15 month appt

Colin had his 15 mo appt last week and we talked about food. We are at the point where he is eating the same thing every day and that concerns me. She said to give him what he likes and keep introducing new stuff...this is a hard stage right now. She was more concerned that he wasn't eating meat/beans though and we are to really push that and anything that has high iron and zinc. I found a yobaby toddler yogurt that has iron and zinc added so that made me happy...any other ideas?

He eats banana at every meal. Every. single. one. And she said as long as he doesn't get stopped up that is fine. I did see some of those fruit pouches at Target and got him one and he LOVED it. So I bought 30 million more LOL

And he doesn't drink. He can go through a whole meal and not take a sip. I am so hesitant to take away the bottle because it is the only way he gets milk...will not drink it out of a sippy. She said that he will drink eventually and he is getting plenty of calcium through yogurt and cheese...were any of your Ped's not concerned about milk intake? I thought it was important??

Oh and we went to a party the other day and he ate a chip with guacamole. Huh?

We talked about other stuff but since this is an eating blog I won't go off track LOL

One of those days you read about

Caleb's entire intake today was enough for maybe one meal. I know I've been warned about this but it was the first day that it really and truly happened. (This may partly be because I am getting better about not feeding him, partly because his appetite is getting SMALLER as he gets older.)

Few strawberry chunks and 2 bites of French toast for breakfast. He nibbled on a homemade blueberry muffin at 10:30 and refused any semblance of lunch. I made him a quesadilla, usually his favorite, after his nap and he wanted nothing of it. He did eat some melon and a maybe 1/4 a grilled cheese at dinner.

Toddlers won't starve themselves. Toddlers won't starve themselves. Toddlers won't starve themselves.

Weight and size...

I know we all have picky eaters, but my wonderful cutie is a small little one probably related to the picky eating.  Anyways, I am getting really sick of other moms at the park etc. making comments about his size.  He's 5th percentile, someone has to be there.  He's been sick for a few days, but when the doctor weighed him he was only a bit over 21 lbs!  At 18 months, but she is completely unconcerned.

So what do you say when someone comments on how small your child is?

I am going to try those zucchini medallions tonight!  We got a tons of zucchini from our CSA.  I also need to find a way to get him to eat some of the green beans that we've gotten.  Thankfully he loves tomatoes.

Recipes from the weekend 8/22

I made sweet potato pancakes from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook and he ate it (with maple syrup)

I also made the blueberry lemon muffins from that cookbook and I'm not going to say either way because I gave it to him after he had eaten a full container of ravioli and a 1/2 banana. Pat ate three and said they were really good. I will try try again!

I am going to try the banana bites from Weelicious this weekend because banana is the only fruit he will eat (unless it pureed). Can they have too much banana??

I tried watermelon this weekend and he gagged. I wonder if I pureed it so he could get used to the taste and then tried again? He never ate banana pureed so I just don't get it LOL

That is very interesting Holly about not praising. Colin LOVES to be praised (he praises himself LOL) so I was saying "yay!!" when he ate something. Obviously that isn't working so maybe ignoring would be better...I don't know.

I feel bad that he is eating the same thing every day...guess I need to talk to the Ped on Thursday and see what she says. Is it time to get tough? I have no idea.

Recipe Reviews

I have tried a few Weelicious recipes that I thought I would review for you girls!

#1: Spinach Ricotta Bites
Easy to make and really tasty! I thoroughly enjoyed them. Natalie would eat one, but not more than that. I won't complain since she was actually eating spinach. I plan on making them again.

#2: Breakfast Cupcakes
These are basically peanut butter flavored pancakes baked in a mini muffin tin. I didn't put the "frosting" on them since I didn't have any cream cheese on hand. They were really tasty and Natalie loved them. They don't keep past 1 day though, so plan on freezing extras. I also made a regular pancake with the leftover batter and it was also delicious.

#3: Carrot Chips
Major fail. I don't know if I didn't do something right or what, but they didn't turn out at all. I threw them away. They weren't crunchy and they shriveled up so small you couldn't even eat them. I won't try them again.

#4: Baked Zucchini Coins
Two enthusiastic thumbs up! I cut them probably a bit smaller than the 1/4 inch called for and I think they turned out better for Natalie. I loved them. Natalie picked it right up off her tray and took a bite. I also had spaghetti sauce to dip it in and she liked that. She didn't eat the whole piece, but this is normal for her on a first try. Next time I make them I bet she will eat several. I froze some as well to make at a later time. Yum!

Breakfast foods

We have actually had a lot of success with breakfast foods. I realized I left a lot of those off my previous list. What does your toddler eat and have you been able to sneak in variety?

Today he fed himself cut-up French toast with a fork (a whole piece) and then strawberries. He definitely does better when it's fork-friendly food!!!

Other stuff he loves:

Toast, either just with butter or w natural PB
Cereal w milk - he can actually feed this to himself w a bib on. His faves are Cheerios and Rice Chex.
Scrambled eggs...he loves these but will not always feed them to himself
French toast, pancakes, waffles
Fruit and yogurt
Earth's Best cereal bars

I have not tried oatmeal in a while since he refused it for so long. Maybe tomorrow!

Behavior and eating?

I like having the lists of foods, but what do yall do as far as your behavior while your LO eats?

I liked some of the thoughts that JennyJuniper posted a while back and we've been trying to stick to them. Things like: not making eating such a big deal. We don't cheer if she eats something new and we don't make a big deal if she refuses everything on her plate. We don't reward her for eating. We simply put her food in front of her, she eats what she eats, she says, "All done" when she is done, and we get her out of her high chair.

A while back I feel like I just stopped battling her. I was sick of it. Since then it's been a lot less stressful. She won't starve. *shrug*

Also, we don't do many snacks around here...

Who knew that Toddler Eating Habits would become such a big deal?

I think I have started to accept that C simply has a small appetite. So even when she loves something, she's only going to eat so much.

Our "go to" foods:
*Hot dogs
*Cheese sticks
*Kalamata Olives
*Halved Grapes
*Halved Blueberries (Hit Or Miss "HOM")
*Veggie Sticks (Come in the potato chip bag)
*Pirate's Booty
*Goldfish (My kid could live off of carbs and/or snack foods)
*Any cracker or chip
*Peas (HOM)
*Pizza (I make home-made pizza a lot, we go out for pizza a lot, and sometimes I make mini pizzas for C using an English Muffin)
*Quesadilla (HOM)
*Pimiento Cheese Sandwich (HOM)
*Yogurt
*Almost any dried fruit: Blueberries, Craisins, Raisins, Yogurt covered raisins, etc.
*Banana (FINALLY!)
*Pepperoni (We've done regular and turkey and we buy the bags of the "minis" which are perfect. They are about the size of a nickel.)

Lately we'll offer her something new and she will get so excited and actually eat some. I think she's gotten bored with her current food rotation (who wouldn't?!). This week she actually ate some Spaghetti Pie Casserole (first time she didn't spit pasta out) and she got really excited about the rice we had at the Mexican restaurant last night.

Foods that are always (almost) accepted...

For Meals:

• Meatballs (I make them and sneak shredded carrots and squash into them...  Shhh don't tell Trent)
• Cheese sticks (cheddar is his favorite - the sharper the better)
• Fruit cut up (peaches, plums, grapes, sometimes berries, melon, figs, or banana)
• Quesadilla/Grilled Cheese (sometimes I can sneak tomato on these, but NEVER meat)
• Pasta is a recent discovery - he refused flat out for a LONG time
• Whole Milk yogurt with oatmeal to thicken
• Rice/Risotto and occasionally Couscous
• Sometimes scrambled eggs and potatoes - but not always

For Snacks:

• Graham crackers, kix, or cheerios
• Cheese stick
• Fruit
• Occasionally thawed frozen peas

 Lately fruit smoothies have been a go, but it depends somewhat on the ingredients.

I also almost always can get him to eat a Nutrigrain bar or one of those fruit cups (Dole or whatever), but these are not really nutritious, healthy choices so I try to limit them...

He will essentially not eat vegetables.  He says broccoli, but then throws it on the floor.

Natalie's Go To Foods

*Her new favorite is Rold Gold Honey Wheat Pretzels. She goes nuts for them!
*Any kind of cracker (whole grain goldfish is usually what I keep on hand)
*Blueberries and grapes
*Quesadillas (chopped up chicken breast and cheese...once I used guac and she ate it)
*White meat Ballpark turkey hot dogs
*Any kind of cheese or anything with cheese on it :o)
*Peanut butter sandwich
*Pancakes
*Cereal bars
*Gerber fruit strips
*Pizza

I'm going to try whole wheat tortillas and see what she thinks. She loves wheat bread, so I'm hoping she won't notice the difference.

Foods that get mad love in our house

*Ritz-type crackers - we buy the Whole Foods store brand organic ones.
*Cheese
*Applegate Farms Organic Turkey Hot Dogs
*Annies Bunnies - whole wheat and white cheddar are the faves
*Cheerios-type cereal - again with the WF organic store brand
*Fage Total full-fat cherry yogurt
*Ella's Organics pouches, pretty much all flavors. Other brands too - the Plum Organics brand "just prunes" has come in handy a few times.
*Fruit - with berries and apples being the fave

And though I have tried, many times, many ways, my child will NOT eat pasta.

Our go-to quick dinner

When we're short on time to get some food into Simon, I pop one of these in the toaster oven. 6 minutes to cook, a minute to cool & cut up - it doesn't get much quicker! If he's super hungry, I'll give him an Ella pouch while the pizza is cooking, and cut up some fruit too.

Typically I give him half of it and wrap the other half up for lunch the next day. Some days he takes two bites, some days he eats it all. Well, maybe not *all* of it - I'm sure some goes to the dog when I'm not looking.

Since we've introduced The Fork, he's been eating a bit more. He mastered it in a few days and he loves feeding himself (and the dog) with it. I'm sure when the novelty wears off his food intake will drop back off. *Le Sigh*

What Colin will eat...usually.

Grilled cheese (don't you dare try and hide anything in there)
Gerber raviolis - his favorite is the spinach & cheese but will eat most of them.
Banana - this is new
Yogurt
Any pureed fruit, veggie, meat (I am trying to stop this though)
Waffle
Toast (I butter & sprinkle with cin/sugar or peanut butter)
pancakes (usually restaurant only)
Puffs
Nilla wafers
Oreo sticks

What he WILL eat all the time

Grilled cheese (usually).
Almost all fruit, but he won't feed himself bananas, I have to feed them to him.
Crackers.
Cereal and milk.
Yogurt sticks but he has little defense against these.

.....