baby

Toddler Tips: Literally Lateral

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While Maxwell is not what I would call a picky eater, his aversion to certain textures has limited some of the foods we can immediately introduce that he will eat.

If he doesn’t enjoy the food that he is eating, we get the immediate finger scrape of the tongue. Foods that have joined that phenomenon are mashed potatoes, meatloaf, homemade meatballs, fish sticks, and most recently: slushed ices & teriyaki chicken.

In the initial stages of teaching Max how to eat, we would mainly rely on the reports from his daycare. If he was eyeing another kid’s pancakes, then we made sure to get him pancakes at home and test them out there. (The Kellogg’s® Eggo® Minis Buttermilk Pancakes have now remained a staple for breakfast all week long….with butter and syrup added on weekends for an extra treat.)

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Maxwell and his pancakes!

When he didn’t want to eat his puffs for snack time anymore, we introduced Gerber Lil’ Crunchies® – Mild Cheddar with yogurt. (I also highly recommend Stonyfield® Organic YoBaby® Yogurt as it provides that daily dose of probiotics for your little one.)

And when lunchtime got especially boring in texture with Gerber® Plastic Tubs mixed with Earth’s Best Organic® Infant Oatmeal Cereal, we introduced more table food to satisfy the palette.

Eventually Max started to come around on food in general, but this took a little finagling and some observation on how Max preferred to try new things. He would try something, not like it, then we would have to take a side-step in our process and get him to like another item related to that initial food to get him to take that next step. Once he got accustomed to the taste of that other item, we then gave him the initial food again with slight modification. Funnily enough: it worked!

The conclusion became clear: in order to introduce new foods that may not be the biggest hit, Matt & I would have to make lateral moves.

For example, Max initially HATED scrambled eggs. I am not exaggerating that we attempted at least a dozen times before changing our tactics to convince Max that scrambled eggs were delicious. When scrambled didn’t initially work we decided to try a different style of egg: fried with a little cheese on top.

The fried egg with cheese became such a hit! At our local deli there was a fall special for football season: $1.99 breakfast sandwiches on Saturdays & Sundays. We would buy three bacon, egg & cheese sandwiches and offer Max the egg on one while we each ate one sandwich and picked the bacon off the third one. Once Max showed he was comfortable with eggs, the next move would be to then try making scrambled eggs with cheese. Those dozen failed attempts are now a thing of the past as Max can now devour about 2 scrambled eggs on his own.

When it came time to start trying to convince Max that vegetables were delicious, we applied the same concept. First, we took notice that Max would gravitate toward eating fruit & vegetable pouches that contained spinach in them. That made trying spinach our task. Next, we decided that to introduce the real thing, we would need a vehicle like a favorite sauce or flavor to get Max to try it. With Chicken Francaise as one of Max’s favorite foods, Matt & I agreed that incorporating spinach into the francaise sauce was the best move. The end result: Max inhaled his entire serving of spinach with gusto.

And when ground beef was a tough sell, the move became to try another sandwich, like grilled cheese. When the grilled cheese was well accepted, we then made Max a burger patty and his first cheeseburger was quickly scarfed down. Well, he only ate about half of it in the first go, with the other half broken up for him to bring to daycare for lunch the following day. (He ate that too.)

The method worked for Max as he didn’t feel pressured to like a new food right away. We instead found clever ways to come back to once detested foods and make them some of his favorites!

So for those picky eaters, I suggest trying the lateral move:

  1. Have a goal for what you want your child to ultimately eat
  2. Take a side-step by observing what they do like, or formulate a different approach
  3. Once comfortable in that step, incorporate that goal

When children don’t like food that you have worked so hard on for just them, the feeling one gets from watching them spit out that food can be slightly soul-crushing. You just want what’s best, I know. But once you figure out what tactic entices your child to eat and experiment, go with it.

Not every child will be comfortable with the continual offering approach and some will try anything once and like it. I don’t claim to be an expert, just a parent who wants their son to open up to the possibility of expanding their culinary palette. If this tactic works for you, then kudos. If not, don’t get discouraged. You will find out what inspires your child to enjoy food.

Or you may just have a picky eater.

Kids can be funny like that.

And as always, enjoy!

– Jenny V

 

 

 

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It’s a little bit butternutty….

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While I did it for the sake of Max’s little tummy at the time, adjusting to a dairy and soy-free life wasn’t easy.

With the constant need to read ingredients the process of eating became more of a challenge, more like an Olympic sport! Every item placed in the cart at the grocery store was scanned for any mention of dairy and/or soy. (I recommend the ShopWell app….saved me many times over at the grocery store and you can adjust it for just about any type of dietary restrictions.) I had to advise every waitress when I went out to eat of my dietary restrictions, sometimes even reading over a menu several times before I walked into the restaurant.

I lived with the feeling that it must have been frustrating for the cooks in the kitchen to have to adjust my meal, just because I didn’t want my son to cry in pain from any dairy or soy in my food that would get transferred to his breast milk. This frustrated me to the point that I really didn’t want to eat out at all until Max was cleared or we stopped breastfeeding. (After about nine months, I was able to finally go back to normal when Max started eating solid foods and showed no reactions as I reintroduced dairy and soy into my diet.)

But aside from that I will admit: I had missed dairy on occasion. There were moments I wished I could have a big slice of cheesecake, a plate of buttery Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, or a big bowl of fettuccine alfredo. Sure, there were alternatives like the Daiya products to give me the feeling that I was eating cheese or ranch dressing. (By the way, their pizzas and macaroni & cheese were pretty decent for not having any gluten, dairy, or soy in them.)

More than anything though, I really missed a good pasta in a cream sauce. Fortunately, I was able to locate this gem of a recipe courtesy of Cookie + Kate, which used pureed butternut squash in vegetable broth to replicate that decadence one craves when you order anything in a cream sauce. (And another added bonus aside from being healthy for all you non-meat eaters: it’s Vegan!)

You can check out the recipe on the Cookie + Kate website here: Creamy Vegan Butternut Squash Linguine with Fried Sage. And if you’re not that big into linguine, I recommend using fettuccine as evidenced by the featured photo. It was a delicious substitution and I mean, who doesn’t love fettuccine in a cream sauce?

While I am not a vegan or vegetarian by any means, this dish at the very least satisfied my palette. With my diet back to normal, I would more than likely add some heavy cream and possibly some Parmesan to give it that extra kick of salt. Yet I learned that if you need to be healthy, healthy can be delicious.

And as always, enjoy!

– Jenny V

It’s All About Adjustment….

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2017 was certainly a whirlwind of events for me, but I am back and ready to share new recipes!

Of course, those recipes may need to be slightly adjusted now. You see once our son Maxwell was born and I had taken to nursing our son rather than formula feeding, Matt & I ran into some potential dietary issues. As I could eat anything I wanted, Max’s digestive system had not yet developed and he started to exhibit signs of discomfort. One night of screaming baby and a pediatrician’s office visit later the culprit was simple: Mommy’s eating habits were taking its toll on the little guy. The only solution available was to start eliminating foods from my diet and see how it would affect Max in the long run. First to be eliminated were dairy and soy.

Now for those of you who aren’t aware, trying to go dairy and soy free felt damn near impossible at first. Why? Because if you read the labels on several of your favorite foods, you will find either one or both of those ingredients in it. Bread, bagels, frozen waffles, Onion Soup Mix, Gravy Master, Chicken & Beef Broth, most Asian cooking, Coffeemate flavored creamer, etc.–I had felt as though I was being put in food prison yet again. The first time for gestational diabetes in my third trimester, which is another story.

But I was determined to breastfeed and so I took to the task of restructuring my diet. Matt & I discussed more fresh food options for our meals. I incorporated more protein into my diet and cut out dairy in cooking. I read the labels on the current items in our pantry to understand what I could still incorporate into my diet. (Happy to report that pasta is still a possibility for me!) When I went food shopping I ventured into the specialty food aisles for myself. And while Stop & Shop has a limited selection of specialty foods, I was still able to pull together enough items to create my own menu.

Yet I missed baking….and unfortunately a lot of my recipes called for items such as milk or butter in the ingredients. I didn’t even bake my annual New York Cheesecake for Christmas Eve because I wouldn’t have been able to eat it. Fortunately though, Max’s condition began to improve and he didn’t look as pained as he used to. If me giving up dairy and soy meant that he would be happy, then I would do that for him.

As an alternative, I started to really take a look at my baking recipes and find ways to substitute ingredients for the troublemakers. Now for those who remember one of my specialties is Banana Chocolate Chip muffins. You can find my recipe for that here: A muffin a day makes a happy husband! Of course that has milk and chocolate chips (with milk in them) so I substituted the regular milk for rice milk (you can also use almond milk if you’d prefer) and instead of Nestle Chocolate Chips, I found the Enjoy Life products have created an Allergy-Friendly chocolate. With those two substitutions I made my muffin batter, poured it equally into the 12 baking tins, and prayed that they would come out just as good as my original recipe….and they did!

So my advice is this: when you can substitute to make it more allergy-friendly, DO IT! I promise it was difficult to tell the difference in these muffins versus a regular batch.

And as always….enjoy!

– Jenny V

Spicy Tips: For An Early On Mom-To-Be

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Well it’s official: Matt and I are expecting our first little one in November!

Of course when I first found out, it was all over a rather drastic change in my eating habits. Matt had been the first one to notice that the beautiful half-rack of ribs that he had made me for dinner one night only warranted a nibbling on 2-3 ribs before I announced I couldn’t eat anymore. I kept asking for dinner later rather than right when I came home, when I would normally be ready to eat my hand! My sleeping habits also took a change when by 9:00 pm I was barely able to stay awake. And so with Matt’s encouragement I took a test one morning and over three months later here we are!

 

Since I am starting my second trimester, I am happy to report my eating habits have started to improve. But if you endured the food aversions like I did, then meats like chicken and beef became your arch-nemesis. I couldn’t even stomach the thought of chicken for almost a solid month and a half until I tried chicken breast at two family events. There were minor cravings for junk food but mostly I stuck to the staples that I knew I could handle without too much fuss.

 

As I am finally feeling a little more peckish these days, I thought I would share some of my tips that got me through the first trimester. Granted, they may not work for everyone but hopefully a few of them do help those mothers-to-be just starting out:

 

1) Keep it plain (and hopefully healthy). I know, not always the easiest thing to do when you have been cooking with lots of spices and flavors. But during that first trimester the thought of food doesn’t always sit right with most women. You may not throw up, you may have a constant wave of nausea, or you may be praying to the porcelain gods. Seriously, keep food plain. Pasta is good and if you feel like a little bit of sauce, add just a little bit. Bread, crackers, tons of water, fresh fruits and veggies–these are the things you want to eat the most of. If you want meat keep it simply seasoned.

 

2) Don’t be afraid to eat the same thing over and over. When you find a food that you can handle you may be eating it several times in a week. For me it was peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, unsweetened applesauce, and lots of tomato soup. It felt like for several days a week (minus a few where I did get cravings) these were my main staples. Just be prepared to stick to a regimen that you know your stomach can handle.

 

3) Go with your cravings if you get them. On the days that I would get a craving during my sick period, I went with it! My husband has started to understand that if I crave cheese fries or a chocolate milkshake, it’s good to cave to my craving. It means your body is obviously wanting something from that craving. For the milkshake it reminded me that I more than likely needed more calcium in my diet. With the fries I needed something more filling in my system than just fruits and veggies. You may pay for the cravings later but still go with it. In early pregnancy you can’t avoid the changes that are going on in your body. But more importantly: make sure that what you crave is okay to eat, so talk to your doctor about food “dos and don’ts”.

 

4) It is alright to not eat, but keep hydrated (and you can do this with more than just plain water)! I mean this especially since this was drilled into my head: water is vital. I went days eating minimal. I couldn’t help it when the thought of food would turn my stomach in the nastiest of ways. But water? Yes, you need that. You need that every day in mass quantities. If you’re like me you will get sick of just water, so it’s okay to change this up a little. To settle my stomach I had my Ginger Peach tea with some lemon and honey in the mornings and an occasional afternoon cup (using the same bag–because limiting caffeine is important). Juice with club soda or seltzer was a great way to cut the sugar down and get some light effervescence into my diet. And lemonade? Oh that is just a beautiful citrus bevvy that I would gladly drink every day!

 

5) Getting Sick = Healthy Baby. I can’t take credit for this adage but it’s important to share nonetheless. Every time I paid for my food choices I had to keep remembering that I was getting sick for a good reason: it means my body is producing the hormones needed to help the baby grow. Not everyone deals with morning sickness and some get it a bit too much, but for me it was a reminder that my little one is working hard to get to the proper size and that my body is always in a constant state of adjustment to accommodate that.

 

Whether these tips work for you or you find your own way, just remember that you know your body best. And once you get out of the morning sickness phase, be ready to eat with a vengeance! (Case in point: Matt walking into the house to find me eating a large order of cheese fries and a double Italian Hot Dog. The bit of ketchup I had on my face must have been quite endearing.) And most important for moms-to-be….

 

Enjoy every moment of it!

 

– Jenny V