A buddy of mine emailed me this morning about his kids and how they are really picky eaters and asked for advice. I really don’t know that I’m qualified to give advice on much of anything outside of writing some code and making BBQ sauce.
But what I realized in thinking was that, when I was my sons age I too was one of those picky eaters because my parents didn’t expose me to other foods. That isn’t a knock against my parents, but they also let me try foods once and then when I would push it away, they would just go to an old staple like hamburgers or hotdogs. Now, fast forward many years and I’m a parent many of the things that I use to push way, like spaghetti, I love to eat and love to cook it for the boys and they usually eat 2 – 3 servings at a sitting.
It is easy to offer once and then goto a standard and I’m not saying that I haven’t done that, I did it last night as a matter of fact. But I am also really trying to offer the kids as many different types of foods that I can and more importantly, let them figure out the foods that they like and don’t like. As long as they really try something, if they don’t like it, then I’ll figure out something out, but I really want them to try it and then let me know what they did not like about it. Maybe it was too salty for them? Maybe if I can alter an ingredient or two, they will love it?
So here is my only advice for those with picky eaters, try and encourage different foods and try to encourage it a few different times if they don’t like it at first. Change up the recipes if needed too because rarely will you every make the same dish multiple times identically. So good luck cooking and here’s to those with picky eaters to trying something new.
I’ve been working in Digital Marketing and Web Development for over 15 years now and I have literally written code with my eyes closed. Yes, everyday creates a new change and everyday some new technique or skill comes out to try. But it is just that, something that I’ve been doing for 15 years now. And don’t get me wrong, I enjoy what I do and I am very fortunate to have worked my way up in this industry and to have gotten to grow my career and implement a lot of changes for the organizations that I have been a part of. But, when watching Chef, this clip hit me hard:
When my mother in law died, I had two choices, learn how to cook or starve and that wasn’t really an option so I started asking questions of my mom and then I remembered my days in Texas and how much I loved grilling and smoking food. And I started off small and I talked with my Mom about her spaghetti recipe and I made that and realized that my mom was not the right person to ask for cooking advice. I started making the spaghetti recipe once a week and then I perfected it to a point, that I could make spaghetti almost the same each time and not look at the recipe. And while I was starting at the basics of spaghetti, I remembered how much I loved to be outside and grill. In church one Sunday, my wife’s grandmother asked if I wanted her Weber Grill, which might lead to one of the most honest responses in the United Methodist Church, which was a simple AMEN!
So, fast forward a few years and my obsession of cooking has become my passion. My days of traveling to and from work now are often spent talking cooking and food with friends and giving them suggestions or ideas for recipes. I am often asked now to smoke or grill food for co-workers and when they want me to try new recipes. I am talking with chefs on a more regular basis to gain ideas, learn new techniques, pick their brains on pairings of beers and foods, seasoning of food and things of that nature. And the importance of the clip above, is showing how excited he was and how he was expressing his creativity, something that I can relate, because when I cook, I get to use my creativity side. In my job, I am the least creative person that I know.
What I have found, is that as I learn more, my obsession continues to increase. My obsession for cooking has become a creative passion that I have never experienced before. And not only has this obsession taking a life of its own, it has created an opportunity to show and teach my sons. Not only am I teaching them about cooking and exposing them to differently flavors and types and styles of foods, I’m bonding with them and spending time with them. So my obsession is just as much about spending time with them as anything. The boys know that on Sunday, we goto church, get coffee and donuts and the come home and spend the day at either the grill or the smoker.
While I am teaching the boys how to cook, I get to laugh and joke around with them. Teach them about the importance of food safety, but also the time that we are spending together and doing something that we love. Growing up, I didn’t have this type of relationship with my father, we do now, but not then. I didn’t spend a lot of time with him and know that every Sunday or Saturday or both days, that we would be outside cooking. I didn’t have him teaching me about things that he was passionate about. And my hope, is that as this obsession, not only mine, but the obsession that my sons are having with learning more about cooking grows, that they will share these same things with their children when they have them.
Most Sunday’s I can be found in the kitchen and today was no different. On the menu for today’s sunday cooking is spaghetti sauce, marina sauce, pizza sauce, grilled chicken, grilled shrimp, grilled yellow fin tuna and grilled vegetables.
My wife and I have focused on trying to preparw as many meals as possible on Sunday as we can. It has even gotten to the point that we are cooking for weeks in advance. I am really focused on cooking as many different things as I can as I want to expose the boys to as many different foods as I can.
So as many enjoy their Sunday day, we have sunday cooking day. And i have started getting the boys involved and helping me cooking.
Dinner time for many is a quick bite, where you can get it in. For us, my wife and I would often feed the boys in their high chairs and then we would eat later. But now, we are all eating at the table for dinner time. I have to say, I love it. I love being able to sit and just talk with the boys while they eat.
Growing up, the dinner table was really important for me. It was a symbol of family time. As I grew older, I often had baseball or basketball practice, which took me away from sitting at the dinner table with the rest of my family, but now, as a parent, I see what I missed out on. I missed out on conversation. Family discussions and planning. Family bonding. Things that now, I wish that I had been a part of.
And years later, as a parent, I see the importance. I see that I need to set the example for my boys of the importance of the dinner table. So my wife and I have vowed, going forward, no more things on the dinner table, unless it is plates and silverware, because we need to start making memories for our boys, while we eat together as a family.
As you can gather, I love cooking and it is something that I use to hate. I find it as a my way to relax and unwind from the day.
I have been making my own pizza now for a year or so and the boys go crazy when they see it. Now, I don’t give them any of mine, because I do add a fair amount of Cayenne pepper in mine. But I got thinking, why not make them mini pizzas?
So, I figured out a quick recipe and off we went into the oven. I was not sure how the boys were going to react, but I took some pizza dough that I made and then some homemade pizza sauce, minus the cayenne and just added some cheese and a cut up some pepperoni and then I was done. My biggest regret is that I didn’t take photos because the boys ate their mini pizzas in no time.
Well, looks like I’ve found a new recipe that the boys not only like, but that is not terribly unhealthy and who doesn’t love pizza?
With two boys, there is always a competition, even at the age of 2. Who can talk the loudest. Who can say the first word. Who can run. Who can throw a ball the furthest. And the list goes on and on. But, I realized something this week, Baby B has done the majority of the major milestones first: rolling over, crawling, walking, talking and now, learning his alphabet. But, Baby B still isn’t talking as much as he needs to. Whereas Baby A, did everything second, but doesn’t stop talking. Ever.
Baby A can now piece together between 2 and 4 word sentences. He can ask for things. He can do simple tasks that we ask, giving things to his brother, picking up toys, etc. Baby B, well, he is getting there. But, Baby B walked up to me the other day and pointed to my St. Jude’s Children’s HospitalHey St. Jude t-shirt and said “U”. So, I figured, why not just ask to point to other letters. I asked letter by letter, mixing up the order and each time, Baby B correctly pointed to each letter. The next night, I while wearing my University of Texas football t-shirt, I asked Baby B to point to the different letters, and each time, he got them right.
Each night, we ask the boys certain letters of the alphabet at dinner and often times they get them right. But, this was the first time that I had tried to ask specific letters of the alphabet and have him point to letters. So, even though he isn’t talking as much as he should, he is definitely pointing to the letters that are asked of him.
After getting home from the pumpkin patch this past weekend, we decided to make some Homemade Apple Sauce. I have to say, at first, I was a little unsure how good it would be, but seriously? I’ll never eat apple sauce out of a jar again.
At the pumpkin patch, we picked up 6 large apples that were grown on the farm. Then we peeled and diced them up. Put them in the crock pot for 6 hours with 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, squeezed out 1/2 lemon (to prevent the apples from browning) and then put some lemon zest in the pot and we waited. Man, to say that it was good is a complete would not do it justice.
Not only was it easy to make, it will be healthier for the boys. And when they are older, they will be able to help make homemade apple sauce.
Yesterday was the boys 1 year checkups. They are growing as they should, got their shots, and the biggest news of all, no more formula. That is right, as of 3:00 yesterday the boys were switched from formula to milk.
And since I love saving money, here is a quick break down of the savings:
Formula – $40 a week for 2 containers.
Milk – $3.50 for a gallon.
We are estimating that we will need 4 gallons a week, which will be $15 (with tax), which is a $25 a week savings. Saving $25 a week is not huge, but that is $100 a month that can go to pay down debt. Every little bit helps, so bring on the milk. And thus far, the boys seem to love it.
My wife and I have been very blessed when it comes to our boys sleep patterns. For the first 3 months, they slept for 2 hours at a time, had a bottle, would sleep for 2 more hours and so forth. At our 3 month Doctor visit, I asked the Doctor how long before they would sleep through the night. He laughed and told me that we had a while. I guess a week was a while, because the following week, both boys on the same night, started sleeping 6 – 8 hours at a time. Oh, what a beautiful thing.
Then it happened. At 10 months old, Baby A started waking up at 11:30pm on the dot every night, screaming. So what changed? Was he teething? Was he growing? He wasn’t talking and telling us what was wrong, so we were left to guess. Everyone told us to let him cry it out. Normally, that would be ok. But we live in a townhouse and the next door neighbor likes to beat on the wall when he starts crying. So, that really didn’t help the situation at all. We called our Pediatrician and asked for advice, they too said to let him cry it out, but they also suggested to give him extra food before he goes to bed. That night, we moved Baby A downstairs into our living room, setup the pack and play, put on some classical music, feed him, gave him extra food, kissed him on the head and off we went. 7:00am the next morning, I go downstairs, there he is, sitting up smiling. This goes on for 2 more weeks. A full night sleep.
Then it happened again. Now, we are at 11 months old and he started waking up at 11:30 pm. So for almost a week, every night he would wake up. What changed? He was still downstairs. He was still listening to classical music. He now had 2 more teeth to come through. So what was it? What changed? Well, before calling the Pediatrician, I did some Google searches to see if this was a common issue or not and it was – Read about it here on Baby Center . Was he hitting a milestone? He did just start to walk. There might be a few more teeth coming in. It does look like he is growing. Wait, that might be it. If he is growing, could that mean that he is waking up at 11:30pm, which is 4 hours after he last ate, which is about the time in between his bottles during the day, was he hungry? That night, I gave him 4 oz. of formula and what do you know, he slept through the night.
I am not saying that this will work for you if your child is crying. I’m not a Pediatrician, so always ask them first, which is what we did. But, so far so good. We have given him the extra formula and we are all able to sleep through the night again. Let’s just hope that this continues.
At the boys 9 months Doctor visit, he suggested that we start introducing new foods to the boys. Our pediatrician recommending starting off with soft foods such as peas, eggs, breads (wheat bread), potatoes (sweet potatoes), etc. The boys had started pushing away the spoons as we feed them and enjoyed eating their puffs, so this was just a great transition.
In the first weekend, we’ve been able to get the boys to eat eggs, peas, and potatoes. We have started slowly introducing new foods to the boys, but only 1 thing at a time, just in case they are allergic to any of the foods. The boys have really seemed to enjoy trying the new foods and have thus far, had no breakouts. We are trying to feed them these new foods, instead of their pureed food at night and they seem to enjoy feeding themselves too.
The first time introducing new foods for your children might be met with resistance, but keep trying. The more that we give them, the more they seem to enjoy feeding themselves. But talk with your pediatrician first, as they might have more insight and suggestions about the foods that you give your child.
