The Preschool Palate (or, If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!)

My daughter is now 5, so she's edging out of the preschool category. Whatever the reason, this past month she (and at least one, sometimes both brothers) has eaten by choice green beans (first time in her life), Spinach Maria (2 helpings!!), raw celery and carrot sticks, Sloppy Joes, .....

I'm not sure if any of the following strategies have worked, but something has changed in all three of my children this past month. Just a few weeks ago, I was lamenting to my mother that they don't eat anything. And all of a sudden: they're eating with gusto! Especially my 5-year old.

So, for what it's worth, here's what we've been doing:

1. All but eliminated snacks (I'll be honest here: this involves some whining in the pre-dinner-time hour).
   
2. Made the time increments between meals more even (we now eat lunch between 12:30 and 1:00, for instance).
3. Try to get regular exercise!
4. Keep offering the good stuff; make each kid try each food option (that's it--no one has to clean their plates)
5. Let the kids help with meals!
6. Keep it simple: we don't do a lot of sauces; our side dishes are frequently raw veggies and dip, fruits, steamed veggies, etc. All the "stuff" on the plate is recognizable.
   
7. Positive thinking only! Complainers get sent to their room to regroup.
   
8. We offer fun descriptors like "try this--it's crunchy" or "look at all the pretty colors" and so forth--pique their interest.
   
9. Tell them, "Oh yeah--you like this. You just don't remember." Sometimes, it's true :).
10. Don't sweat it when a kid goes to bed hungry. If they don't like it, fine. But I'm not a short order cook fixing each person something different.

What are your strategies for encouraging healthy eating habits in your children?

Top 5 Preschool-Friendly Snacks

I don't know about you, but when I see lists of "healthy kid-friendly snacks" that include raw veggies with bean dip, anything rolled up, or an assortment of anything cut-up, I groan.

Currently, I have three preschoolers. When we need a snack, it's to tide us over to the next meal... a meal I want my preschoolers to be hungry for. In addition, our snacks are frequently on the run--tiding the kids over until we back home from our errands, a quick post-nap snack before heading out to play, and so forth.

Here are the top 5 full tummies preschool-friendly snacks: portable, healthy, and reasonably quick/uninvolved.

1. sliced apples with peanut butter
2. homemade popcorn
3. cheese stick with mini-box of raisins (our favorite portable snack)
4. In-the-Moment Trail Mix (a compilation of whatever's on hand: peanuts, raisins, mini marshmallows, cheerios, chocolate chips, pretzels, etc.)
5. other seasonal fruit with or without some sort of protein complement (peanuts, peanut butter, cheese, etc.)
   

Spunsters and Chick-Fu (with Frosty Peas)

We gambled tonight and served only the following for dinner: tofu stir-fry with green peas, snow peas, and onions on a bed of rice.... Risky, eh, with 1 preschooler and 2 toddlers?

They liked it!!!! Well, one toddler and the preschooler liked it. When I say liked, I mean the toddler who liked it had 4 helpings of tofu (we called it chick-fu) as well as several helpings of peas, the preschooler ate multiple helpings of everything, and all three kids ate the snow peas. We also served "frosty peas" (frozen peas straight from the bag--they love those).

We've decided that our kids need to eat what we eat, within reason. Tofu and stir-fry are normal meals for lots of kids around the world, so we offered it to our own kids. We divided up the stir-fry ingredients (a pain, but usually worth it) into different sections of little TV trays. That way, they can eat the familiar (the chick-fu looked like chicken) and tentatively sample the unfamiliar, rather than avoid the entire creation. We also have rigged up a kid-friendly version of chop sticks for our preschooler so she can eat like Daddy. (You can order kid-friendly chopsticks here.) Our preschooler calls chopsticks "spunsters" for some unknown reason, hence the title of this post.

So, try risky things with your kids of all ages. Presentation is usually everything. Divide up "one-dish" meals into the familiar and unfamiliar. Don't always offer them things that you are eating--this frequently ups the chances they'll want to try it because you're eating it. Skip the snacks so they're hungrier for real meals. Kids love to dip things into salad dressing, peanut butter, hummus, etc. And, occasionally, throw in the towel and give them chicken nuggets and boxed mac-n-cheese.

So far, our kids will frequently eat the following vegetables (it's never a guarantee, is it?):

• peas
• sugar snap peas
• snow peas
• green beans
• lettuce
• cooked spinach, doctored up
• pumpkin
• sweet potatoes
• white potatoes
• broccoli
• butternut squash
• acorn squash
• red peppers (one kid...)
• cucumbers
• raw carrots (occasionally)
• cabbage (in cole slaw form--the preschooler)

We'll try zucchini on them this summer if the garden cooperates. We're still working on some of the Asian greens, like bok choy. We rarely see all three kids eat all that's offered any given meal. Our boys are much better vegetable eaters than our daughter; she has become better, though, watching them scarf down their food. I've been assured this can all change, so this is what they will eat as of February, 2009!