Saturday, July 25, 2009

Fine tuning . . .

Okay, well some changes made to help with the food issues helped but mostly a change in my attitude. I have decided not to stress about it and go with the flow. I suck really bad at that mostly. I went to the grocery last night when the kids were in bed and I had plenty of time to stand in the isles mulling over choices.

Other than the attitude change, I made some other changes. I emptied out a drawer in the fridge to make a snack drawer. I bought those little snack zipper bags and made a ton of refrigerated and non refrigerated snacks. I am too cheap to buy things pre-packaged in snack sizes, and I think Harrison needs smaller sized portions right now anyway as to not get overwhelmed and so it is not wasted. Here's what I made if you are interested. . .

Refrigerated:

He loves those Lunchables, but once again I am cheap so I made baggies with Bologna quarters and ham slices. As well as colby-jack square and muenster square baggies.

I also bought those yogurt tubes on sale (and no spoon to wash) and individual applesauce, because they were the same price as a jar (which always tends to mold on me before we finish it)

I put banana and watermelon and grapes in that drawer also. I am going to boil eggs later tonight as well. He loves eggs, I think I will peel them and put them in baggies for quick access, maybe even cut them in half.

Non-refrigerated: (in the pantry in a "snack basket")

I wanted to make some different things to shake things up a bit. I bought those cute pretzel squares (can pretzels be cute?) and drizzled them with white bark. I put 5 squares in a baggie. I had a bunch of broken ones left so I tossed them in a bowl with cheerios and walnuts and drizzled them with bark as well. About a quarter cup went into baggies.

I also did butter crackers for my version of Lunchables.

He loves grahams so I did 4 squares of plain, cinnamon and chocolate grahams in baggies.

We eat a lot of cereal and my kids even eat it plain so I made some cereal mix. I grabbed the boxes that were almost gone, fruit loops, honeycomb and mini-wheats, tossed them in a bowl and put the mix in baggies.

I also did Oreos because he never refuses Oreos and I am desperate now.

I think I am going to try my hand at homemade granola too because Harrison loves granola bars, but once again, I am cheap so I thought I could make some. Anyone have any recipes? I also considered making some drizzled chocolate popcorn or maybe carmel. I will see what works from this batch and come up with more choices for the next round. Ideas?

As far as meals go, I decided I would rather have him eat those nasty pasta meals in cans he likes as opposed to eating nothing so I stocked up on ravioli-os, spaghetti-os, and Abc and 123s all with meat balls because that's how he rolls. (I like that saying more than I should! LOL) I bought frozen burritos and pizza rolls too because I would rather be a short order cook right now than worry about him eating.

We went shopping with my mom last night and out to a local pizza place. He ate a piece of pizza. My mom talked to him about his spacers because she thought he may be freaking out about getting food stuck in them. He tolerated that well. He was unmedicated and freakin' bonkers, like off-the-wall-thank-God-for-medication bonkers! She talked to him about his attitude and some of the things he has been picking up from other kids at daycare making him less than desirable to be around lately. Today has been good. I can only hope that the talk form Nani made a difference. I think it may have. He's been respectful and pleasant to be around.

And most importantly, he's been eating. . . a little.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

3 comments:

Reighnie said...

Wow! Those snacks sound good. Send some my way. lol

JR - A Green Eyed Gurl.... said...

The only thing I can think of, is I freeze grapes in snack baggies, then they are kinda like popsicles and the kids love them. Freeze the yogurt tubes also, another thing my kids love.

a said...

Try cheesecake! It has finally helped my kid gain lots of weight. It comes in lots of flavors, I keep slices in the freezer and send them to school for snack time, and also use at night as a reward for eating dinner. It has been amazing. And you can make it pretty healthy, all natural, less sugar. Ice cream helped too.

We had the same issues, I tried everything,
adding butter/cream/oil/cheese to everything, tried using Pediasure and Boost and other supplements, lots of doctor appointments, nothing really worked except this for us.

I guess also try taking him to the store and picking out foods (within limits), their tastes change and one day they may crave something and eat a lot of it.
Of course this isn't ideal lessons for kids, but when the weight became a huge issue I figured that was most important.
And now my kid looks so healthy and alive, even a bit of chubby cheeks starting, and feels better.

While in general kids may not starve themselves, our kids with judgement issues may, or may not take care of their bodies well, and in my case I listened to the first docs who thought no big deal too long. Now our specialist says to get as much fat and calories in as we can, and add a multivitamin to supplement. So giving up on eating very balanced meals helped too.
Good luck!