We had a “picky eater” breakthrough in our house today!
You should first know the backstory. One of my sons was born with my addiction to carbs. He was even nick-named “Noodles”. As hard as I tried to feed him the foods I knew were nutrient-dense, he rebelled. He was the ultimate picky eater.
We’ve come a long way.
Some of the more successful things we did was identify the healthy foods that he did like and focused on those, as we turned a blind eye (somewhat) to the others. I discovered that he liked green beans, broccoli and asparagus enough to eat them for breakfast. Hooray! Another successful moment was when we identified his favorite healthy foods in the categories that I felt needed attention, like proteins, healthy fats and vegetables. At lunch or dinner time he would choose a protein, vegetable, healthy fat and fruit for lunch that he liked. Often that would look like chicken vegetable soup and an apple. We often supplemented with EPA and DHA supplements just to get those healthy fats in his diet since he was not fond of nuts, seeds, coconut, avocado or salmon.
A simple snack that also satisfies a chocolate craving is a scoop of Coco Complete from New Vitality that is a chocolate drink sweetened with xylitol and stevia. It has great antioxidants like green tea and resveratrol. Mix in a Tablespoon of collagen from Great Lakes for protein and tissue health with 8-12 ounces of hot water.
The most recent breakthrough though, happened today when I was eating my “cereal” and he thought it looked good and tried a bite even though it had nuts and coconut in it. He liked it so much he asked to have it for breakfast. Here is the recipe:
Coconut Chip Cereal
½ Cup Unsweetened Coconut Chips or Flakes
¼ Cup Raw Walnuts, Pecans or Macadamia nuts
¼ Cup Berries (We use freeze dried strawberries when we can’t find fresh but you can also use frozen)
½ Cup “Milk” of choice
I know it’s simple but that’s the beauty of it… they can make it themselves. Win!
If you’d like to see his video from 2013 on spinach, click here.
What success stories do you have with your picky eater?