Now that we're past Canada Day and US Independence Day, we can settle into the long, hot days of summer here on the north side of the earth. Which is great in some ways (tank tops and sangria), but can be challenging for other reasons. Ally writes:
"Help--summer is screwing us up! I've accepted that the later bedtime/early waking is not going to go away any time soon. Fortunately I just started freelancing a few months ago, so shifting the sleeping schedule isn't killing me like it would be if I had to be at work at a certain time. But I'm starting to be seriously concerned about my son's nutrient intake (he's 2). He'll eat a decent breakfast (toast or cereal and eggs and banana) but then the rest of the day it's like pulling teeth to get him to eat anything. It's like it's too hot for him to feel like eating. I can get him to eat slices of cucumber and frozen grapes, but is this enough?"
It sounds like he really only wants cold, wet things during the day. So try to find cold, wet things that are high in nutrition. Watermelon is one of the most nutritionally-dense fruits there is, and if he goes for cucumber he'll probably eat watermelon. Other melon varieties are good, too. So is kiwi. If he'll eat the seeds (some toddlers won't), kiwi is a good nutritious choice.
If you can get enough protein into him in the morning, all the rest of it will even out. Remember that you're supposed to look at the nutrition he gets over a week, not day-by-day (this goes for adults, too, by the way). Fruit (unless he has problems with the sugar in fruit) is going to be the easiest way to cover his bases when it's too hot to eat much of anything else. Just be warned that if he eats too much fruit it can affect his poop, so heads up.
You don't mention if he's drinking plenty of liquids, so I assume that's not a problem. Lots of kids cut down on the milk in the hot weather and switch to water, so he may be doing that, too.
Anyone else going through this?
I'm in a wintry hemisphere, but am experiencing the same thing with my 2.5 year old. I can usually count on one 'good' meal a day for N (never consistent which one) and then the rest is hit and miss. I just try to make sure whatever I offer is nutritious and trust that he's getting what he needs. At last ped appt he gained a good amount and grew 3 cm in as many months so I know he's still thriving. Ask around, but I'm thinking it's more a 2 year old thing than a hot weather thing.
Posted by: Jilly | July 07, 2008 at 09:02 AM
If we ever get past this salmonella business, maybe cut up grape tomatoes? About the size of grapes and very juicy. If you freeze or deeply chill them, they lose some flavor, but I'm not sure a busy toddler would care too much about that.
We have this problem too, but I've come to see that my four-year-old's intake is also a victim of distraction. We're outside a lot or we're over visiting friends in summertime, and she doesn't want to give up that time to eating. She'd like to do other things.
Also, I remember reading in a parenting book (Ames and Ilg, maybe?) that for two-year-olds breakfast or lunch is often the best meal of the day, and that's true for my daughter, even at four. (Granted, she's got a history of feeding issues, so I'm not sure if that's just where she is on the eating maturity continuum or not.)
Posted by: amy | July 07, 2008 at 09:06 AM
I've found that the easiest way to get protein into my son in hot weather is frozen yogurt. I puree whole-milk Greek-style yogurt with whatever fruit I want to use up - usually mixed berries - and freeze it in popsicle molds. I don't bother adding sugar since he's only 1, and doesn't know how sweet popsicles are "supposed" to be. (And I don't plan on enlightening him any time soon!)
Posted by: JessA | July 07, 2008 at 09:12 AM
Fruit, yogurt, baby carrots, grape tomatoes, cereal with milk, the white part of hard-boiled eggs (I eat the leftover yolks, filling myself with DHA and saturated fat).
They won't starve, and it's too hot to argue anyway.
Posted by: Slim | July 07, 2008 at 09:21 AM
Hummus. Tuna salad. Chicken salad.
Too exhausted. After long weekend. Camping with kids. To speak coherently.
Posted by: rudyinparis | July 07, 2008 at 09:30 AM
We struggle with this too. All the time. I try not to worry too much about how much/what he's eating unless it spans about 3 days, when it seriously starts to impact his sleep and wake up time. Not to mention his moods. He will be hungry and be a total bear, but refuse to eat anything.
A quick fix of protien is what I strive for, and that could be edamame beans (you can eat them hot or cold), yogurt, or cheese. When all else fails, sadly Fritos or other corn chips seem to do the trick to get him to realize "Hey.....this food makes my body feel good". Duh.
Posted by: Julie | July 07, 2008 at 09:40 AM
Think the same pattern as breastmilk supply for appetite at this age - supply is highest in early morning (like, after 2 AM?) through about 11 AM, then declines and often seems to totally crash after 4 PM.
Their appetite follows the same pattern. After 4-5 PM, normal toddlers/preschoolers are typically NOT much interested in food, certainly not of large quantities. Even lunch can be iffy. This will vary all over the place for each child, on any given day, but the baseline is assumed to be 'after 5, not much interest or intake' - granted, my kids will still regularly chow down heartily at 7 or 7:30, but I also know that if they don't, it is normal.
Focus on the good breakfast, then closer-spaced high-food-value snacks OR one good snack and an early lunch (11:30 is the latest our kids' preschool likes to do lunch, because after that, their appetites can rapidly crash... add in nap needs, and bye-bye lunch!). Afternoon is for light, cool, wet fare - cucumbers, kiwis, carrot sticks, frozen grapes or peach slices, frozen blueberries, etc. Watch the choking hazard foods, obviously... frozen can be tricky for some of them. Shakes or smoothies with ice may go down better (and you MAY be able to add in some yogurt or soy/tofu or protien powder if you're really concerned - and have already run the diet of the week through something like the My Pyramid Tracker at the cdc.gov website... I tend to way over-estimate the need, and under-estimate the amounts in foods consumed). Anyway, those are things I've seen suggested that work for other people I know.
We have found reasonable luck with 'hands' foods for lunch - trays with multiple compartments, a small amount (1/8 cup at most) of a wide variety of small finger foods plus a few baby greens and some salad dressing for dipping... and 'My Own Salad' is born. They can choose to leave ANY option behind in the tray (easy to put away again, or eat myself)... kind of a bento box salad approach. We use any combination (usually 4-6 items) of the following: dried cranberries (low in fructose, high in food value - just use the ones sweetened with sugar or corn syrup rather than HFCS), blueberries (the biggest ones I can find - 'wild' type are high in fructose), grape tomaatoes, cucumber sticks, baby carrots, cold steamed broccoli, kiwi slices, chopped cold chicken (small chunks - too big and they reject), chopped hotdogs, chopped roast beef (or deli meats in strips), baby greens, canned or fresh mandarin oranges, avocado, and I'd add in shelled pumpkin seeds (if I'd remember to buy them, sigh). A little here, a little there... it produces quite a nice balance. We add in rice cakes (go figure, the kids love them), or rice, or rice noodles. Mainly, they want their meat cold, and avoid cheese/dairy more when it is hot out. They also seem to be generally more irritable (as am I) when it's hot out, so they tend to get grumpy when they have less control of their choices. Grumpy SOONER and LOUDER, and getting upset affects their appetites more. The tray-of-food-options-for-you-to-pick-from seems to help them feel a lot of control over their choices (without making anyone into a short-order cook), and as long as nobody (*cough*adults*cough*) gripes or grumbles AT ALL back at them for their choices, they tend to eat pretty well at lunch. (The nice thing with the My Own Salad build-your-own thing is that just dumping the remainder into a bowl of greens for me makes for a very nice salad, even if they totally wiped out some of the options.)
Also, keep in mind that averaging dietary intake for this age is across a week to 10 days, sometimes more. And food binges are normal - two, three, four weeks of the same foods repeated even at all meals. Normal. Okay. Fine. Healthy, even! When the weather is hot, the patterns seem to be enhanced a bit with my kids - they're more likely to do total binges - ONLY meat at dinner, or ONLY rice, or ONLY carrot sticks, etc. If they're full on something - ANYTHING, we let it go entirely. I know they willingly eat a few veggies, I just make sure they have access to some of those during the day, and don't stress. It took a lot of practice to not stress, though!
Binging on fruit can really whack them (behaviorally as well as digestively), so if you see outbursts of anxiety, rage/tantrums, or dragginess, or they're having poop problems, dial back the fruit for three or four days, use more citrus (lemonade, limeade, clementines, etc.), and less melon, mango, apple, pear, and pit fruits (the ones most likely to cause trouble in excess). (the items listed in the salad ingredients above have all been reasonably okay with my kids, who have SERIOUS trouble with fructose - even just mixing those into your balance with typical kids should help avoid some of the overload issues).
Last comment (for now, LOL!): Growth spurts for my kids also sometimes come with decreased appetite - it seems counter-intuitive, but a couple of my kids eat heartily BEFORE the spurt, then sleep and decline food while they grow (and grouch more). Some eat through the spurt, instead. Both seem normal. So if they've been eating well but are tailing off sharply, that could be in there, too.
Posted by: hedra | July 07, 2008 at 09:43 AM
Oh, and ditto with the 'gateway to appetite' foods like corn chips - sometimes they'll only start eaing if they're already eating, if that makes sense... so a few chips can get them to focus on the 'oh, that's what my body wanted, FOOD!' reaction better. My mom used a glass of OJ or milk as the 'gateway to eating' option, but my kids tend to take that as a 'gateway to drinking more liquids but still not eating solid food' more.
Posted by: hedra | July 07, 2008 at 09:48 AM
Picnics! Lots and lots of picnics!
My 19 month old is such an outdoors junkie that part of the difficulty with meals is that they keep happening inside at a table where there are no bugs, dirt, water hoses, or fire engines (ok so outside for our neighborhood is our backyard parking lot off a major roadway leading to three hospitals). Going inside to eat is like setting his hair on fire, so we just started eating meals outside and it has many many benefits, including more food going inside his body, and some leftovers on the ground that I don't have to mop up and that our neighborhood fauna take care of (more exciting animals to look at! Birds! Chipmunks! Squirrels! Fire Engines!)
Posted by: Lisa M | July 07, 2008 at 09:55 AM
Make yogurt popsicles.
Posted by: ABCD | July 07, 2008 at 10:00 AM
For us it's a combination - lots of fruit salad, chicken salad, tuna salad, even egg salad. Fruits like watermelon, melons, kiwis, peaches. We also like cold noodles (look for the soba or somen variety) with cucumbers and scrambled eggs. Then there is the great taco salad - lots of avocado, tomato, lettuce, and some beans.
Posted by: fahmi | July 07, 2008 at 10:23 AM
I just finished Ames & IIg's parenting book which also said that, at this age, one 'good' meal and two 'snack-type' meals a day is fine/plenty/normal. It sounds like your kid is getting a great breakfast, so if he's snacking a little / drinking for the rest of the day, he's probably getting all he needs.
I do not want to hijack the post, honestly, but I've been wondering lately if any of you worry about edamame? My son also loves them, but after a couple hours of internet research I threw out all the soy products in our house! I am not worried about the hormones, I'm more worried about the 'anti-nutrient' qualities in soy, especially before fermentation, apparently. Is there a reliable answer to all the soy controversy??
Posted by: Suki | July 07, 2008 at 10:27 AM
Here are our sure-fire foods -
yokids squeeze yogurt, frozen like a popscicle. I think Horizon has squeeze yogurt, too (there's also a non-organic brand out there, but the neon colors scare me)
frozen peas. My kids beg for them.
gaspacho
cooked-fish sushi rolls(actually, we let the almost 4 year old eat the raw, too. but not the baby)
carrot sticks dipped in peanut butter or hummus
Maybe the baby would eat his cucumber slices dipped in a little hummus, or the grapes dipped in yogurt - it would add a little protein to the mix. And iced red zinger tea. Our baby (16 months) was reaching for the pitcher saying "tea!tea!" After a quick sip, he gloated "juice!" All the kid enjoyment with none of the sugar. hooray!
Posted by: sue | July 07, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Oh, and cold edamame, and cold tofu blocks rolled in herbs (seriously)
With tofu in mind, how about a silken tofu and berry smoothie?
Posted by: sue | July 07, 2008 at 10:32 AM
Participation was key with my kids. Once I let them help prepare the food, I got much more buy in. They have been making egg salad with me for several months (my youngest is 2 1/2), peeling the eggs, helping add the salt, pepper, then scooping it out of bowls onto crackers. They also like helping me make muffins and popsicles. They had little interest in meat until we let them have a little sauce for dipping (bbq, honey mustard, ketchup).
Posted by: mamasutra | July 07, 2008 at 10:54 AM
Oh, yeah, baby.
My 2.5-year-old eats waffles, eggs, whathaveyou for breakfast, and then it's just fruit, water, and chocolate milk. He just discovered watermelon and kiwi, and will actually ask for those fruits, so there's hope there.
I refuse to let food become an issue in our home, so I (try my best to) just roll with it.
Posted by: Jezer | July 07, 2008 at 10:55 AM
Now that the boy is 13 months old, he basically will ONLY eat fruits and yogurt. His poop is very regualr and firm so I don't think the fruit bother him (I hope it doesn't). We eat tons of mellon, pears, peaches, yellow and pink watermellon and blueberries. He just recently started enjoying pasta. Any chance I can get him to eat the high protein pasta (made from flax, egg whites and legumes) I make it. I mix it with garlic and a can of crushed, fire roasted tomatoes. He devours it. At times I can sneak in spinach and zuchinni. He loves grilled zuchinni. Other than that the boy refuses to eat when it is cold. He has lots of teeth, molars included. Is 13 months too young for cucumber? I am a little weird with feeding him foods that are too hard.
Posted by: BabyBrady | July 07, 2008 at 10:56 AM
@suki, I don't think there's a reliable answer other than 'moderation'. Which is unfortunately a foreign concept to many toddlers.
We don't do much soy because of the GI fermentation issue with my kids (short- and long-chain polysaccharides - fine for many people, hell for my kids). But I am generally happier with fermented soy products than non-fermented. I generally trust the cultures in which they are consumed - edamame is consumed in moderation in Japan, and fermented soy is used more commonly than non-fermented, and still in moderation (far more greens and grains than soy or meat) in both Japan and China.
Posted by: hedra | July 07, 2008 at 10:58 AM
My son is like this year round and I just don't worry about it. He hasn't starved yet. It's a bit tricky with daycare because he rarely eats anything but vegetables and the odd bit of fruit after 5:30, but we cope.
The key to me is to offer the highest-quality food when he's most interested, so we have hearty breakfasts including beans and veggies. Then we have healthy snacks available - fruit is ok, but we try to combine it with a glass of milk because it seems a little up and down.
He usually chooses to snack around 10 and again around 4 (and if we're home, this is when we get anything resembling an evening meal into him). Lunch is touch and go.
I'm really not into pushing the food though. I was a skinny kid, pushed to eat and eat, and then when my metabolism changed, wham, I had weight issues.
Posted by: Shandra | July 07, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Here are a couple tricks that have worked for us - we typically drive home from our morning activities around lunch time and have so much more success feeding the boys in the car (I know, there could be safety issues - my boys are 3 now and it works generally for us) on the way home rather than trying to feed them once they get home and are tired and floppy. This only works, though, when it is my husband and I (unless you got some great snack bags) so that he can drive and I can hand them stuff and monitor them. Things we eat in the car - chopped, cooked asparagus (cold), cold cooked carrots, spinach pie, garbonzo/kidney beans, left over salmon/chicken/meat (in very small pieces), air dried fruit (crunchy), mini muffins, chopped fruit conducive to finger food eating (blueberries are perfect for the car but chopped strawberries work great too).
As a pp mentioned, picnics are amazing, my boys love them!
Smoothies/homemade popsicles - you can definitely throw in some fresh spinach into the smoothies (probably the popsicles too although I haven't tried that yet) without it being noticed in the taste.
I found that my boys like their watermellon more if I slice it into wedges and let them eat it like "grown ups".
Posted by: Maureen | July 07, 2008 at 11:33 AM
My son seems to be like Julie's - hungry and grouchy, but damned if I can get him to eat. He's turning 2 this week. Till a few weeks ago he had a HUGE appetite, but now he's suddenly picking at his food and eating a quarter of what he used to eat. I'm focusing on one good protein per day (scrambled eggs or meatballs in tomato sauce), and offering up favorites for the rest (watermelon, red grapes, rice). But he's really gone off solids lately - he suddenly just wants to drink milk all day long (he drinks an enriched rice milk formula since he's allergic to dairy). Anyone else experiencing that? The big problem is since he's taking in so much less food during the day, there have been several times recently where he's woken up at 4:30 or 5 AM crying out for milk. He was sleeping through the night before so this is no fun. Any advice on how to handle this?
Posted by: Sonia | July 07, 2008 at 11:41 AM
I had a conversation recently with a friend of mine who is a doctor ... I was mentioning how little my 19 month old DD seems to eat, and she said, "I'll just reiterate what you've probably already heard. They live on air. Don't worry if she doesn't eat - she won't starve herself. She'll eat when she's hungry."
So, the phrase "they live on air" sustains me and keeps me sane when she'll only eat a few things and then run off to play, play, play.
Posted by: Erika | July 07, 2008 at 11:50 AM
@Sonia, any molars moving in there? My kids went off solids whenever their molars started to move - WAY before they started to ERUPT, just when the area of the jaw started to thicken out (broaden as the tooth neared the top of the bone), often in cycles of a few weeks at a go. Otherwise, I'd consider the 'not eating while growing' option (grouchy, not eating, lethargic - but not grouchy or lethargic because not eating, instead grouchy and lethargic because growing, and also not eating because growing). Liquid diet was the norm for the kids who did that.
Good luck! It was usually over in 2 weeks regardless of tooth or growth issue.
Posted by: hedra | July 07, 2008 at 12:00 PM
My 19 month old is a popsicle FIEND (from the moment he wakes up, if he's not working up another rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle" he's yelling "pockizle! pockizle!") I had been making them with watered-down apple juice, but then figured I'd take advantage of the situation by making carrot juice and OJ popsicles, and also beet-spinach-carrot-apple popsicles. There were some good fruit-veg juice blends at our Whole Foods and my mother reports that V8 has some new fruit-veg blends out too. This is especially satisfying to me as he's gone on a general vegetable strike. (Melon is still quite popular, however, so I'm hoping that will be good for now...)
Posted by: Emily | July 07, 2008 at 12:14 PM
Also, he loves the frozen bananas. You can either blend them with some milk for banana "ice cream" or "milk shake" depending on how much milk you use, or chop them into small pieces and use as finger food.
Posted by: Emily | July 07, 2008 at 12:24 PM
I second sue's comment about frozen peas. I loved these when I was little (they taste like candy to me!), and my 16 month old seems to love them, too.
Also cold pasta often works for us. Or simply letting her meals cool off until they are not warm at all. Definitely yogurt, applesauce and cheese, too.
@Sonia - I second hedra on this. Sounds like bad teething, probably molars. We have been going through it off and on for a few months now. Good luck.
Posted by: caramama | July 07, 2008 at 12:27 PM
We use lots of props while we eat too. I don't ask him if he's hungry, but I say "Do you think your Thomas train is hungry? I made him some chicken nuggets. Would you help him eat some please?" and then he will climb into his high chair and feed Thomas (and himself). Had I just said "Hey....let's have some dinner" he would have said, "No thanks. I don't want any."
Posted by: Julie | July 07, 2008 at 12:36 PM
Thank you for this post!! I have been having the same troubles with the Bean and worried that he is just not getting enough to eat lately. He does occasionally have one big meal during a day, but more often will just graze all day long and have something small every few hours. Are some kids just born grazers???
Also, I wanted to say thanks, Hedra, for pointing out that growth spurts can often come with a decrease in appetite. I did not know that. I just took Bean to the doctor this morning for an ear check-up and was telling him that he has been a bit of a clingy, cranky mess for about a week and a half and that his appetite had totally fallen off. He suggested it was probably the teeth, but I also noticed yesterday that I no longer have to bend over to hold his hands when he walks. So I am thinking he has shot up and inch or two and this was all growth related. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Posted by: Beth | July 07, 2008 at 01:10 PM
Oh, yeah, we had a grape overload with our 20 month old this weekend, and it was not pretty. Please heed the poop warnings. While changing him after the incident, I hadn't heard him scream that much since he had his first set of shots.
Cheese and crackers is popular around here, as is watermelon and cold, sliced apples. Trader Joe's sunflower seed butter and jelly also is a good snack.
Posted by: Florabora | July 07, 2008 at 01:12 PM
Very California of me, but avocadoes are yummy in any weather and very nutritious. I used to make a real basic guacamole when Mouse was little--avocado, squirt of lime juice, dash of salt--and let her dip pretty much anything into it. My 4-yo has also eaten canned pinto or black beans straight out of the can (or the fridge if leftover) since she was really little.
@Julie, we used to do that a lot too--Mouse would have to feed a stuffed animal or a character in a book in order to get past that "oh, eating!" moment hedra talks about. She would offer a couple bites to the animal and then they would start going into her mouth. Worked especially well in the 20-24 month range, I think.
Posted by: Charisse | July 07, 2008 at 01:23 PM
Charisse, I've been fantasizing all day about making a smoothie with banana, avocado, honey, and almond. For myself, I mean.
Posted by: Moxie | July 07, 2008 at 01:49 PM
IIRC 2 was about exactly the age when my now 4-y-o stopped eating everything and started the picky, picky toddler habits, so I agree that this may be at least in part a normal developmental thing as opposed to a hot-weather thing.
As far as older kids: My 4-y-o will often eat once she's distracted and forgets to focus on not eating. This usually looks like me holding the quesadilla, sandwich or whatever it is, her talking to someone, and bites going in when she's listening. Another tactic that still works is pretending to be a crocodile, bear, or whatever animal eats a lot. She is also VERY motivated by getting a small treat, like a Dum-Dum lollipop or juice popsicle, if she eats enough. Another thing that she finds really, really fun is counting bites (for the adults, it's VERY tiresome, but it works).
Posted by: Shelley | July 07, 2008 at 02:02 PM
@Beth, any time. Frankly, our doctor didn't know it necessarily, either - but with the eldest it was utterly reliable. Eat a lot, stop eating but sleepy/lethargic and grumpy, followed in a few days by holy cow, when did these pants get so short??? (I recall reading a study that showed that children can and do 'shoot up overnight' - as much as 3/4 inch in a night, and faster growth at night than in the day, and sometimes several days of huge measurable growth in series, followed by totaly random-seeming smaller growth. (I got tired just reading the instructions the parents had to follow for calliper measurements of each segment of body, whole body, joints, etc., etc...). Oh, and not every part grew at the same rate, so the whole 'gets wider, then taller, then wider, then taller' thing that my eldest does is also not just observation bias of some sort. Anyway, our doc said, 'really? Huh. I trust your observation. So, growth spurt.' (B was more of a non-stop eat-and-sleep-more both before and during a growth spurt, and I'm sure there are many many variations.)
Posted by: hedra | July 07, 2008 at 02:13 PM
I think some may be because he's 2...they just seem to eat less and less, up until they hit a growth spurt.
We try to offer more fruits and veggies, and dry cereal (instead of salty snacks) during the warm months. Ravioli (with or without sauce) can be another way of getting in some protein and carbs and a little water (if the pasta isn't drained well). If you serve w/out sauce, you can let him eat with his fingers...adn we all know how fun finger food is! :)
Posted by: Colleen | July 07, 2008 at 02:17 PM
@Hedra & caramama - thanks so much for the input! I'll try to peek in DS's mouth to see what the teething situation is. I suspect you're right, because he just started tugging on his ears yesterday, and he always gets ear pain in conjunction with teething. Since he tends to teethe in loooong, dramatic, drawn-out fashion, we're in for a fun couple of weeks...or months. :-)
Posted by: Sonia | July 07, 2008 at 02:23 PM
Here are our best bets, though it varies a lot day by day:
cold tofu
edamame, peas, or corn, straight from the freezer.
steamed carrot sticks, cold. with chummus, sometimes.
cold noodles (whole wheat) or brown rice.
black beans or chick peas
avocado
cherry tomatoes
cheese, sliced thin off the block.
My son is 2 1/2. Most of these have been standbys for a very long time.
Steamed broccoli was a surefire hit for a while but not these days.
Posted by: emily | July 07, 2008 at 02:36 PM
@Julie, the Thomas thing works for my 3.5 year old too, although to be frank, I don't really need to prod him much to eat.
My 18 month old has finally gone back to wanting to eat and starting to experiment more although ( and I say this with my head bowed in embarassment)I still need to blend most things for her in order to eat them. Not stuff she likes though, like banana, bread, peaches and apricots which she eats directly from the fruit and most cold-cuts, but rice, pasta, vegetables. My ped said to go with the flow, let her lead and one day she'll want to eat big chunks. Anyway sorry, that was an aside. What I was trying to say is that my 18 month old has always been a finicky eater, and has always been particularly bad during growth spurts/developmental spurts where you just couldn't get anything into her except breastmilk, so I agree with some of the earlier posters that it may be a growth thing rather than a weather thing.
As for suggestions for what to offer in the summer months, I can't be of much help as my elder son has a hot meal for dinner and lunch, unless he is out on an excursion or we go on a picnic and then its usually some sort of sandwich. I would love to be able to get something cold into him, apart form the usual fruit,but even when its 35 degress out there, he'll turn up his nose at a nice cool rice salad.Uff
Posted by: paola | July 07, 2008 at 02:50 PM
One more thing to add... we also find fun plates/cups/silverware - surprising how they notice those things before they go to the table and are more motivated to get there and start eating. We found these AWESOME construction themed utensil set (fork, spoon and this great bulldozer "pusher"). They love every time we bring those out. I have a set of kids' chopsticks to bring out the next time we need to change things up.
Posted by: maureen | July 07, 2008 at 02:55 PM
@Moxie, wow, that sounds good! I never think of sweet avocado stuff although my favorite ice cream place offers avocado ice cream that's very popular...
Posted by: Charisse | July 07, 2008 at 02:55 PM
Here's another tip. Have your child make a fist, that's the size of his tummy. Now you have a reference. I agree, children seem to live on air, and then have a growth spurt and eat you out of house and home.
Also, tall, my youngest has a touch of low blood sugar. As a wee one we absolutely used OJ as a gateway to eating. It raised his blood sugar and then he could feel that he was hungry. Without the OJ his stomach seemed to stop sending hunger messages and he was just grumpy and angry. As soon as he swallowed the juice we could count 1 minute or so and he would be himself again.
We also learned that children are grazers and seem to respond to many small meals a day rather than 3 larger ones. Once I knew that and realized how small their tummy really was, I became less worried.
Taller was a very picky eater and still is. We created small individual containers with one food type per container and allowed him to choose what sounded good to him. I never had to ask "what do you want to eat", only to hear "nothing". I just put all the containers out on the counter and he choose from my selections. This is very similar to Hedra's lunch tray idea, only I offered most meals this way in the heat.
I would leave the food out like they did at their Montessori school. I told the kids that the containers were being left out for 20 minutes and they could go back and forth and have as much or as little as they like. Then I would put the food away and post a sign with the time when the next snack would appear. This worked well, and reduced whining for more food.
Tall and taller both loved dip sauces, and that was the key to getting them to eat a ton of stuff. When they got a little older 3 or 4 I would let them pick one sauce at the grocery and experiment with it. There were many disasters, but many others worked beautifully and I would have never known that taller like spicy stuff if we hadn't tried.
Posted by: Sharon aka Mommie Mentor | July 07, 2008 at 03:56 PM
My 18 month old has been doing this, but it seems that Hedra is right again. All the sudden she has outgrown another size of clothing. Seems like the better eating in the morning thing pretty well holds true for her, too. Not that she never eats in the evening, but if she's going to skip eating, it's always later in the day. Otherwise, I'm just gonna lurk here and gather up the cool food ideas. I'm glad someone mentioned avocados, I had forgotten them for some reason!
Posted by: hydrogeek | July 07, 2008 at 05:09 PM
I think I saw this a few times when perusing the comments - but it is worth mentioning again - FROZEN PEAS. My kids (1, 4 and 6) LOVE them. Sometimes they just have them as a snack, sometimes with a meal.
Other warm weather favorites:
watermelon
homemade ice pops - with watered down juice and pureed berries, or frozen smoothies
pasta salad made with small ring pasta - with tuna or chicken and peas
When I was young, we always had sandwiches and chocolate milk for supper whenever it was hot (usually picnic style in the cool basement). Now whenever it gets above ninety, I just crave chocolate milk!
Posted by: Missy | July 07, 2008 at 05:10 PM
If he is a good veggie eater and likes tomatoes, you might want to look at a gazpacho recipe. Also how about cold chicken salads, cold bean salads (I guess cut so they are not a choking hazard). The Super Baby Food book has a lot of amazing, nutrient packed recipes.
Posted by: Chabelamarie | July 07, 2008 at 08:25 PM
am i the only one who thinks that natural/organic ice cream is perfectly acceptable for a great way to get some dairy and fruit (and, oh, who am i kidding, chocolate) into them when it's hot? or cold, for that matter? :)
mmmm...ice cream...
seriously, i also love making smoothies in the summer, and you can hide all sorts of healthy stuff in there...
mmmm...smoothies....i am so hungry!
Posted by: pnuts mama | July 07, 2008 at 08:45 PM
@pnuts mama, heck no you are not the only one!
Posted by: Charisse | July 07, 2008 at 09:49 PM
The frozen peas and popsicle idea sounds great! Is 13 months too young for frozen peas? What age can you start giving a toddler items like that? I guess I can see popsicles being ok, just messy, right?
Posted by: BabyBrady | July 07, 2008 at 10:00 PM
Cold noodles with sesame, cold noodles with pesto, shrimp cocktail...these were (and still are) big hits with my son (now six) on hot days when he "wasn't hunnnnnngry"
Posted by: liz | July 07, 2008 at 10:55 PM
@BabyBrady, at 13 months, I'd allow the frozen peas to thaw slightly and possibly squash them a bit with a fork (still cold, but not rocks), and watch for chewing skill and mouth stuffing or other function skill while trying them out (and after, really - I don't trust kids to not choke until 3 years old or so, and even then I still have twinges). Kind of watch like a hawk, really, though often peripheral vision (my kids won't eat if watched too much - it is then 'why is she watching? I wonder if she'll watch if I throw this?').
Granted, M choked at somewhere around that age because she was so enthusiastic about the self-feeding. Choked twice in a few minutes, at that (canned peaches, chopped - firm AND slippery, ACK!). (She got mad that I was fishing her food out of her mouth after ejecting it from her throat, clearly thought I was stealing it, grabbed it fast and shoved it back in and... choked again. AAAHHH! Fortunately I'd had infant/child CPR training literally the week before. Oy. However, she has not choked since, at all. I highly recommend taking the infant/child CPR course if you're as worried about choking as I am/was, because it helps provide a 'what to do' for the other end of the anxiety spike! I was utterly calm through both choking incidents, which was helpful all around.)
Posted by: hedra | July 08, 2008 at 08:22 AM
@Hedra - Thank you! I thought it might be possible to give the boy frozen peas but did think he might be too little. I am very weird when it comes to the food size the little one gets. I know I chop his food way too small but I am terrified he will choke. He doesn't do the face stuff yet, he still eats little bits at a time.
Posted by: BabyBrady | July 08, 2008 at 08:59 AM
I hear ya on the choking terror. M used to get SO mad at me for 'popping' all her peas by mashing them with the fork... but, um, yeah. My issue. My best bet was working as hard as possible to help them develop the skills needed for safer chewing, and keeping me as able to help in a crisis as possible. Doesn't help that a friend of mine had her neighbor's young daughter die of hot-dog choking in her arms (HER hot-dog was sliced lengthwise twice for safety, but her big brother's was not, and she grabbed his...)... You don't really have to know many of those stories to have them set up hard in the parental anxiety center.
Definitely try one of the safe feeders if you think it is at all possible. It does help for the chewing skill, and reduces the parental stress a lot. (Not that it helped entirely for M, either, but it was a definite improvement!)
Posted by: hedra | July 08, 2008 at 09:40 AM