What type of parent are you when it comes to feeding your child?

Through the years I have seen many parenting types when it comes to feeding children.

There is Lackadaisical Lucy, Chelsea Choice, Erin the Enforcer, Wanda the Whining Worrier , Betty Briber and Hilda Hide It. 

I do not want to single out a parenting technique as wrong or right because I think that each and every parent is doing their best to ultimately provide the best nutrition that they can. 

Some parents may not be able to stomach another parent that is forcing, bribing or begging  their child to eat their food but it is important to look at what we are doing as parents before we know how to make changes. 

Over the course of the next week we will go over each parenting type. As we think about these parents it will be a good time to reflect upon your own feeding techniques. Here are a few questions you may want to ask yourself:


What is your ultimate goal when feeding your child? For example, My goal is to get my kids to try more foods and consume more of a variety of foods. 
How do you measure success as a parent when feeding your child? I measure success by getting my kids to taste just one bite or by having my son ask me to make a meal again.
What works for you? I don't have an ultimate answer yet but I would love to hear what you do :) 

One last thing- A fun feeding tip of the week: 

My kids are still excited about the cookies they made over Christmas. For my dad's 63rd birthday we had a pizza party at the house. I divided up fresh pizza dough so each child could make their own pizzas (to avoid any pre-dinner sibling rivalry meltdowns). My daughter decided that she wanted to cut shapes out of the pizza dough with cookie cutters. She cut out horses, my son cut out snowflakes and then they proceeded to top them with healthier versions of pizza toppings. The end product did not exactly resemble a horse or a snowflake but the kids gobbled them up. Yes, I know what you might think- It's pizza of course they ate it! Well actually they are really picky about their pizza and it has to come from 1 pizza shop in town. And since I wanted a healthier version for this fun night I wanted to make it at home which typically draws moans and groans. But not this time. They ate it up and want to do it again. Yay! One point for mom. 

www.ABCDEatRight.com

A Kids 52 week journey: Exploring new foods, eating healthy & learning how to cook

Frustration, anxiety and in turn disappointment pretty much sums up my families eating ritual. A year ago (for 2012's New Years Resolution) I deemed that our family would no longer be Vegetarians and that we would venture back into the world of eating more animal products. All of these changes in the name of adding more variety to my families eating repertoire.
Our family has been on a 5 year journey of veganism, vegetarianism, rawism and pescetarianism which has brought my family nothing more than processed, nutrient poor meals full of macaroni and cheese, soy nuggets, cereal and peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
In the big scheme of things you may be wondering...why does this even matter? Why do I care what this Registered Dietitian feeds her children? What I have determined is that I am not the only one on this planet with children that don't eat a wide variety. And, there is such thing as an unhealthy vegetarian. There are numerous books that will teach you what to feed your kids and how to work miracles with even the fussiest of eaters. There are also numerous cookbooks that will teach you how to feed your kids, and believe me I have read many books and cookbooks and will share my experience with you on a monthly basis.
As a global community children around the world receive less than 4 hours per year of nutrition education. As a parent you might think that your child will learn about nutrition through school but it is important to know the facts and realize that the most important person they can learn from is you.

Back tracking a little bit, I want to Introduce my family.

My husband and I are the same age, 38. I have always felt that it was important to have a meal at dinnertime and since we were married I cooked a more or less healthy meal for at least 4 nights a week. Soon after we had our first child we decided that we would clean our lives with purer food and dove right into Vegetarianism and Veganism. When our son was little it was fine. Most foods for infants and toddlers are easy to prepare and simple. My son loved avocado and bananas, hummus, yogurt and applesauce. He nursed until he was 19 months old and then we made the transition to a variety of milks. Soy milk was a favorite and by the time he was 3 he slowly accepted cow's milk. Our daughter came when our son was almost 3 years old. At this point he was eating more finger foods but still liked a lot of fruits and vegetables. Our daughter nursed until she was almost 2 1/2 years old. She has never really accepted cow's milk and drinks very little soy or almond milk. She loves eggs and most fruits and all nuts, but pretty much lives on peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
The year of 2012 also brought the honor of being my town's Ambassador for Food Revolution Day. This day has been set aside to promote awareness of what our children eat and to advocate for better community involvement at both a home and school level.
As a Registered Dietitian dealing with children I have found our eating habits more frustrating than most people might. I tend to dwell on the fact that if I can't get my children to eat healthier then how can I advise other parents to feed their children healthier fare?
So the journey is to begin now. My personal and family challenge to get us healthier in the new year.
Over the next 52 weeks I will pick an area of nutrition to work on, new foods and recipes to try, and techniques that have been researched and tried by other parents to incorporate into our journey.

I will incorporate and support interactive questions on my facebook page: ABCD Eat Right and find out what works for you as parents and grandparents. I will present a book that I have read and fill your parenting tool kit with recipes and alternative resources. And, I will describe our families trial and tribulations on a weekly basis right here on this blog. So join us, jump in with us and offer any advice you seem may fit into our discussion.

I look forward to a Healthy and Happy New Year!