Thursday, September 3, 2009

Yes I'm bragging and don't care.....

If any of you know my kids they are the MOST picky eaters ever! Seriously.... for a while I could list the 5 foods that they would eat... I'm not joking! As we had more and more kids we would say, "ok this one will not be picky, they will eat whatever we give them" it has NEVER worked. I actually think Ainsley is our worst eater yet. So lately I have been doing a FOOD CHART. Yep... I know I'm sort of a freak... but whatever, it worked. So at the beginning of the week I type out each meal and snack for everyday except the weekends. So it looks like this:
Monday, September 7
Breakfast: homemade waffles & yogurt
10:30 snack: carrots or bananas
Lunch: peanut butter sandwiches & apples
2:30 snack: watermelon or grapes
4:30 snack: you choose (they get to pick)
Dinner: BBQ chicken pizza
So I print out the schedule and put it on our fridge so the kids know exactly what we were having and also at what time. They do not have a choice to choose anything else except for what is on the chart. This was a little hard at 1st but now they know it is not up for discussion. We also dealt with some mood swings for not eating but those are over now. So they either can choose to eat what is listed or skip out until the next snack or meal. I would say that 95% of the time they will eat instead or skipping the food.
This schedule has also helped out with my grocery list and also to get my kids not to eat all those snacky foods all the time.
Tonight I was so proud and this is where the bragging comes in.... we had turkey sandwiches for dinner and everyone ate it, then Luke asked for raw carrots, Karsten asked for sliced apples, and Addisyn asked for applesauce! Finally we are getting somewhere. I'm not joking they use to eat like 10 dinosaur nuggets a day..... no joke... and that was what they wanted for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Now they get dino nuggets once a week and for special occasions.
Enough with my bragging.... I'm just a proud mommy!

6 comments:

Nikki said...

i really like this idea.....

Carrie Vines said...

Yeah!!! what a great idea!

Jannae said...

I love the idea!

The Bagley Bunch said...

YAY! That is so awesome girl, I know you have been working on this for a while and yaaaay it worked!! :) You go Mommy of 4!

Kelly said...

Super exciting and you totally deserve to brag!!! I can completely empathize (as you know) with the picky eating. I love this idea!

Christy said...

yahoo, you go girly! Way to get creative and make it work. Your kids will thank you later for it. Your a good mama. :)