Monday, December 22, 2008

Veggies anyone?

I truly believe that patience is a virtue, and it's one I wasn't blessed with. Of course with Bailey I am more patient than I ever would have imagined possible, but there are situations where I'd be willing to throw in the towel if it weren't for Nick.
Before I was even pregnant, we would talk about how we wanted to raise our children. While there were things we disagreed on, we were on the same page for most of the issues. One thing we've been very adamant about is that we want Bailey to be a good, healthy eater. We both agreed on no pop or sugary drinks until she's older, and then limited amounts. She gets 100% juice mixed with water once a day and the rest of the day is water or milk. She gets a yummyGerber animal cracker for dessert IF she's eaten well at dinner. And we're not complete sugar Nazi's...she does get chocolate, cookies and other goodies occasionally. I just know that trying to instill healthy eating habits in her will be much easier now than when she's 10! But this just keeps getting harder and harder. We've learned if we give her two different things at a meal, even if they're two things she really likes, she'll usually pick one and only eat that. So of course when we were giving her a veggie and a meat, she would pick the meat and only eat that. To try and work around this we have started to give her a veggie to eat while the rest of the meal is being prepared. This is definitely better, but still not always easy. Last night she screamed and cried for a good 5 minutes straight before eating some of her peas. But once she started eating them she was fine. I would have probably just gone ahead and gave her something else, but Nick was so patient and calmed her down and got her to eat them. Thank goodness for a patient daddy! I do think she has gotten burnt out on some of the veggies...she won't hardly eat green beans any more, and she'll only eat carrots if they're in vegetable beef stew.
Any suggestions for a new fun way to serve veggies? She LOVES tomatoes, but I'm trying not to give them to her too often because I don't want her to get tired of them too! She does great with all the other food groups, but we're struggling a little with the vegetables!

1 comment:

Mama Smors said...

I totally aggree on forming good eating habits now and it is definitely challenging as they get older! The dr. told me I could count on one good meal a day. So usually at lunch or dinner I can get the main course plus some fruits and veggies. Then at the other meal it is only picking at one thing. Ivy loved veggies and it now burnt out on some of them. We have been baking her sweet pototoes and letting her use her own utensils to make peas and carrots fun again. She also has like raw cucumber (in very very small peices). Good luck!