How do you get your kids to eat healthy?
I thought I'd do a little post on my experience with it. I'll be honest. I didn't start off right when I first became a mom. Through trial and error, I have found what seems to work best FOR NOW. I'm sure that will be tailored time and time again, and with different kids, because we all know they come with different tastes.
I read an interesting book a while back by a Valya Boutenko in which she discusses how kids imprint on the first foods they are ever given. She claims that these first foods become their comfort foods in the future. I cannot disagree. So the little bit of wisdom I can share in regards to what I've seen at least with my own children is that it matters what you start them off with. In my opinion, the best solids you can start a baby on is raw blended foods. This is the part where I will once again advocate the GREEN SMOOTHIE! What would I do without it?
Let' just put it this way: I started Orion on Gerber rice and oatmeal cereals. Guess what he constantly asks me for? Cereal. He has definitely been more of a struggle to get to eat healthier, but he has finally started to take to the raw fresh fruits and veggies a lot more. Chrysalis also started on Gerber rice cereal. But what has made the biggest difference with her and why does she ask me for cucumbers, tomatoes, salad, coconuts and all sorts of other good foods? I never gave her the cooked, preserved gerber baby foods. After the initial rice cereal, it was green smoothies of every kind and flavor. She has since loved gnawing on raw squash, onions, even potatoes and other raw food sources. She surprised my sister one day when over the summer, she had come home with some Applebees Sampler platter. Apparently all she wanted off the platter were the celery sticks. There were maybe three or four of them on the platter amidst the fries, onion rings and chicken wings. No dip. Just celery sticks. That's all she wanted. I've never forced her to eat celery sticks in my life.
With Orion, like I said, it has been a more difficult journey with all of his health issues. He still asks me for what I believe are his original comfort foods, but I try and limit them so that he can have more variety. And variety is key. I do my best to give him plenty of options and allow him to take part in the smoothie making process because he loves flicking the switches and making what he later gets to drink. I remember sitting on the kitchen floor one day crying about how I was going to get Orion to eat all these good foods if all he wanted was what he saw me eating. I kept thinking up strategic ways of eating while he wasn't looking at me. This plan didn't last long. It wasn't until I decided to BE the example for him that everything just fell into place. I didn't have to hide foods from him anymore. We prepared our smoothies and other meals together and enjoyed them together and still do. Most of his health issues are gone. A lot of my own issues disappeared along with his. It doesn't mean I'm perfect. But I can honestly say I am in a better place than where I was just a few short years ago. And I'm grateful that my son has shown me in many ways how to change for the better.
Call me old-fashioned, but I say the best way to get a stubborn child to eat healthy is by one, BEING THE example and doing it yourself, and two, denying them the junk they are asking for just long enough for them to start asking you for the many other options that you have for them. They may choose not to eat anything at first. But trust me, they won't starve themselves. Eventually, they give in, and when they do, it's our job as mothers to be ready with lots of good options.
On this particular day, I learned how to crack open a coconut and used the water in this particular smoothie. Orion chose dandelion greens, some pineapple, and spinach to throw in. And he loves it. Go figure.
Well, to set the scene for this little incident, I must start by posting pictures of these cute and fun little figurines we've been collecting. You can get them at Deseret Book or order them online. They're not exactly cheap, but in my opinion, they're an excellent teaching tool and my kids think they're just playing around. They have no idea I'm teaching them about the Book of Mormon this way. 
Here is a close up of King Benjamin. Orion actually learned this story the best so far. He knows it so well I caught him re-telling what I'd told him, to Chrysalis once, ending with, "Remember to serve your flow beans." At least that's what it sounded like when he was retelling the story. 
Here's a close up of some of the others. What child wouldn't love to have these as learning aids for the scriptures? I know I would have loved playing with these just as much as Barbie. 
Here's what we've collected so far. We only have a few left. Anyways, we took these to church one Sunday and since my two older children are still learning the concept of sharing, they had a hard time playing with these quietly. Here I am, as a mom, thinking to myself, "What a great toy to take and play with during Sacrament Meeting. They will play with these ever so reverently and remember the stories of the scriptures in so doing." I'm not so sure the image I had in my mind of my kids playing with these was quite the image that will forever be etched into my memory of what really happened that Sunday. Anyone who knows Chrysalis, knows that when she gets in her moods, she gets really loud and shrieky. Is shrieky a word? She has been this way since she was three months old. So, during sacrament, Orion took out the Book of Mormon Heroes to play with and Chrysalis tried to grab one. When he pulled them away from her, because he wanted to select which one she would have, she quickly turned it down and threw it on the ground. I calmly told her not to do that. And of course her reply was, "Leave me Alone!" I then asked Orion to please let her pick the one she wanted. At that point, she was already too upset to be pleased with any outcome. "Leave me Alone!" is what she stubbornly repeated. Orion tried to hand her Nephi, in a sense, as a peace offering because now she was determined not to take any. "Leave me Alone!" is what came again. This last time was loud enough to turn some heads as everyone else silently partook of the sacrament. I was already frustrated because I was at church alone with three kids. Alex was in Phoenix. Orion sweetly laid Nephi on her lap without saying anything and I guess that was her last straw. She flipped out, and took the bag of action figures and dumped it on the floor along with Nephi, hit Orion and then said, "Don't want Nephi!" Since Hinckley was sound asleep and Orion was behaving fairly well, I decided it was time to take Chrysalis out and have a talk. She obviously knew this wasn't a good sign. I tried ever so gently and patiently to pick her up and carry her out at which point she began crying and wailing and kicking her legs furiously all while practically screaming, "I want my Nephi! I want my Nephi! I want my Nephiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" I could literally feel the heads turning and the eyes staring and though I was slightly shamed by my child's lack of reverence, I stop to think about what it might have been like from the others' point of view and I have to laugh. I think I may have finally learned the true meaning of patience.
