Mommy Mondays: Picky Picky

Well I would love to tell you that at the age of 3, or sometime before that children magically become less picky eaters, but so far, in my experience this hasn't happened.

I've spoken a little bit before about how we handle eating in this house, but it's one of those subjects that should be updated.

As usual breakfast is our best "meal."  Thatbaby eats a full breakfast.  Which could be due to the fact that he's completely in control.  It's the only meal that he gets to pick.  Cereal, cereal bars, oatmeal, yogurt, it's his choice.  Although I do have a "pancakes on the weekend" rule that rarely comes in to play. 

His lunch is provided by his preschool, and most days he claims to eat all of his lunch, although there are days he'll tell me he didn't eat his sandwich, just the peaches.  There are, however, also days he claims to have eaten his salad, which doesn't usually happen at home.  On the weekends, he's hit or miss with lunch.  Sometimes eating all of it, other times just having a bite or two.  I think it depends on how tired he is.

Dinners are still our biggest struggle.  Between the picky eating (last night he decided he didn't like bacon any more) and the fact that it takes him a full hour to finish his meal.  But we try and just roll with it.  With one exception, when last week he asked for leftover pork instead of stromboli, I serve dinner, and if he eats it, he eats it.  If he doesn't, he doesn't.  Over the weekend he had virtually no dinner when he decided he didn't like the sesame noodles we were having.  On the other hand, he's beginning to venture out more, like asking for salad whenever Thatboy and I have it with dinner.

If Thatbaby had his druthers, he'd be on a straight snack diet.  That is his favorite thing to eat.  He loves to open "the brown thing" (the pantry) and pick something out.  Which could also factor in to the lack of appetite for lunches and dinners!   I've been reading about making "snack areas" for kids to grab their own pre-portioned snacks and I'm thinking of implementing that, so I'll keep you updated on how that goes.