What June eats – and my best toddler eating tips

Generally, I don’t feel comfortable handing out parenting advice — after all, I’ve only had one test subject so far, and what worked for her clearly might not be universally-sound advice! (On that note, it will be interesting to see whether any of our successful tactics are reproducible with number two — will keep you posted, I’m sure :))

But, I know that I love learning from the experiences of people I trust, even if I usually adapt their advice for our situation. That’s the heart of where this post is coming from — not offering a prescription to get your toddler to eat well, but offering some insight into what has worked for us!

Because as luck or intention would have it, we have a very good eater on our hands. June is a more adventurous eater than I am, in many ways, and so far we have not encountered more than mild skirmishes over food at the dinner table. While I’m sure this is in part due to her nature, I think we set her (and ourselves) up for success in a few ways. That’s what I wanted to chat about today, so let’s dive into four things that have worked for us!

1. We all eat the same meal at the same time. From about 15 months on, June has been eating the same meal as John and I at the same time, sometimes in a slightly different form (like, we might drain most of the broth out of a soup, or give her all of a salad’s fixings without the lettuce). From about one year to 15 months, she ate some purees, some of our food, and some additions (like Greek yogurt or Cheerios), and would often eat with us but sometimes eat earlier if we couldn’t get dinner on the table fast enough :)

If she refused a food, we would encourage her to try it, but never forced her to. We also never offered her another option if she DID refuse a food (she never refused a dinner entirely). In fact, to this day, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t even realize that’s an option, since she’s just never seen it done! I think through the visual of John and I eating the same thing as her day in and day out, she very quickly learned that that’s simply how it works in our house.

2. She has eaten adventurously from the beginning. Indian food, pickled vegetables, asparagus, spinach in pasta, chick pea shawarma, beef stew… these have all been a part of her diet, in some form or another, from the time she started eating solid food. Even in utero, she was exposed to a variety of (spicy!) things through my diet, which probably didn’t hurt! Of course, there are things she doesn’t love and will refuse (chunks of meat can be enemy number one), but for the most part, she is game for a wide variety of textures, flavors, and compositions because it’s all she’s known.

3. We don’t keep things in the house we don’t want her to eat, and we don’t eat things in front of her we won’t let her have. I’m sometimes gently confused by parents who complain about their kiddos eating this or that — after all, aren’t we the ones with the money and car to go to the grocery store? Like screen time, we try to cut off potential disagreements at the source by simply not bringing food we don’t want June eating into our house (juice, for example).

Likewise, if John is eating chips and salsa before dinner while June is playing next to him, I don’t think it’s fair to expect her NOT to want to join in – so it’s on us to either make sure she’ll still be hungry enough to eat dinner if she joins in, or to pack up the bag (despite our own wants) if she won’t be.

On the subject of desserts: you all know I have a sweet tooth :) If John and I want to have a dessert (especially because, you know, #pregnant), we will have it after June goes to bed. She has her fair share of sweet things – when we have guests over, for a special family treat, at a birthday party, etc. – and we’ll never NOT let her partake in a dessert that’s happening in front of her. On a regular basis, though, we keep them out of sight.

4. We encourage snacking while cooking. June is very into helping me cook these days, and often wants to taste ingredients or snack on the raw vegetables she sees me chopping. I am all for this — first of all, because raw things generally have the most nutrients, and second of all, because I think having a hand in the prep (even if limited to taste-testing!) piques her interest in and buy-in for the final version of the meal.

To wrap up, I know our experience is not relevant for everyone — maybe your kiddo has an allergy that precludes her from eating the same meal as you, or maybe you can’t eat dinner all together due to your schedules. Likewise, I’m sure you could do all these things and still end up with a selective eater. Either way, I hope these thoughts at least give you some ideas if you’re a little bit behind us in your parenting journey!

And now, let’s all cross our fingers that baby boy loves food as much as June does :)

P.S. Because I know some of you were curious after I mentioned June eats pretty much the same thing for breakfast and lunch every day, here are our go-tos. Breakfast is oatmeal (sometimes with berries or chopped fruit) and water. Lunch at school is milk, either a turkey and cheese quesadilla made on our Griddler or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich on wheat bread, plus three of the following: applesauce; berries/chopped fruit; goldfish; carrots, bell pepper sticks, or cherry tomatoes (sometimes with hummus); and plain graham crackers. There are wild cards sometimes, but those are the staples :)