"I discovered a meal between breakfast and brunch."
Abbie has great mealtime habits. While some parents plead with their children to eat something besides French fries and nugget breading, she eats three nutritional meals every day.* I have no problem finding good food for her to eat at every meal, and she even mows down vegetables for lunch and supper in portions hearty enough to have made me gag when I was her age. She drinks exactly the daily recommended amount of milk, not too much, not too little. I occasionally have to follow her around the house though, repeatedly encouraging her to finish her milk before she throws it one too many times and it rolls through the dimensional portal under every piece of furniture and into the Land of Forgotten Sippy Cups. She even cleans her plate at every meal. True, sometimes she cleans her plate by giving everything to the dog, but since it’s all nutritional food, that means the dog is eating healthy too.
Snack times are a different matter. Abbie defines “snack time” as “any time that isn’t ‘meal time.’” As long as she’s otherwise entertained, snacks are out of sight and out of mind. When snacks come in sight, we’re in more trouble than the Brazilian World Cup team when they return home.
We have a candy dish above the television. Normally candy doesn’t last very long in our house for reasons that transcend Abbie. This dish still has a little candy in it, leftover from Easter. They’re the nasty pieces that no one in our household with a discriminating palate wanted to eat, like cream soda lollipops and anything involving toffee. Abbie though, is fond of anything involving sugar, and loves receiving anything from the dish no matter how much it tastes like butterscotch. Usually she doesn’t remember it’s there, but periodically she’ll stand near it, look up with outstretched hands, and utter “unh,” the universal toddler word for “I want it.” If she’s eaten well today and hasn’t scratched anybody in the last few seconds, I’ll give her a piece. One piece never satisfies her, especially since the dog always finishes her lollipop. Needing more of a sugar buzz, she’ll stand under the bowl “unh unh unh” –ing until I leave the room and she ceases, realizing she has no chance of getting more candy. Either that or she’ll push a toy next to the television and attempt to get it herself.
She always goes on with her life after forgetting about the candy, occasionally because of head trauma suffered after falling off her stepping toy. I have no such luck with Goldfish. Goldfish are small fish-shaped crackers scientifically engineered to be the ultimate toddler snack. They’re cheese-flavored, which makes her fondness of them strange since she shoves away real cheese. They’re mostly nutritionally devoid, but at least they’re baked and have zero grams of trans fat. Of course that can also describe an Oreo, so maybe it’s not the best nutritional barometer.
We keep the Goldfish above the refrigerator as a quick snack. Unfortunately, every time we open the refrigerator, it reminds her that Goldfish are perched right above it. This is a major problem when we’re making a meal, and she keeps “unh” –ing next to the refrigerator and tugging our clothes to make sure we hear her. I keep a bowl of grapes ready for her begging, but she’ll finish that in a couple minutes with a little help from the dog and beg for more. Eventually I give up and give her a quick bowl of Goldfish. A minute later, she and the dog are ready for more.
This cycle can continue for the entire time we’re making supper. I think her record is six handfuls before I popped that casserole into the oven. I’ve tried diversifying her snacking with handfuls of cereal so she can get some essential vitamins and minerals with her calories, but unless that cereal has a similar sugar-content to lollipops, it winds up on the floor. I even tried mixing Tasteeos with Goldfish, and watched her pick out all the Goldfish and leave the Tasteeos for the floor.
Eventually I finish in the kitchen, and the Goldfish move out of her thought process. It’s great that she’s got a hearty appetite, but after watching her empty bowl after bowl of Goldfish, I wish that she’d eat a little healthy. Then an hour later I’m watching her eat handful after handful of broccoli, and I shrug it off.
* Macaroni and cheese qualifies as “nutritional,” right?
Snack times are a different matter. Abbie defines “snack time” as “any time that isn’t ‘meal time.’” As long as she’s otherwise entertained, snacks are out of sight and out of mind. When snacks come in sight, we’re in more trouble than the Brazilian World Cup team when they return home.
We have a candy dish above the television. Normally candy doesn’t last very long in our house for reasons that transcend Abbie. This dish still has a little candy in it, leftover from Easter. They’re the nasty pieces that no one in our household with a discriminating palate wanted to eat, like cream soda lollipops and anything involving toffee. Abbie though, is fond of anything involving sugar, and loves receiving anything from the dish no matter how much it tastes like butterscotch. Usually she doesn’t remember it’s there, but periodically she’ll stand near it, look up with outstretched hands, and utter “unh,” the universal toddler word for “I want it.” If she’s eaten well today and hasn’t scratched anybody in the last few seconds, I’ll give her a piece. One piece never satisfies her, especially since the dog always finishes her lollipop. Needing more of a sugar buzz, she’ll stand under the bowl “unh unh unh” –ing until I leave the room and she ceases, realizing she has no chance of getting more candy. Either that or she’ll push a toy next to the television and attempt to get it herself.
She always goes on with her life after forgetting about the candy, occasionally because of head trauma suffered after falling off her stepping toy. I have no such luck with Goldfish. Goldfish are small fish-shaped crackers scientifically engineered to be the ultimate toddler snack. They’re cheese-flavored, which makes her fondness of them strange since she shoves away real cheese. They’re mostly nutritionally devoid, but at least they’re baked and have zero grams of trans fat. Of course that can also describe an Oreo, so maybe it’s not the best nutritional barometer.
We keep the Goldfish above the refrigerator as a quick snack. Unfortunately, every time we open the refrigerator, it reminds her that Goldfish are perched right above it. This is a major problem when we’re making a meal, and she keeps “unh” –ing next to the refrigerator and tugging our clothes to make sure we hear her. I keep a bowl of grapes ready for her begging, but she’ll finish that in a couple minutes with a little help from the dog and beg for more. Eventually I give up and give her a quick bowl of Goldfish. A minute later, she and the dog are ready for more.
This cycle can continue for the entire time we’re making supper. I think her record is six handfuls before I popped that casserole into the oven. I’ve tried diversifying her snacking with handfuls of cereal so she can get some essential vitamins and minerals with her calories, but unless that cereal has a similar sugar-content to lollipops, it winds up on the floor. I even tried mixing Tasteeos with Goldfish, and watched her pick out all the Goldfish and leave the Tasteeos for the floor.
Eventually I finish in the kitchen, and the Goldfish move out of her thought process. It’s great that she’s got a hearty appetite, but after watching her empty bowl after bowl of Goldfish, I wish that she’d eat a little healthy. Then an hour later I’m watching her eat handful after handful of broccoli, and I shrug it off.
* Macaroni and cheese qualifies as “nutritional,” right?
posted by Matt at
11:23 PM
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