In case you think things are easier at my house than yours…My 6 year old is notoriously picky. He likes bread, butter, honey, sushi rice, plain spaghetti noodles, ichi-ban, cheerios, apples and tacos. Sometimes he’ll eat bananas. That’s a pretty comprehensive list of the foods he will eat without a fight.
Today was the day we (like you) attempted to eat fresh fruit or vegetables with every meal and I decided he needed to participate too. He did fine with the apples for breakfast and lunch, but when I asked him to ‘practise’ eating a few pieces of lettuce before his afternoon snack, it was obvious that I had gone too far.
“I’m not asking you to eat salad,” I said. “We’re just practicing lettuce. All you need to do is eat these 3 little pieces.”
My nine-year daughter old chimed in for added momentum. “Yes, – fruit and vegetables are the most important food group”.
“Well Mom,” he said (italicized to convey his disgust), ‘Apples are fruit – in case you didn’t know.”
At that point I decided it was prudent to leave him with his 3 lettuce samples at the table while I went downstairs to continue cleaning. He showed up about 3 minutes later. He looked very sad. “I’m running away,” he said, “and you’re not going to see me anymore. You want me to eat lettuce because you know I don’t like it.”
“That’s fine,” I said, “as long as you run away where I can’t see you in our yard so you don’t have to spend the rest of the day in your room.”
“Will you do up my coat?” he asked.
“Sure,” I said.
And that ended our vegetable discussion until dinner.
I just wanted you to know that it’s worth the effort and you aren’t alone.
This week we are focusing on Step Two: Controlling our breakfast. My encouragement to you this week is to add fruits or veggies to breakfast every day. If you’re using your shakes for breakfast, no problem. Simply throw in some frozen fruit if you’re done bootcamp, or a handful of spinach or peeled cucumber if you aren’t. You’ll hardly notice it’s there. If that doesn’t sound great, then grab a handful of cut veggies as you go. I’ll check in on Wednesday….
Have a great day!
Love Rae
