For those of you who missed my introduction to my fussy eater, you can read it here.
So, we have returned from holiday, we are settled back into daily life at home and we are continuing our laid back approach to Harry’s fussy eating. Harry was able to eat whatever he liked on holiday and there was plenty of ice-cream on his menu, no surprise there. He was in the company of other children including two young ones and witnessed them all eating a variety of healthy, nutritious and yummy food. I don’t think I actually heard any other whiny voices stating ‘I don’t like that mummy’ from any of the other boys but we kept our promise and assured Harry, not to worry and he could just eat whatever he liked. So he did.. lots of bread, some cheese, beans, milkshakes, shreddies and ice-cream. Nearly countable all on one hand, uh hang on and the obligatory chocolate and biscuits, two hands then. It could have sent me a little crazy but I kept myself sane by thinking we need to make sure he’s not pressured into eating anything he’s not comfortable with and hopefully this would help him build his confidence up when trying new foods. Whilst away we adopted the phrase ‘dinner winner’ from our friends and it sure has given us another trick up our sleeves to encourage him to eat especially now his younger brother is in the game!
‘Harry, your daily bread is here’
Fast forward a couple of weeks and we have seen a slight improvement! For Harry it’s quite a big improvement really as he is now happy to eat fishcakes, hotdogs and burgers! We’re not going for ultra healthy foods at the moment, we are just happy with any different foods and some variety from his usual intake of diary products and carbs. In fact, these are the two food groups I have never had to worry about, give Harry a bowl of Shreddies for breakfast, dinner and tea and he is a happy boy. Where he is lacking is fresh fruit and vegetables and I can hear you thinking that this is the same for most kids, but he honestly hasn’t eaten any fresh fruits or vegetables for months, thank God for Innocent smoothies!
I have read a lot recently about allowing children to help in the kitchen with preparing and cooking food and that this can help them become better eaters, it seems to be a growing trend. We have made homemade milkshakes before and he has tried them but soon spat it out and declared he did not like it, YUCK! He obviously tasted more strawberry and less sugar compared to the usual shop bought ones! However, the next challenge is to allow Harry to help me make a fresh smoothie and hope that he will try it. Harry sees us all eat fruit daily especially his younger brother, Jack, and so here’s hoping the sibling rivalry kicks in and he gives it a try. In fact, we have seen a slight shift in his attitude towards foods over the past few weeks. It got so bad last month that he was getting tearful over the suggestion of trying food but now we are able to talk to him and he seems quite open and interested in what we are saying. Possibly because we have been relaxed with him about his eating habits and are happy to go at his pace. Hopefully he will start gaining more and more confidence to try new foods and return to some of his old favourites too. Here’s hoping.
I will follow up on how we get on making our homemade smoothie!
MummyBee 