The battle to eat healthy food

Its no secret in our house, Erik is a very picky eater. From the moment he could eat solids he preferred sweet foods, wouldn't touch a veggie and always wanted to feed himself. As he evolved to his terrible twos this habit became worse and more pronounced. All he wanted were muffins and sweets and it was very hard to give him a variety of healthy food. We always served it at meals, but he always choose not to eat it.

Now that Erik is 3.5 I can start to reason and negotiate with him. This comes up in many ways, it started off with dinner. I refused to make Erik something special that only he would eat and make just one dinner for everyone. If Erik is hungry he will go back and eat it, but he doesn't get anything else to eat if he chooses not to eat his dinner. It has stopped a lot of fights and has given Erik the power he desires. I have to admit about 90% of the time he doesn't eat his dinner, but I am okay with it. He understands the consequence, he is not starving and on those days when he is really hungry he goes back and eats it.

For snacks there are only two things Erik will eat, peanut butter crackers and yogurt which is not the best diet. If I let Erik, he would eat 5 yogurts a day, but ages ago I made a two yogurt a day limit and it is really working for us. He understands if he eats both of them in the morning he won't be able to have one in the afternoon which happens often. So when he asks in the afternoon after having ate two yogurts already, he understands the rules and accepts the limit. Have I mentioned how much I love the age of 3 and finally being able to reason with my child.

Yesterday I made apple muffins with Erik so they could have a healthy snack that morning. Also muffin last us a while because we have them for breakfast. Well today there was a problem, we had no yogurt and Erik is refusing to eat fruit at the moment and he was still hungry after breakfast. So of course asked for a second muffin.

Here comes my rules, I am trying to teach my sweet obsessed child healthy eating habits for his life and this comes with a lot of patience and a lot of work. So today when Erik was still hungry and asked for a second muffin I said yes on one condition, he had to eat some grapes first.

The first couple times I tried this trick Erik rebelled, but I knew this lesson was important so I braved the tantrums and fits and didn't give in. If he wants a carb treat he has to eat fruit first. Another rule is if he wakes up from his nap to close to dinner he can only eat fruit as well.

So this morning he was hungry enough and I did offer him his favorite fruit which he loves, he just likes carbs more.

 

This morning the fight was minimal and he ate almost all the grapes, minus the bad ones and is happier for a fuller and healthier belly. I think this might be working too because last night when we went out to dinner instead of ordering pizza Erik ordered a healthy option because he liked the picture. It was grilled chicken with broccoli and spaghetti. True to his eating habits he ate the broccoli and chicken, but no pasta. I am just hoping that this will teach him good eating habits for life. Also I try to live by example and eat when I tell them they can eat. So if they can only have fruit, I can only have fruit. If they can't have a snack, neither can I and it is really helping me to practice better eating habits by doing as I say.