Thursday, November 13, 2014

our littlest :: the little foodie

i've had quite a few people email me asking to write about how blake is such a hearty eater. and what he enjoys. thought to write it all down so i don't have to retype this. and also so i can laugh enviously at this next time when he choses to be picky!! disclaimer :: not genius parents here! so this is what worked for blakie! but not to be taken as a parenting guide. 


we think that most of his affinity to food is self-motivated. neither of us are major foodies. in fact, growing up, we were both picky eaters! so its nice that he didn't pick that up from us. 

let's start from the beginning :: 

when we first introduced blake to food, we agreed on a few things. we wanted a kid that ate what we ate. we didn't have resources to muck around with organic food. we didn't want negative food associations. 

so that said, when we introduced food to him, we never made it a huge deal. if he ate, he ate. if he didn't, he had more milk. he was never a "good boy" if he ate. and never a "bad kid" if he didn't. if he was interested (which he usually was), we always let him try anything we were having. and if he doesn't like it, we never forced it. we kept in mind what he didn't enjoy and would introduce it to him again in a different way. 


when he turned one, we decided that that was our cue to let him loose. we started introducing more interesting flavors and cuisines. we would always tell him what he was eating, talked about it and encouraged him to try. because of that, he is familiar with spicy flavors and textures. out of laziness, we also didn't have baby crockery. he used a mish mash of adult cutlery, drank from a proper glass and ate with fork and knife/spoon/chopstick and mostly, his grubby fingers. i think that made eating a little more appealing for him!

there's really no magic formula! we try to stick to healthy-ish food and always have fresh fruit at home. but truth is, i hardly cook at home and definitely not a special serve of baby-fied food for him. so he never had a chance to be fixated on a certain food! his food of the moment always changes!

we've got school and our diverse family to thank as well. he has different cuisines when he hangs out with different people. and everyone reports back with new food he tries. great team work there!


when we travel, we bring a few snacks and a banana with us always in case we are stuck! but other than that, he's pretty game to eat anything! in his own words, if he doesn't have toast, "blakie eat RAMEN for brekkie! yay!" lol

p.s. we never mess with food. when he starts pushing food around or playing with food, we take it away. i rather him go to bed hungry than start spitting out food. hate that. 

xx

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing, hon! Ash is going to start on solids very soon (er, in 3 months) so this is really helpful! Mwah!

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  2. Thanks for sharing. I never had any issues with my kids eating, but they do play with food! I am going to try taking away the food when they start playing and see if that helps!

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