For mothers of 2, 3 and 4 year olds

amother

Seafoam

Wed, Jul 04 2018, 4:38 pm

add some fruits and vegetables if possible and call it a day. Would a smoothie go over well? Cereal and yogurt covers your carbs and proteins. Trust me you are far from alone, kids can be picky, please don't beat yourself up.

amother

Firebrick

Wed, Jul 04 2018, 4:54 pm

amother wrote:

Thank u for that!

amother

Honeydew

Wed, Jul 04 2018, 8:40 pm

My underweight 3 year old asks for whatever he sees in the fridge or whatever im eating and than refuses to eat it after one bite but he does eat fruit. His diet for today was 5 pieces of Chex cereal in milk and 5 blueberries for breakfast. 2 fruit cups for a snack and 5 pretzels.Lunch was 2 bites of a plain bagel(refused a filling inside) but I did get him to eat a normal portion of green beans that he saw me eating. He does much better with eating if Im eating the same food together with him. For supper he had 6 or 7 spoonfuls of kasha and 3 tiny bites of pepper steak.

allthingsblue

Wed, Jul 04 2018, 10:15 pm

amother wrote:

So basically I'm a terrible mother Crying

My kids eat cereal and yogurt for all 3 meals.

Nope. You're not.
Kids will be kids. As long as you keep offering various healthy options, they will certainly outgrow this stage at some point. Pick your battles. (And try to make it sugar free /low sugar cereals and yogurts if possible.)

YHM

Wed, Jul 04 2018, 10:20 pm

Breakfast: Yogurt, lunch : eggs, pizza, toast, string cheese. Supper: blended soups, chicken, fries, rice, corn , sweet potato. Snacks: Apple's, cookies, pretzel......

amother

Coffee

Wed, Jul 04 2018, 11:14 pm

Breakfast- chocolate leben

New rule in my house: no more lebens everytime we’re hungry- from now on I let 1 in the morning and 1 in the night. My toddler asks throughout the day- “is it night yet?”

Lunch- piece of bread with cream cheese or grilled cheese(piece of bread with American cheese)

Snack- either slice of cheese, chips, baby corn or cookie

Supper- either pasta with cheese, pizza, schnitzel or fish sticks
More leben

Shabbos he will eat lukshen kugel, tomato salad, turkey roll, chulent

He won’t eat any fruit ever and doesn’t like sweets either. He drinks almond milk, water and orange juice- no apple juice or soda. He does eat lots of carbs but he is growing and thin.

HeartyAppetite

Thu, Jul 05 2018, 12:23 am

On a good day
Breakfast:
1/2 scrambled egg 1/2 slice cheese
Lunch:
1/4 slice of pizza
Supper:
Peanut butter bread
Sometimes a chocolate bar for snack

Other days cheese for breakfast lunch and supper.

lucky14

Thu, Jul 05 2018, 12:54 am

amother wrote:

So basically I'm a terrible mother Crying

My kids eat cereal and yogurt for all 3 meals.

2 of my favorite foods. Smile

OP here's what my toddler ate today.
breakfast: cereal & milk (cheerios & shredded wheat)
apple sauce

snack: dehydrated apple "chips"

lunch: bag of chips, vegetarian "chicken" nuggets, small snow cone (we were out of the house- yesterday he had butternut squash with pizza sauce sauce & cheese and often he has a sandwich and fruit or crackers & cheese and yogurt)

dinner: a sweet potato with cheese melted on top and scrambled eggs & cheese

(he usually has a snack in the afternoon)

I'm not a fun mom. We don't have leben in the house Sad

amother

Gray

Thu, Jul 05 2018, 3:59 am

So here's my issue. I get the whole "provide a healthy meal and it's their choice what and how much to eat" thing, but then I have to deal with the results. My 2 and 4 year olds just won't eat anything if they're not in the mood for it or don't like it (or think they don't like it). For my 2 year old, not eating means resting on the couch and having no energy to do anything. For my 4 year old, not eating means going to play and then crying for junk later. So what then?

In other news, we have a nice trick now for my 4 year old. Whenever he doesn't want to try something, we offer to take a picture/video of him eating it. The first time, he was eating sweet potatoes and my husband said we need to take a picture of him eating it so we have proof the next time he claims he doesn't like it. So now it's like a bribe that if he eats something new, we'll take a picture. And it works!

amother

Bronze

Thu, Jul 05 2018, 4:33 am

we have 2 very different children in that age range.

dc1 will eat everything anytime with pleasure. you serve him meat vegetables fish side dish soup...you name it. and he will grab 3 full plates and enjoy desert afterwards. he is NOT picky and really enjoys trying new flavours, textures, enjoys the company during seudot...

dc2. breat and butter (maybe 2 bites) , bissli (if I allow), chocolate milk and an appleslice to make mommy happy. ze hu. shabbos he eats soup, tuna, lox, egg, challa, salad, tshulnt,schnitzel. kigl, ...dh says dc2 fills up on shabbos for the entire week.

we eat meals together , I set the table every day, we tried offering dc2 shabbosfood throughout the week-....there is NO way to make this child eat.

dc1 is huge, dc2 is tiny, they live in the same house have the same parents and are offered same options... Smile

we just returned from a doctors visit and he was happy with both kids' development b´´H.

Rappel

Thu, Jul 05 2018, 4:59 am

watermelon and cheese. While that's not ALL he eats, those are definitely the main food groups XD

I've realized that I'll never be able to predict how much my son will eat any given day. To be on the safe side, I usually put a few slices of Apple in a bowl next to his bed, so that if he had a "crackers and air" kind of day, but wakes up hungry, I won't have to get out of bed at midnight to feed him.

amother

Red

Thu, Jul 05 2018, 9:30 am

I have a 2.5, 4, and 5 year old.
I live in Israel and my kids normally come home at 1:30 pm so summer time is not much of a change in their food schedule.

For morning, they have cookies/muffins/cereal and milk.

Lunch - usually some kind of sandwich and a fruit. Whoever doesn't want a sandwich just has a yogurt and a fruit...

dinner - whatever kid friendly food I normally serve (grilled cheese, hot dogs, shnitzel, meatballs, etc.)

Snacks are cucumbers, cut up fruits, crackers, pretzels, ricecakes

amother

Firebrick

Thu, Jul 19 2018, 11:19 pm

mommy3b2c wrote:

Breakfast: leben
Lunch: leben
Supper: leben

Other foods he may eat at times:

Tomatoes, cucumbers, peanut butter, rice cakes, pizza, French fries, vegetable soup, cantaloupe, rice, broccoli, chicken nuggets, pasta

On shabbos he’ll eat cholent and kugel.

That is the complete list of foods he eats.

Is there any nutritional value whatsoever to chocolate lebens? Or is it just milk, sugar and cocoa?
Why do ppl give this more than strawberry yogurt for example? Isnt that healthier than what's essentially a chocolate pudding?
Not criticizing here, just trying to understand the mentality. I'm not from the u.s. but visiting and I see ppl doing that as a healthy snack/meal....

flowerpower

Thu, Jul 19 2018, 11:40 pm

Cereal and milk
Either scrambled eggs or french toast
Yogurt
Leben
These four are part of his food repertoire. For supper it’s cereal again. You asked us to be honest. Right?

He’ll snack on a sliced up apple and cucumber and a “mommy carrot”

lucky14

Thu, Jul 19 2018, 11:45 pm

amother wrote:

It's a poor healthy snack/meal choice if that's what you're aiming for. My only guess is that the kids actually eat it and the parents are happy that it at least has some protein and calcium. Or people think it's healthy because it's in the yogurt isle. Not trying to put anyone down- everyone can make their own food choices, this is just the reason why I don't purchase it except for very special treats. those who do purchase it on a regular basis feel free to add your input Smile

flowerpower

Thu, Jul 19 2018, 11:59 pm

lucky14 wrote:

I buy like 5 a week and whoever is in the mood takes one. Basically a kid takes one per week. I see a lot of kids eating it as a quick breakfast on the way to school...

amother

Seafoam

Fri, Jul 20 2018, 9:14 am

I used to give my oldest a plain leben for lunch everyday in playgroup when she was 2/3 years old. she liked it, its healthy and she was only there half a day. my younger dd unfortunately has been introduced to the world of sugar so I don't think that would work- oh well.