Eating and children

Dirty dummies and simple things

When I was a young mum many things seemed simpler.  I am not saying that parenting in itself was simpler, but there were certainly less things that you had to worry about!  For example: if one of my babies dummy’s fell on the floor, I would just pick it up and rinse it off under some water if there was some handy.  If not, and I had a screaming baby I would just suck on it myself until I thought it was clean enough and then give it back to the baby.  This was the very same thing that I had seen my mother do when I was young.  It was what many mothers did when I was a little kid growing up.

I breast feed all my babies so I never had to worry about sterilizing too many things until they needed juice or dummies.  I don’t know if breastfeeding mothers are now advised to wipe their breasts before feeding, but we never did when I was young.  You just made sure that you were clean and had decent hygiene so feeding your baby was easy.  With my babies, I did the usual sterilization procedure that you are advised to do to your bottles and dummies, but I didn’t go overboard and if my kids picked something up off the ground after they had dropped it whilst eating on a blanket playing on the ground, I didn’t worry either.

Once my eldest child, picked up a live cockroach and started to put it into her mouth!  She was about 4 years old when I remember seeing this wiggling black thing on its way to her mouth out of the corner of my eye whilst in the kitchen – I launched myself across the room while yelling nooooooooo, only to see her bite down hard on the middle of the black insect and start chewing.  She dropped it pretty quickly when she realised that it was not tasty, and hopefully it was the last one she tried but I don’t know that for sure.  She had very little sickness growing up so playing outside in the dirt and eating the occasional insect didn’t seem to do her any harm at all as she is now almost thirty with one child of her own and one on the way.

cockroach sandwich anyone?

When I was young, we lived in the country and my sister and brother and I spent most of our time playing outside.  I am the eldest and then my brother and then my sister in age.  I used to make mud pies and force my brother to eat them as part of us playing games in the cubby house.  We also used to smear mud and cow manure on our faces when we were playing cowboys and indians, yuk!  Thankfully we are all still alive, and I must say have pretty good skin!

I don’t know if the amount of germs have increased since I was a kid, but the current recommended regime for management of germs now is certainly more involved than I remember.  Once,when I was young, there was the “3 second rule“, this is the one where if the food in on the ground for less than 3 seconds it is still OK to eat, well that is now out the window!  You just don’t eat anything that falls on the floor now even if the floor was just cleaned two seconds ago.

I see many parents worrying that their child is going to get “dirty” while playing outside like it is another disease.  Just put outside play clothes on them and keep an eye on them and they will be fine.  What is the worry? Make sure that the outside area is safe – I ALWAYS had my children play in the backyard, NEVER in the front yard and always where I could see them.  It amazes me how many people don’t do this and don’t have their children in sight of them when they are outside.   This playing outside and getting dirty stuff used to be soooo simple.

I think that now that there is so much information for parents to use it has complicated many of the things about parenting that can just be so simple.  Things like, hungry children will eat, it is natural for children to sleep and it is natural for them to pick up dirt and try to eat it.

Have we chipped away at our children’s natural immune systems by all the over thinking and over planning?  I think that many parent’s now rely more on the information being feed to them than the information that they already have within them.  You have surely been chosen as a parent for of your child because you are the very best person to be that child’s parent so go with your gut, remember the lessons from your childhood and research what you need to.  Most importantly, have faith in your innate ability as your child’s parent – to be able – to be your child’s parent - mistakes and all!

What’s Cooking with Kids – Michelle Stern

This is a great website if you want information on healthy eating for kids and families.  Michelle shows a commonsense,

Michelle Stern

“Michelle Stern, owner of What’s Cooking with Kids and author of The Whole Family Cookbook – Celebrating the Goodness of Locally Grown Foods”

Visit her site by following this link http://whatscookingwithkids.com/about/ or go to the MENU item at the top of this page.

Getting kids to eat veggie’s

It helps if you like them yourself

For me, getting my kids to eat veggies was always easy because I love vegetables!  I try to always have fresh

Yummy veggie's

vegetables in meals and have had a veggie garden where ever I have lived.  This doesn’t work for everyone and even if you love vegetables like me, chances are not everyone in your family will like all of them.  We all have favourites and the ones that we really just don’t like.  Sometimes what the food that kids like changes almost overnight – so where today my youngest might love potatoes, tomorrow she hates them and says things like “mum (said with a long tired frustrated tone) – you know I hate potatoes”.  No, well, err, I didn’t….but no sense arguing about it.  I know that as she grows her taste buds are changing and maturing, so I don’t worry and so just go with it.  My husband hates pumpkin and its one of those things that almost makes him sick on the spot!  If you have a child with a reaction like this one – stay clear of giving them that food!  If not, try them on anything that you are eating and see if they like it.  My husband is happy to eat sweet potatoes so we mix and match – sometimes we do the pumpkin and he just goes without and at other times we all eat the sweet potatoes. 

The most important things  to keep in mind when getting kids to eat veggies are that it is natural for them to eat food when they are hungry and the most important thing – DON’T MAKE A FUSS!  Don’t assume that because you don’t like this particular veggie that the child will also not like it!  I loved Brussels Sprouts since I was a child, because no one ever told me that I shouldn’t!

Here are my simple tips for getting kids to get vegetables;

1. Work out which ones you really love and start with those – if you don’t like any, then get to like some!
2. It’s best to start veggie training as early as you can.  For me, I just started them off with veggie’s as soon as they started solids and now eating vegetables is just as normal as anything;
3. Don’t make a fuss about the food – ie:  don’t say things like ” now we are going to try carrots today and see if you like them”.  Just put the carrots with the rest of the food just like it IS food and let them have a go at it;
4. When they are little and teething, I would cut up lengths of carrot, small enough for them to hold in their hand, but too big for them to eat or swallow.  Put these in the freezer or cool in the fridge until they you need them.  The coolness of the carrot stick helps to relive the pain of teething and the frozen carrot stick is a great for biting down on.  Just be sure to watch them carefully to make sure that little bits of carrot don’t go into their mouth before they are old enough to deal with them.  This gets children used to the colour, feel and taste of this vegetable.  When they get to toddler age, do the same thing but now you can use them now as snacks.  Just cool in the fridge before packing them as a snack. 

Consequently, all of my three children eat veggies and have done since they were little, and I think that being able to give them vegetables has saved me lots of money on lollies and other brought food that you tend to snack on when you go out with kids.  A wise woman once said to me “that no child will starve when there is food for them to eat”.  I have always remembered this and whilst I don’t think that children should starve, I also don’t think that getting them to eat should be a big deal.  Plant some veggie’s in your garden and get your little one’s to help – they will love it!

If you know that your child suffers from a particular food allergy or vegetable, then please use your commonsense and don’t use it.  Seek medical advice if your child has an adverse reaction to food and remember to always watch them when they are eating to avoid gagging on the food.