Mealtime Strategy

Evelina enjoying an ice cream treat in honor of her Mommy's birthday

Our Miss Evelina likes to flip flop between being a great eater and a very picky eater, and from what I've heard this is completely normal toddler behavior. She has enjoyed food since we introduced solids at 6 months, but we've had many frustrating meals due to teething, developmental leaps, or just plain pickiness.

Each day we learn more about our string bean, and this is what we've learned when it comes to mealtimes: 

• She will try anything once. This doesn’t always mean she will try it again.
• The child LOVES fruit. I think one day she may turn into a blueberry, raisin, banana or pear.
• She would prefer to eat fruit by holding and biting the entire piece of fruit. She has been known to get quite mad when we cut up a pear instead of giving her the entire piece.
• She goes though spurts of eating certain vegetables. One week she will like carrots, the next week she won’t. It can be hit or miss so we must always have options.
• She adores milk.
• Mushy food is never well-received. This includes foods such as oatmeal, scrambled eggs, or mashed potatoes.
• Protein (other than dairy-based) isn’t on the top of her favorite foods list. Well, except for turkey dogs.
• When we eat with her, she always wants what we are eating, even if it is the same as what is on her plate.
• Just because she doesn’t eat something we give her immediately doesn’t mean she won’t eat it. Many times, we will give her something, she will disregard it or toss it away, but after a little while, she will end up eating all of it.
• She is very coordinated when using a spoon or fork, but after awhile, just aborts and uses her hands.
• She uses both her right and left hands when using utensils.
• She prefers to eat food out of bowls instead of plates. It makes it easier to scoop.
• She has started to pick up her bowl and place it close to her mouth so when she scoops she doesn’t have as far to go with her spoon. This also reduces messes…I like that.
• Dipping is fun and encourages eating foods that may be tossed to the floor if they couldn’t be dipped.
• Providing too many options at mealtimes is overwhelming and results in an unsuccessful meal.
• She still wears a bib at mealtime. If she sees it on the counter she will attempt to put it on herself which is very adorable. She doesn’t try to rip it off and is known to play peek-a-boo with it often. If something falls in the trap, she will find it and eat it.
• She eats GREAT at school and her teachers often tell us they wish all of her “friends” ate as well as she did. It certainly gives me one less thing to worry about when I know she is eating a balanced diet and getting the nutrients she needs…at school.
• When she is all done or not hungry, she will play with her food, throw food on the floor, swipe the counter, and sometimes sign “all done”.
• When all else fails, fruit, Snackimals (our favorite animal crackers), or saltines save the day.

A few strategies we use to encourage a successful meal are:

1. We know Evelina loves milk but we don’t want her to fill up on it so we always try to offer milk after she has eaten some of her food. Sometimes we bend the rules if she requests milk at non-food times or seems starving during meal preparation.
2. Meals are served in courses. We’ve learned that if we give Evelina a plate with a protein, vegetables and fruit, she will eat the fruit and keep requesting more fruit. She will not touch the protein and vegetables. To avoid this we’ve started to feed her in courses. For example, the other night I gave her a fish stick with some ketchup for dipping. She was hesitant at first but ended up eating the entire fish stick and asked for more. Once she was finished, I gave her carrots, which she polished off no problem, and then her dessert, blueberries and raspberries. The strategy has been working well. It also prevents her from getting overwhelmed with too much food in front of her.
3. On occasion we have even employed her baby or Cookie Monster to help us out at mealtime. I will “feed” the baby or Cookie Monster what is on Evelina’s plate and many times she will give into peer pressure and eat it herself. HA!!

Mealtime is definitely challenging. It is ever-changing and always requires new tactics for it to be successful…along with lots and lots of creativity and patience. I’m excited for the stage where Evelina gets excited about sandwiches in the shape of flowers or smiley faces made out of vegetables. Fun times ahead.