Dinner Winner

Last week I wrote about our struggles with dinner, but this week I write about our triumphs!

A friend read my post Picky, Picky, Picky Eater and immediately informed me of this amazing product that has changed dinner time in their house, the Dinner Winner Tray by Fred & Friends.  I am willing to try anything with my kids, so I hastily purchased two trays via Amazon as I could not go another night fighting my kids to eat their dinner.

The kids were immediately drawn to their colorful new "plates" and I loved the retro design and feel. I let them both see the trays before I started to prepare dinner, and told them we were going to play a little game while we ate. Mommy was going to put a treat under the "Finish" top and if they ate their way down the path and got to the Finish space, they could have whatever I put under there.

I had them in the palm of my hands. Games? Prizes? Mom is actually letting us have dessert???

I explained to them that some nights the spaces on the trays would be filled with things that they don't eat all the time, and that they had to try them. I also explained that if they didn't eat all (ok, 90%) of the food on their tray that they wouldn't get the AMAZING prize (which has been M&Ms the past four nights), and that is ok.

Let me tell you this - for four nights in a row my kids have been asking to play "Dinner Winner" and are absolutely elated when they sit down to eat!! I got them both to eat the crap out of a ham and cheese quiche, they are eating their vegetables, and last night I even got Marlo to eat "weird" pizza that had fresh herbs on it. I am still in shock.

They have been so good at waiting to have their prize too. And totally understand that if they don't eat the food in the spaces they don't get the prize, as has happened for each of them one night.

I know there are articles out there that tell you not to bribe your kids to eat, and not to make them eat all their food, etc., but we tried those methods. I tried the "You don't have to eat all of it" method or the "try bite" method, but nothing worked. The kids ended up just walking away from dinner and then throwing huge fits at bedtime because they were so damn hungry. This might not be the best way to get them to eat, but for four days it has worked for us!!!

I wish they made this for adults, but instead of a food prize it was a pill you could take to lose 10 pounds!

Picky Picky Picky Eater

I had the following conversation with my children tonight:

Me: Who's excited for roasted cod, parsnips and carrots for dinner!

Marlo: Not me!

Val: (who now repeats everything that her sister says) Not me!

Me: Come on! This is dinner. You have to eat it.

Marlo then sidles up to me and puts her arm around me and says...

Marlo: Mom, you can put it in front of me, but I am just going to stare at it. I am not eating that for dinner.

Val (from across the room): I'm not eating that for dinner too Mom!

Me: Would you eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich?

Both kids: YEAH!!! PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY!!

Marlo: Now that I won't stare at. I will eat a PB& J!

Mom throws up the white flag as she doesn't have the fight in her tonight.

Aaaaaaaaand Scene. 

A few weeks ago I had a conversation with Marlo, almost 6, that went something like this:

Me: Marlo, why aren't you eating your lunches that I pack you? You love egg salad. And yesterday you didn't eat the carrots and hummus, or the chicken salad the day before.

Marlo: I used to like those things, but I don't anymore.

Me: Since when?

Marlo: I like eggs, but not egg salad. I like carrots, but not with hummus, and I don't like the nuts in the chicken salad.

Me: Then don't eat the nuts (out of the salad that you ate a bowl of two days prior, including the nuts).

Marlo: Mom, I only like tuna salad for lunch. Pack me tuna salad for lunch every day and I will eat it.

Here we are two weeks later, and there has been a tuna sandwich in every lunch I have packed for her. And every day she eats every last bite of it.

What happened to my adventurous eater?? What happened to the girl that ate beets and lamb chops? What happened to my girl who would try anything? Where is the girl that used to eat whatever I gave her to eat?

When I was young I ate everything that my mom made. With the exception of Sloppy Joes (something about the smell and consistency of the meat product made me ill), I ate everything that my mother ever placed in front of me. I remember having my cousins over when we were around 6 years old, and one of them pitched a huge fit because my mom made different Mac n' Cheese than her mom usually made. She called it weird and wouldn't eat it, and I was shocked at her behavior (and can still replay that scene in my head to date) because I wouldn't even think to complain and whine about food! My mom made it, I ate it. It was that simple.

If we were at a friends house, we ate what their mom made. If we were out to dinner, we ate what we ordered. If we were at a birthday party, we ate what was served and didn't complain.

A few weeks ago, at one of the hundreds of birthday parties we now attend, we were eating pizza with about 20 other children. I am standing with other adults across the room from the kids, and I hear Marlo shout, "Mom! This pizza is gross! It isn't the kind I like!" for all to hear. WHAT? Not my child! I ran over to her and told her she can't say things like this, and she had to eat it. Of course she pushed it away and then started whining about how hungry she was, to which I responded, "then eat your pizza." It was all down hill from there.

She has become so particular about foods that she actually told me there are only 5 things that she will eat for dinner: hamburgers, hot dogs, pizza, spaghetti and mac n' cheese.

I honestly just died a little inside. My kid refuses to eat anything but the norms you see on crappy kids menus. Even if it is delicious home cooked, organic and healthy, she refuses to eat it. Yeah I know, she is (almost) 6, but it drives me insane that I have to make two meals every night of the week, or bargain and fight with her for an hour before bed time.

The other thing about her "menu" is that she won't just eat any pizza or any spaghetti, it has to be pizza from a particular restaurant (I kid you not - this kid won't eat frozen pizzas or most delivery pizza) or a certain sauce on her spaghetti. I once switched out the marinara I usually buy with one I got from Costco and she was having none of it.

She also all of the sudden stopped liking snacks she used to eat daily: she will now only eat one brand of cheese sticks and no other, she stopped liking the kind of pickles she used to love, she no longer likes Fig Newtons (or Fig Newmans as we get at Whole Foods). She also is very particular about things in her school lunch: if a strawberry touches anything else in her lunch, she won't eat it and if the cheese is not out-of-the-fridge-cold she won't touch it.

I just don't understand where this is all coming from. She didn't used to be a picky eater, but here were are arguing over dinner most nights. I envy those families that can make one meal and sit down together and enjoy the same thing. Don't get me wrong, we have done that - on nights where I make hamburgers and hot dogs.

Thankfully I can still get Val to eat pretty much whatever I put in front of her. I guess I have 2.5 more years to go until she just stares at her dinner and refuses to eat, like her sister.