Real Mom Nutrition
A no-judgments zone about feeding a family.
I use the term “picky eater” on my blog as shorthand for behavior most of us are pretty familiar with: refusing new foods, preferring familiar foods, and generally being a pain in the neck at the dinner table. But though my kids have certainly displayed all of those behaviors, I’ve never actually called them picky. It’s a label that’s …
Tired of being a short-order cook? Here’s how you can stop (TONIGHT!) and how to make it work. I was an extremely picky eater as a child, largely existing on buttered noodles, canned tuna, and Laverne & Shirley reruns for much of my childhood (read: I Was a Picky Eater. Here’s What I Want You …
When you and your partner don’t agree on how to handle the everyday decisions and dilemmas about feeding your kids, especially when it comes to picky eating, it can make things tense and frustrating for everyone. It’s an issue I hear about almost every time I talk with a group of parents about feeding kids! So I asked …
I got a wake-up call about feeding kids last weekend–in (of all places) a gas station food-mart. I was traveling with my husband and kids, returning from a weekend visiting relatives. We stopped to fill up the minivan with gas and went inside the food-mart to order sandwiches for dinner (not ideal, but it works). My first grader asked …
Frustrated that your toddler refuses to eat dinner? Here are the top five reasons your toddler won’t eat dinner–and what to do about it. There’s a lot to love about toddlers, like knee dimples and sloppy kisses. There are also things that make you crazy, and refusing to eat dinner ranks at the top of that list …
Vegetables can be a tough sell for some kids (and some adults). If you’re looking for ways to get more veggies into your family’s diet, here are seven moves that work for us! 1. Create an appetizer platter. I’ve written about my no-snacks-except-veggies-in-the-hour-before-dinner-house-rule before (read My Pre-Dinner Snack Strategy). It’s worked wonders around here. It takes …
Try some of these simple, kid-tested tricks for happier mealtimes. My younger son is usually the toughest customer at the dinner table every night. But when he was about five years old, he asked me, “Mommy, what’s a picky eater?” I was glad he didn’t know what it was, because that meant he was never labeled as one. So …
Thanks for making 2014 a great year at Real Mom Nutrition! In case you missed any of them (or are new to my blog), here are my 10 most-read blog posts of the year: 1. Naturally Colored Frosting Easy recipes for red and green frosting using natural dyes made from beets and spinach. 2. My 10 Favorite Kitchen Tricks Bread …
There’s a bottle of ranch dressing in my refrigerator. It’s not homemade. Its not organic. It has preservatives and added sweetener and artificial flavor. But because of this dressing, my ten year old eats baby carrots and bell peppers in his lunchbox and digs into green salads several nights a week. I have mixed feelings about …
Whenever a new mom tells me what a great eater her one year old is, I smile politely and say something encouraging like, “Gee, that’s great!” But I’m actually thinking, “You don’t even know what’s coming!” Feeding toddlers can be challenging–after all, their growth has slowed (which can lower appetite) and they’re testing out their newfound independence. …
Are my kids perfect eaters? No way! Neither am I. (Anyway, there’s no such thing–read: “The Myth of Perfect Eating“). But I do hope my kids don’t follow in my finicky eater footsteps and instead, become what psychologist Dr. Kathleen Cuneo calls “successful eaters”. What is a Successful Eater, and how can I raise one? Successful eaters …
I don’t label my kids “good eaters”, just as I’ve never called them “bad eaters”–even when they’ve made me c-r-a-z-y (read “Dinner Drama“). Instead, I want to be able to call them “successful eaters”. I heard the term “successful eater” from psychologist and parent coach Kathleen Cuneo, PhD, who describes a successful eater as someone who, among …
