How do you serve their food?

[Marisa's Mom]

Do you give them one course at a time? -- Give them a bowl with the first course, after they're done, give them another bowl with the second course, etc?

Do you give them a big plate/bowl with everything on it at the same time? -- Lets them pick and choose what they want to eat first?


Just wondering what y'all do. I put each course it its own bowl, and I either present her with one bowl at a time, or sometimes both at the same time. Can't fit 3 bowls side-by-side in front of her on the high chair, so a 3rd bowl would be presented after one of the other two is finished. I'm still using the bowls I got from way back when she was eating cereal and smaller portions. I just haven't gotten around to getting any large plates so everything will fit on it. And I'm not about to give her a ceramic plate, no way, uh uh! I've seen her pick up her bowl, invert it, wave it around, the last thing I need is to pick up broken plate pieces and worry about her getting cut from the broken pieces. I'm planning on getting those plates with the separate sections.

I'm thinking she would probably benefit from having everything all on one plate. Except that she'll probably finish the good (usually sweet) stuff first, and then ask for more of that.    She does that now...     I will give her a big serving of fruit, and she'll want more after she's finished. I've tried giving her half of it, so that when she asks for more, I can give her the remaining half, but then she still wants more after finishing the second half. Sigh... they're so hard to please sometimes...

Toddlers are such picky eaters. One day they like something, next day they won't touch it... so hard to keep up with their changing appetites. Unfortunately, my LO is quickly developing a taste for the sweeter stuff. I knew it would happen eventually, just didn't expect it so soon...

[Katet]

I'll only talk about Dinner as Lunch is often when we are out & he has sandwiches & an apple (whole bites off the core) or banana.
I do my meals based around the fact that Liam is often hungry about 1/2 hour before ds#1 is interested in eating (ie dh gets home) & that we try to eat as much as possible as a family (soon after 6pm)... so I give Liam his veg in a bowl while I finish off cooking the rest of the meal (he eats mostly what we do, but will only eat veg if mashed, not as finger food) & then give the meat part (he loves) when we eat, he will then often eat from my plate, so I tend to just pass him food from mine, then if he is still interested in food he gets fruit/yogurt. So he pretty much eats his food in "courses" but I tend to give the food he is likes most until he has eaten more of the 'lower preference food' ... that doesn't work with my 3yo... he will just not eat if he doesn't like it.

[Deb_in_oz]

Liv is 17 mo and I have those divided plastic plates - i put protein in 1, veg in another and carb in the 3rd space and serve all at once (with a mixed meal like casserole and rice or a risotto i just give her a big plastic bowl and do extra veg on her tray table or fruit) . she gets fruit or yogurt afterwards but sometimes it is WITH the main foods as she will go back and forth and occassionally when dinner is not ready for her (she sometimes comes lookign for food by 4:30 or so  ) i will set her up with the fruit i was going to give and then give dinner as usual.

as long as her portion sizes are reasonable i would not worry too much about her having all her fruit first - a single portion  size woudl most likely not fill her up and she woudl eat other stuff too.  you can explain that it is all gine after she eats what you set aside for her (if she is extremely hungry and eats other foods you can always offer more/different fruit variety after dinner)

[Nikki~Nathanamp;Danielle]

I do it way different with my 16mth old than what I did with ds at the same age. DD isn't picky, so she gets her main meal just all plonked on her tray or in a bowl if it's a casserole type meal, eats it all and will often have 2nds - but does sort it based on what she wants to eat first, then often goes back and eats the things she picked out or tosses them over the side. Then I move onto yoghurt/fruit and then she is done.

DS at the same age, I needed to put small portions of things on his tray and wait for him to finish what was there before introducing more food, then would add fruit afterwards too.

[mari]

I usually give one course with everything on it (plate), she usually picks what she wants to eat from it. (she normally leaves meat) then I serve dessert, either dish or yoghurt from a pot.  sometimes she likes a cheese string too afterwards that she has in her hand. (yes, I do have to check the toybox regularly for leftovers!

[Marisa's Mom]

Kate:

I never knew there was so much "juggling" when trying to feed two.  That's something I'll have to keep in mind when/if we have baby #2. It certainly makes planning mealtimes more challenging.

That's great that you can eat together as a family. I wish we could do that too. Unfortunately DH works long hours, and he usually gets home around 7pm to 7:45pm, depending on how busy work is and how his hour long commute is, and DD's bedtime is aronud 8pm. So always have dinner after she goes to bed. She'd get ultra cranky if we tried to keep her up or postpone her dinner. We tried doing that a while back, having dinner together, it was a disaster.

How do you manage to cook with 2 kids around? I can't really do it with my one little girl.    I've resorted to cooking big pots of pasta or other dishes when DH is home (weekend, or his work-from-home day), and reheating them as leftovers the rest of the days (usually weekdays). Pasta works well since I don't have to remember to make rice. I'm always afraid DD will get into "trouble" while I've got my hands wet/"dirty"  while prepping food, or that something will burn/boilover/etc while I have to go chase her down or stop her from doing something dangerous, etc. And then there are times when she just wants all my attention and will not let work in the kitchen.


Debra:

I try to save fruit for afterwards, but lately DD has been so picky that I end up giving her fruit sooner that I intended. She used to love yogurt, and that used to be a sort of dessert, but now she's decided that she no longer likes yogurt. Toddlers and their picky tastes, she's getting more picky with each passing day. My big question each morning is, "what will I feed her???"  I guess I've been giving her a bit too much fruit lately because we've had so many delicious summer fruits in the house. There were days where she'd get 4 servings during the day (banana, grapes, nectarines, strawberries) because we had the fruit in the house and I wanted to eat them all before they spoiled. So now she has a taste for the sweets...


Nikki:

It sounds like your DD is pretty good about eating whatever is on her plate. What makes your son picky, ad your daughter not picky? It's funny how they turn out, huh? I knew someone with 3 kids, and he would often remark on how different they are even though they came from the same two parents.

DD has figured out that she can spit out food if she doesn't like it. I'm not too happy about the mess that can make. Or the food ends up out of the bowl and onto the highchair tray. I guess I should count myself lucky that she isn't throwing food onto the floor!


Mari:

About checking the toybox for leftovers... I never thought that could happen. I'll have to remember this and keep an eye out for anything DD might be holding on to in her hands.