Making food fun for my kid

It probably comes as little surprise when I say that my son is a picky eater, as our meal time travails have been well documented here. From what I’ve gathered kids tend to fall into two main categories: eaters and grazers. Our son clearly falls into the latter.

Our main reassurance, other than him growing, is that he always eats a really good breakfast. To help matters we took to spiking his morning oatmeal with cottage cheese to ramp up the protein content. Still, other than snack time, the rest of the day can be a struggle to get him to eat anything resembling a balanced meal.

Despite this fact, we have recently taken a more casual approach when it comes to meal time, especially after our pediatrician assured us that it was common for much of a toddler’s protein intake to come from dairy sources. We were concerned because he’d eat the occasional vegetable while devouring cheese or yogurt with fervor, but wouldn’t touch any other form of starch or protein.

Ever since adopting this more laissez-faire attitude the tides have started to turn, slightly. When he gets up from his nap I offer him food, but he is more content to play and occasionally pick at something rather than sit down and eat. As a result, the plan has been to go with the flow as long as he drinks his milk.

Over the past few weeks we’ve noticed that it seems to be working because he has started to eat more at dinner time. Most of the time he prefers to eat from our plate, even though he has the exact same thing on his. When we are eating something different reverse psychology comes in handy, which only makes him more determined to try something new.

The other day I made my Italian style country ribs and a batch of creamy polenta to go with it. While he eschewed the meat, he gobbled down the polenta faster than anything in recent memory. Even more surprising, the next day I fried up some of the left over polenta into star shaped cakes (currently his favorite word, he can spot a ‘star’ at twenty paces) and he ate them just as quickly.

Taking this as a sign, that night I made an even bigger batch of polenta and put half of it into a pan so I could make polenta cakes for him on demand. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry as the third night was going to the well one time too many for little man.

Regardless, we are always working on finding different ways to make meal time go smoother or more fun for him. Whether it’s making fun shapes out of food or not trying to force the issue, the progress is encouraging. We may just get this parenting thing down before number two gets here.