Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Dessert and Playstation Noodles

Well, since we've been here we have established "new" meal time rules. In short, the short order cook was left in Rae, and only one meal is cooked at mealtime. Colby is no longer fighting as much as he has been about eating new foods, because frankly he no longer has a choice. Rob and I decided we need to do this full fledge this time because I WILL NOT have Mr. Picky eater Colby on vacation with us in June. It will be hard enough with staying between the 2 houses, I'm not having extra "Colby food" on hand. Tonight, it was baked pork chops and chicken flavored noodles. YES PEOPLE, NOODLES. The conversation normally begins like this:

Do I have to just try one?

No Colby, you have to eat it.

This is normally followed by lots of faces and grimaces. We told him that the easiest way to eat something new is to take a mouthful of food and then a drink. This seems to be working. The pork chops surpringly were not the issue, he sucked them right back. Then came the noodles. He has been itching to play playstation with Daddy all evening AND he wanted dessert (something we normally don't do) so Daddy came up with an idea. He divided the noodles into 2 piles, one much larger than the other. The small pile was the "dessert pile", and the larger one was the "playstation pile". If he wanted both, he had to eat both. Well, this turned into:

I'm going to eat the Playstation noodles.

After a few bites when he realized the dessert pile was smaller

I'm going to eat the Dessert Noodles.

He was very serious, and after debating back and forth on eating both the " dessert" and the "playstation" noodles, he settled on just the "playstation" noodles. This is a BIG step for us. He's eating it. He's not liking it, but dammit he's finally eating healthy food. This is the 3rd full day of this, and I could just bawl when I see him eat. Finally! (I know some of you don't agree with me "forcing" him to eat foods he doesn't like, but hell, I live in the North and I'm now paying for groceries. And it's my kid. And he's finally eating something other than chicken fingers and hot dogs, so bite me.) :)

9 comments:

Matt, Kara, Hunter and Cavan said...

Love it!!! My folks made us eat everything too. I remember having to eat something for breakfast the next morning because i wouldn't eat it for supper!

Anonymous said...

I think its a great idea. Supper isn't always supposed to be your favorite meal. There is no way at all that you are forcing him to eat anything. He wouldn't eat it if he didn't like the taste, playstation or not :-p He might force himself mind you if the racing game had enough drifting and NAS in it though.

Kass

jen said...

Your not forcing him at all, your giving him multiple options to choose from. I love this story, I'm going to keep it in mind when I have kids! :)

Aida said...

lol, i can so relate though we've yet to reach the picky stage the involves talking and compromising, no such thing as "buffet' or menu in this house, eat whats on the table..end of story. my folks made me eat everything too.

Anonymous said...

Hey Glad that it's working for ya. Alan has been super picky lately, but I'm finding it really hard to make an 18 mth old eat what he doesn't want, so we're just trying to get him to taste new stuff regularly. And today, when I picked him up at the sitter's he was eating a big hunk of broccoli. Yay!! Hope it keeps on working (And I hope you don't mind Rob playing a lot of playstation!!)

Kel

Anonymous said...

One Other thing.... I guy I teach with has some really picky eaters, and his wife has found/come up with a bunch of recipes for "normal" food that she adds pureed vegetables too and you would never know they were in there. I'm thinking of getting the recipes if you want them. Just a thought!

Kel

Valentina said...

GOOD FOR YOU, Tina and Rob! And good for you, too, Colby! I am proud of you!

Anonymous said...

Yeah, a friend of mine is using a cookbook written by Jessica Seinfeld that ingeniously adds veggies to recipes. Her kids are LOVING it.

Denise

Jody said...

That Jessica Seinfeld cook book is supposed to rock - and I think it could work - I saw her on Oprah and she even makes chicken nuggets that are full of veggies!! and the kids have no idea :) The same for mac and cheese :)