keep the ketchup from her I just limit how much she uses.
If you don’t want her having it then stop giving it to her. If she refuses to eat for a day then so be it, she won’t starve to death and eventually she will eat something.
My dd has a t shirt that says "I put ketchup on my ketchup".
This should not be a battle. Toddlers don't get to make many choices, when you think about it. They are told what to wear, they eat the food that's served them, they have to hold the grownup's hand crossing the street, they get told to pick up, go to bed, and on and on. When they're 2, they start realizing they can have a little independence, and their brains figure out "hey, I can do this by myself" or "I like that red stuff and I want it, even on cinnamon-sugar toast".
So now is a good time to start helping her learn about making good choices and when it's time to obey Mommy and Daddy. Yes, you can put ketchup on peach yogurt. No, you may not go out in the rain or snow with your slippers on. Yes, you can wear a green plaid blouse with pink flowered pants and one yellow sock and one purple sock. No, you may not hit another child at the playground. Give her some space for individual quirks and toddler funny stuff, and hold your line at the important things.
Just buy the healthiest ketchup you can. There are some brands now that are low sodium, without extra sweeteners, and they're pretty easy to find now in regular supermarkets and places like Whole Foods.
Ketchup is a common phase.
It's not worth fighting over.
You can make your own ketchup - then you will control how healthy it is and she can eat all she wants to.
I wouldn't be fighting the ketchup battle. My daughter used to put ketchup on watermelon. Yuck! I think some of it is experimentation and most kids learn moderation.
Can you start to "doctor" the ketchup into a healthier marinara-type sauce, and add some veggies to it? A little spinach, a little texture from diced tomatoes (tiny tiny), and so on? Really dilute it and take your time "upgrading" it. Don't want to turn her off. Then offer lots of choices for her to dip in it - whole wheat pasta (the corkscrew type collects more sauce), small veggies (whatever she can chew easily), healthy bread with flax or sesame seeds in it, and so on. Maybe upgrade to sweet potato fries from regular? Chicken nuggets you make yourself? I do those with chicken tenderloins I cut up, dipped in egg and then a mix of wheat germ and whole wheat crumbs, then quick-fried in olive or canola oil just until crisp, and then I finished them in the oven to reduce the amount of oil. Dip in spaghetti sauce and YUM!
I get your frustration, and I see your husband's point about "being too lenient" but tell him experts say that fighting over food is a no-win battle. Better to fool them into eating better. Check out some of the family cookbooks - Jessica Seinfeld is best known but there are others. You'd be astounded what you can hide in food. I put all kinds of stuff in my son's pancakes and happily gave him a little maple syrup on them because there was so much else in there. If you can offer better choices, who cares if she thinks it's ketchup? My son thought chicken nuggets were "cookies" and zucchini bread was "cake" - other than him telling the neighbors that he had "cookies and cake" for dinner, it didn't matter what he called it, just what he ate!
And by the way, by the time you get this figured out, she'll be sick of ketchup and you'll have to start over again!
I have a child that LOVES ketchup. It is the only 'dipping' sauce that he will eat. At least it's not Ranch, which is terrible in comparison. Because my son eats to much of it, we buy the low sugar low sodium version from Target. He has never noticed a difference and instead of being a detriment, it is a boost to his diet.
My 3 yr old was going through an intense ketchup phase too, and I didn't like the direction it was going, so I simply tossed the bottle of ketchup one night. The next day when he started asking for it I just said, "We don't have any. See?" Then I opened the fridge and the pantry and showed him that there was no ketchup anywhere. He was a little bummed, but got over it quickly.
I've since reintroduced ketchup, in moderation.
In my house ketchup is considered a veggie. :) my oldest refused to eat chicken without it......for about 6 months. she will outgrow the phase, but i dont think its worth a fight with her
I would be happy it's not a worse obsession, honestly. At least it's not ranch, or Cheetos, or french fries. Not a battle worth fighting, and the less of a big deal you make of it, the quicker the phase will pass.
It's ketchup!!!!!!! If she eats a good meal that is healthy so what if she wants ketchup on it.
Be happy it's not Ranch Dressing. My one granddaughter loves Ranch and can not have MSG. We have been able to find one or two that do not have MSG.
Pick your battles. She will outgrow her ketchup obssesion.
Ketchup is pretty healthy actually. I wouldnt worry about it. My BIL even eats ketchup on pancakes, lol... the family makes fun of him for that.
Read this... from the web...
Actually, tomato ketchup is good for you. It has cancer fighting elements called lycopene. This can also help fight against heart disease. But now they have found that the best source of lycopene is not in tomatoes, but in ketchup. The Cancer Research Foundation of America has found that cooked tomatoes, like those used to make ketchup, has as much as five times the amount of lycopene as fresh tomatoes.
Lycopene is a nutual antioxicant that protects the heart by preventing the oxidation of LDL cholesterol (bad) in your arteries. Lycopene does not lessen the amount of cholesterol, but keeps it from causing damage.
Read more: Is ketchup bad for health? If yes, what makes it bad? | Answerbag http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/128788#ixzz222L1PgzY
She will grow out of it. In the meantime, ketchup it is! Dad is overreacting. You are not "giving in". It's a phase. If she will eat her food with ketchup, then give her ketcup. Just put a dab here and there. It won't make her fat, won't ruin her for life. =)
i can see both sides. i myself would probably not play this game IF i felt she was being unreasonable (ketchup on cereal would fall into that category.) she won't starve. but i totally agree with you about picking battles. ketchup isn't that big a deal. if you have firm boundaries on important things, ketchup is one of the things you can let slide.
khairete
S.
I do this ever so occasionally, and I'm 33.
I'm actually on a sriacha kick right now. Omg... I even put it on coconut gelato. Bread, chips, chicken, soup, crackers, beef, veggies... I'm seriously on a bender.
Last time I did this was with chimichurri sauce about 3 years ago. (My mouth STILL waters just typing it).
I go on food kicks. Every once in awhile it's a sauce. More often it's a component or an ethnicity.
There's an old saying though: IF you like mustard or tabasco... you'll never go hungry.
This benders are USEFUL with kids, though. You can get them to eat all kinds of things they normally wouldn't, just by putting their favorite sauce on it. Even. If. It. Really. Is. Gross. (Hershey's and Broccoli, anyone?)
So... taken into account I find it harmless to begin with (since I do it myself), I'm obviously biased... but I agree with you.
On BOTH counts.
1) It's not a battle you're choosing to fight
2) If hubby wants to choose this battle he can take a week of work and be miserable with your daughter together.
Updated
I would not worry about it or fight about it. Ketchup is not that bad, my cousin wouldn't eat anything unless it had mayonaisse on it (yuck). For me, it was applesauce. My Mom could get me to eat anything if she put some applesauce on it. I outgrew it mostly, but even now I will put applesauce on my vegetables when I have had a bad day. If she is eating whatever you put on her plate because of the ketchup then she is getting a good diet.
I know some families that keep a bottle of ketchup on the table and eat it on everything with every meal.
Let her have the ketchup -- squirting a bit onto whatever she's having so she'll eat is not going to hurt her in the long run. My daughter went through a phase at around 2 where she would not eat any vegetables at all and the best advice I ever got was from my mom who said, "Please don't make food an issue for her because it could become an issue for the rest of her life" and my mother-in-law who saw a news story on TV that said kids develop most of their taste buds between 18 months and 3 years and will likely go through "food phases" during that time, but most outgrow them by 4 years old. She said to just let my daughter experiment and keep serving her the good stuff and let her see us eating it and eventually she'd come around. She did and now will eat almost anything. So I think it's a phase that your daughter outgrow, too, and in the meantime, give yourself a break from the battles over food and give her a little ketchup!
ketchup isnt that bad for you. if it gets her to eat then do it! (i have a daughter who is under weight so i do anything i can to get her to eat)
