Food Wars

I know I've already talked about picking your battles when it comes to your toddler, however food happens to be in a category of its own in my opinion.

 Every family has its own rules about food. For my family if my toddler gets in two good meals a day out of the three, breakfast, lunch or dinner, we will let the third slide. Take for instance today. JD ate the equivalent of two scrambled eggs for breakfast and a bowl of mac & cheese for lunch. For dinner all he wanted to eat off of his plate of pot roast, peas, corn on the cob and potatoes was the corn on the cob. So that's what he ate. Knowing that he had a good breakfast and lunch along with snacks of goldfish and blueberries today we did not press the issue of dinner.

Now for some families it is clear your plate. In our house, with the exception of dinner, we give JD options for his breakfast and lunch. Now the options are always things that we a) are willing to make and b) part of a healthy and balanced diet. For example breakfast choices may be scrambled cheesy eggs, Greek yogurt or cereal. Lunch may be a tuna fish sandwich, mac and cheese, Greek yogurt or grilled cheese. Snacks choices usually include cheese sticks, fruit, veggies, animal crackers, apple sauce. This ensures that even if JD does not 3 solid meals that between his two main meals and snacking he gets a balanced diet without an aversion to eating, which I believe is the most important aspect. It is more important that he eats something then to get him to eat what I have prepared. It is this mentality that I think gets JD to eat things like tuna fish, salmon, cheese burgers, lasagna, beef , radishes,beets etc than just the toddler staples. It also gives him a healthy view of food as a tool for nourishment and variety.

My husband has the idea that you should eat your colors and if you eat your colors then you've covered all your nutritional basics. For JD that means he should eat at least one of each color throughout the day. This way if he refuses to eat a meal we do not press the issue and if we are willing, we offer a back-up option. This ensures that he is eating healthy and does not have any aversions to any food, though he does have his favorites.

What are your family food rules?