Mushroom cake and other adventures in eating with toddlers

Submitted by HighMaintenanceMom on June 12, 2006 - 21:39.

B walked into the house, sat on the couch, and said in a loud voice, "what's that horrible smell?". I replied that I was cooking mushrooms. He started to complain loudly, "yuck, I don't like mushrooms, why are you making mushrooms, I'm not eating them," and so on. So I told him I was making N's birthday cake. "Want to guess what type of cake I'm making?", I asked. "What is it?", he replied. "A mushroom cake!", I said. "Can I see the mushrooms?", he said in a very excited voice. "Of course, come into the kitchen, I'll even let you try them". "Would you make me a mushroom cake too?", B asked. "Yes, I'm making two cakes so one can be for you."...

B came into the kitchen and watched me saute mushrooms for dinner. In the electric mixer was the beginnings of my favorite carrot cake. I asked B to tell his father what kind of cake he wanted and he danced around singing about the mushroom cake. After I explained that I was really making carrot cakes, he still wanted to eat a mushroom or two. I was excited. N even tasted one after his big brother said he liked it (yes those old Life commercials make much more sense now that I have two quasi picky eaters).

We're still working on helping B and N try new foods. When we started feeding them solids, we enjoyed reading "Child of Mine: Feeding With Love and Good Sense", which guided me towards offering dessert with meals and being careful to ask a child to take one bite of something instead of having to finish everything on their plate. We also had a baby food book that I gave to a friend a while back after never cooking from it. The best thing the baby food book helped me with was gaining the confidence to pick recipes from my own cookbooks to make for the family. A friend loves and recommends "Simply Natural Baby Food: Easy Recipes for Delicious Meals Your Infant and Toddler Will Love". I don't have a copy but am planning to check it out soon.

I use "Kids Cooking: Scrumptious Recipes for Cooks Ages 9 to 13 (Williams-Sonoma Kitchen Library)" the most to make meatloaf, meatballs, and cookies. I've also learned that presentation is important. Some kids don't like one food touching another food and many kids like to dip a food into a sauce. Like other parents, we often call broccoli trees. We also occasionally cut food into fun shapes like giving pancakes or waffles a mouth. And we try to offer at least one food for dinner we know our kids will eat (breakfast, lunch, and snacks are more catered to what they like to eat). And as I've mentioned before, planning the meals ahead of time prevents me from standing in front of the refrigerator trying to find something healthy while the kids fill up on chips (B can get to the food he wants and open the safety latches on the drawers to get out silverware).

As for the mushrooms, my husband didn't eat the mushrooms on his pasta because he really thought I was using them for a cake.

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( categories: Feeding )