Commuter Mom: Alternative Dining

My daughter would snack all day if we let her. I have no idea how she makes it through the day at child care, because on the weekends she says she is hungry every 10 minutes. By the time a legitimate meal time rolls around she is really only hungry for snack-size portions. It isn’t always junk food, but it goes on all day. I usually say no, but maybe she really is hungry; and to be quite honest, I get tired of saying no.

I’m trying to get her to eat more at mealtime in the hopes that it will help us to cut down on the request for snacks. This has proven to be more of a challenge than I thought it would/should be. My husband and I have resorted to every trick we can think of:
• The contest - “You better eat that before I get it!”
• The negotiation - “Eat three more bites of your chicken and then you can have any fruit you want.”
• The race - “I bet I can finish my bite of food before you can.”
• The location change – “Let’s have a picnic in the living room.”

But, what has worked best, so far? Straws and toothpicks. We can get her to drink 2 full glasses of juice, milk, or water as long as she has a straw (she gets to choose which color). And, give the girl a “toothstick” (toothpick) and she’ll eat 2 entire fish sticks plus her carrots and strawberries without much encouragement at all.

Apparently, toothpicks were first used in Brazil. But I would like to thank Charles Forster, who in the 1870s began manufacturing toothpicks in the US and revolutionized dinner time at my house.