Feeding Schedules: 2 and 4 year olds, Wasted Food, Frustrated Mama

[Aletheia]

My boys are almost 2 and almost 4. I spend what I feel must be too much time preparing what I feel must be too much food that just gets wasted.

The obvious answer would be to make sure they are good and hungry for mealtimes. But I just cannot find the line that separates "good and hungry" from "melting down into a pile of wailing pathetic low blood sugar on the floor." So I give them a snack between meals (esp the 2 year old, who is usu. more hungry than his big brother.) But then they aren't hungry!

And neither one eats leftovers.

I hate the waste of food and time, and of course it pains me to think they are not eating enough.

How do you approach feeding opportunities in your house?

(I should add that both boys are still breastfed mostly on demand (though they do so infrequently), as they always were. I have often wondered if what I am experiencing is a drawback to having been raised that way: they assume that they can eat whenever they feel hungry. Nice to think about, but a mama of two cannot stop to make a meal everytime someone gets hungry! I'd be in the kitchen all day. But then, heck, I sort of am already, between the snacks and the wasted meals.)

What do you do?

[GuildJenn]

Well a few things stand out at me.

I do believe kids need snacks (as opposed to a treat, a snack is healthy food eaten between normal meals). But they don't always need them right before a meal.

I tend to see waste as largely an adult issue. I serve really small portions to my son to start. My husband serves big ones. Guess which meals have more waste to them? The small amount that does get wasted from time to time to me is a health/educational tax...the price of my son learning to try things and to listen to his body when he's full. I'm not a fan of the clean-plate-club.

Also, why would your kids reject leftovers? I guess there are different kinds. We tend to use (unserved) food over in other recipes, like roast potatoes become roast potato salad and chicken becomes chicken-fried-rice and so on. But we also just serve plain old leftovers, like having a big pot of stew twice in a row (sometimes with noodles or whatever). We adults also take them for lunch.

Figuring out what the objection is might help your budget a lot.

In other words...I think planning can solve a lot of the issue until your kids are older and can meet you more half way.

[meemee]

and to add to what GuildJenn has written...

... some kids enjoy snacks a lot more. they prefer 5 to 7 times of snack rather than 2 snack time and 3 meals.

i would also make sure you offer small portions. it helps later on when they eat 'with their eyes rather than their hunger'.

i hate leftovers too and so does dd. what we do is dont have it the next day. i hate eating the same food all the time. so i freeze it and eat it 2 or 3 days later or more.

they are still growing. they go thru growtih spurts. so essentially yup even my dd esp. in summer eats all the time. right throughout the day. she pretty much has been eating every hour today. and seems to not get enough even though she is eating a bunch of variety of food and getting enough fats.

somedays she loves simple foods - just rice with butter and soy sauce. somedays more complicated foods.

i dont keep junk at home. none at all. so dd is allowed to eat whatever, whenever. however if she is ravished just before lunch i give her a little something to tide her over. otherwise i make sure she doesnt go without food for a long time.

[Aletheia]

Originally Posted by meemee

and to add to what GuildJenn has written...
i dont keep junk at home. none at all. so dd is allowed to eat whatever, whenever. however if she is ravished just before lunch i give her a little something to tide her over. otherwise i make sure she doesnt go without food for a long time.

I like the idea of not keeping "junk" at home too... but that becomes tricky when you have a kid that would eat fruit to the exclusion of everything else if he had the choice. I kid you not. What do you do with that?

[GuildJenn]

Originally Posted by Aletheia

I like the idea of not keeping "junk" at home too... but that becomes tricky when you have a kid that would eat fruit to the exclusion of everything else if he had the choice. I kid you not. What do you do with that?

I know I'm not meemee but we don't keep much junk at home either (mostly loot bag stuff from parties that hangs around forever).

I don't have a problem with my son OD'ing on fruit for the most part. Not every kid is like this I guess but if mine eats fruit all one day, he'll eat protein all the next. I don't consider fruit junk. Sometimes I've sort of imposed a bit of a back-handed slow down by just buying apples and bananas for a week or so - lowering the fun factor by keeping it boring.

All fruit does tend to create tummy aches too, so it can be self-regulating if you're prepared to deal with the consequence.

I do stop the fruit snacking about an hour before a meal. With your two year old it's probably not possible, but with my 4 year old we do talk about nutrition and needing some protein, and so on, and that helps.

[Holiztic]

The title "Feeding Schedule" reminds me of the animals at the zoo!!

We eat a big homecooked breakfast together and DS clears his plate (though it takes him 45 minute or more!)

Then he eats a big lunch (no morning snack unless breakfast was really early)

Then after his nap he gets a healthy snack (local farm-made cottage cheese and organic berries is his current favorite)

Then we eat a dinner that he usually eats moderately. If he finishes his dinner he can have some fruit (in summer, other things in winter/spring) but he often doesn't want/need it.

We take the approach that food is a sacred/special thing that we are lucky to have--so we don't chomp on things from bags/boxes all day long. We cook meals from scratch mostly and eat those things--we rarely have leftovers. Snacks are not really needed, except to bridge the long time between lunch and dinner--and even then its not "snacky" like crackers, chips, etc. but more like a small balanced meal.

As a matter of fact, we don't keep snack food and DS (who LOVES snack food) has just gotten used to/accepted and lately even embraced really solid meals where he cleans his plate and eats little to nothing in between (mid-afternoon mini-meal the exception). His mood is much more even than when he used to have 2-3 snacks and 3 small meals and now he NEVER fusses about hunger anymore! He really loves our mealtimes, too!

[meemee]

Originally Posted by GuildJenn

All fruit does tend to create tummy aches too, so it can be self-regulating if you're prepared to deal with the consequence.

I do stop the fruit snacking about an hour before a meal. With your two year old it's probably not possible, but with my 4 year old we do talk about nutrition and needing some protein, and so on, and that helps.

yup yup!!! my dd these days is oding on rice with soy sauce.

i have never ever stopped her from ODing on anything. i have raised my eyebrow and asked her if she really wants that much and warning her it might make her sick (mostly i expect her to finish her plate) but not stopped her from ODing. in fact i looove ODing. it truly helps her self regulate. even giant pieces of chocolate cake at was it 2 or 3 (she has never been ever able to even eat a children's size slice of cake since then, even her favourite tiramisu). ODing teaches her more about what her body can handle than i ever can. to the extent that today I CAN keep junk in the house because she does not OD.

so if your son is feasting on fruit and not suffering then i would be perfectly ok with it. if he was doing the same with juice - even if its home squeezed organic orange - no way.

by the way eating is v. sacred at our house too. you dont eat and multi-task. you sit and enjoy what you have. and if you dont respect and enjoy what you are eating you stop. you dont eat that. since dd is old enough, and is a pretty good eater she doesnt have to eat everything i cook.

and yes we dont truly have snack food either. its mostly fruit or cooked from scratch food or something dd cooks herself. we never had. neither do we have separate bfast food. sometimes we eat (as dd loves saying) dinner for bfast and oatmeal or cereal for dinner.