How do parents get kids that eat healthy?
Notice I didn’t say “raise” or “get them to” eat healthy. I
think if your kid loves spinach, broccoli, or even green beans after the age of
4, you hit the kid lotto. We tried. We fed all of our kids nothing but fruits
and veggies when they were babies. We weren’t going to make the “same mistakes”
our parents made of feeding us junk.
In fairness I was raised on junk because it was cheap. That
was the early 80’s. We ate a lot of frozen fish sticks because I guess they
were cheap. Mom would make a big pot of chili with little noodles in it and
that would last us days. And there were nights she went to bed without dinner
to make sure we ate enough. I also recall bricks of unmarked cheese. Sad thing
is, the “we eat bad because it’s cheap” excuse is still true and the same
reason so much of our country is out of shape and sick all the time. But I’m so
not the guy to get off on that rant.
Our son used to love green beans. I mean hard! He would
inhale them. Del Monte were his label of choice. Cooked or cold out of the can,
didn’t matter. They were like Reese’s Pieces to him as a baby through age 2 or
3. Then something happened. Almost overnight, he just decided that was it. He’d
fulfilled his green bean obligation to us. Now they’re repellent to the boy. He’s
similar to Buddy the Elf now in that he only has a couple food groups, and one
of them requires syrup. Otherwise it’s hot dogs (which we have more or less put
the kibosh on because, come on), chicken nuggets, and pizza. That was it for
years.
Recently he’s added cheeseburgers (but only plain – meat and
cheese) and steak. Even steak was a battle. “It’s the same thing,” I’d explain,
“just different, and may I add tastier formatting.” By the way, I apologize in
advance to any vegetarians or vegans who happen upon this. I admire your
resolve, but I’m a big hairy carnivore, as are my young.
All three of my kids are picky eaters. I never realized how
frustrating it is. We try not to give in but there are nights just to avoid
arguments I find myself cooking (and by cooking, I mean microwaving or boiling
water for) three different meals. Breakfast is the worst. The only thing they’ll
agree on is bacon. Go figure. Many days the extensive breakfast buffet I will
lay out looks like this:
I admit I’m not the best role model. I love junk food. I’ve
committed to really working on it, for my weight but also to try to be more of
a role model. Maybe I need one of those books like Jerry Seinfeld’s wife wrote
(or stole, allegedly) about disguising healthy food as junk food. We did try giving the kids mashed cauliflower as mashed potatoes. Didn’t work. What can I
say? I make smart kids.
Although I might make a better example if I didn’t make
videos like this!
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