Feeding time at the Zoo

It’s 5pm at my place… cue craziness, mess, screams and tears. Oh, and feeding time!

When the time approaches, I almost have to gear myself up… “let’s do this”, “the countdown is on” – as I fist pump the air. If I go in with an already defeated attitude, or I am tired (which is often the case) – I can tell you now, feeding time will be a complete flop.

So, here are my personal tips to make it more enjoyable for everyone:

Preparation. Having pre-prepared meals in the freezer is a god send. Often I will make a batch of soup (a fam favourite) and measure portions into freezer bags. I cheat a little sometimes with bags of steam fresh frozen vegetables – the perfect combination and size for a toddler or two. 90 seconds in the microwave and voila, they are good to go.
Variety. Check out @easytoddlerfood on Instagram – some great healthy meal suggestions for toddlers. I always offer ‘variety on a plate’; chicken, carrot and cucumber sticks or pasta, broccoli and blueberries, for example. Colour and variety make the meal look more appealing and therefore excites them to dig in.
No options. At my house, you eat the dinner that’s provided or you go without. Ruthless hey? Well, in the past I was known to make up to five different meals on request with none of them being eaten. Almost became a little game and drove me mental – not to mention, wasted a lot of food. I put my foot down after that and decided dinner would be offered once, and that’s it.
Rewards. My two year old is just coming to the age where he understands “rewards”. His current obsession is blueberries. So I’ll show him I have a little handful of them, and for every mouthful he eats of his meal he will get a blueberry. He gets excited for his rewards and it works, most of the time. You can mix it up with your child’s favourite food or even something like a sticker.
Baby Led Weaning (BLW). This simply means, self feeding. BLW is all about exploring, experiencing and enjoying nutritious meals with the family from around six months. My first born never experienced this until much later, he was spoon fed mash. However, my daughter will eat anything from pasta, steamed vegetables, sushi rolls and lamb cutlets, all off her tray and all with no teeth. It makes dinner time more enjoyable as I can give the two kids similar food. Although a messy affair it’s a saviour for your time and sanity.
Cleaning. Don’t stress if the kitchen is a mess or their is food spattered over the ground. I would suggest waiting until everyone is done and dusted before starting the cleaning routine. As mentioned above, BLW is messy! Food is smeared into the side of the highchair, the floor, clothes and hands. You almost want to take them outside and hose them off, but that would be cruel right? My advice would be, get an easy-to-clean highchair (we have the Ikea Antilop), put a drop sheet underneath said messy child and get a dog!

Below are two recipes that may help you. The first one, Zucchini Slice is a great one for BLW and the second, Breakfast Smoothie, is a great option for the fussy toddler.

Zucchini Slice

Ingredients:

2 zucchinis, grated
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 rashes of bacon, finely chopped
1 cup tasty cheese, grated
1 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup of oil
5 eggs
salt & pepper

Method:

Preheat oven to 170 degrees.
Grease and line a non-stick lamington tin.
Combine zucchini, onion, bacon, flour and cheese in a large bowl.
Add oil and lightly beaten eggs, and mix. Season with a little salt and pepper. Pour into lamington tin.
Bake for 35-40 mins until golden and set. Allow to cool slightly before cutting.

Note: the vegetables can be substituted or added to – try corn kernels, grated carrot, shallots, shredded beans, and leave out the bacon for a vegetarian option.

Breakfast Smoothie

(can be consumed any time of the day)

1 Banana
Handful of fresh or frozen berries
3 scoops of Greek Yoghurt
Sprinkling of Chia Seeds
Milk
Squirt of honey
A small handful of Weetbix

What tips and tricks can you share with us that you’ve found work in making feeding times calmer at your house? Please leave what works for you in the comments below.

Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

41 Comments

- - priyachirag said
  - 19 Jan 2015
    2:15 pm
Agree with the offer only option because then children get confused with all the mixed messages.

- - keeleynme said
  - 03 Jan 2015
    11:38 am
Agree with the eat what your given or miss out, I also used to have a fussy child
- mom94125 replied
  
  19 Oct 2015 , 2:11 pm
  yeah that is it hey, too many battles otherwise.
- - mom115364 said
  - 01 Jan 2015
    11:22 pm
I’ve only got the one baby – 7 months old now – and meal times are a breeze with BLW. He eats what we eat (or a moderately modified version). This means no extra prep and we can eat a meal properly together as a family instead of faffing around with spoon feeding mush.
- mom57522 replied
  
  31 Jan 2015 , 11:40 pm
  You’re off to a great start!
- - mom73211 said
  - 31 Dec 2014
    8:55 pm
Balancing twins at mealtimes will always be hard but I learnt that if you have something of their liking once they’ve eaten half of the meal they get their preferred item, usually a piece of fruit or cheese. Yes blackmail but it works

- - mom93821 said
  - 25 Dec 2014
    9:23 pm
Thanks for sharing this interesting article; meal times are such a big part of every day.

- - mom57522 said
  - 24 Dec 2014
    11:30 pm
I love being prepared as much as I can towards dinner time and I only ever make one meal.

- - stepmom107932 said
  - 19 Dec 2014
    4:37 pm
It certainly sounds like a zoo hahaha dinner is pretty simple at our house with 1 child

- - Lov'n'Life said
  - 16 Dec 2014
    9:02 pm
My babies have all ate what my husband and I eat and my kids still eat everything they are given

- - kellstar said
  - 12 Dec 2014
    9:54 am
I wish my daughter would eat what we eat. I try to give her just a bit to try but it ALWAYS ends up thrown on the floor & she is almost 3.

- - deangunna said
  - 12 Dec 2014
    12:14 am
5pm onwards till bedtime is normally a bad time for my children…………….

- - mom94125 said
  - 11 Dec 2014
    11:29 pm
i think that this is a great article. nice recipe suggestions

- - crystalangela said
  - 11 Dec 2014
    10:42 pm
I’m sorry but I hate the messy eating with hands and throwing it around.
I fed with a spoon and then let them do the same.
I don’t eat with my hands (mostly) and neither should the kids.
I agree with giving them options on their plate and only offering one meal.
My kids still get that now when they are old enough to cook something different.
It’s about respecting the time and effort the cook (me or whoever) has put into the meal.

- - mom57808 said
  - 11 Dec 2014
    6:52 am
SOME VERY GOOD IDEAS

- - ella12 said
  - 10 Dec 2014
    2:59 pm
Great list of ideas and yummy recipes (-;

- - mom62990 said
  - 10 Dec 2014
    1:35 pm
I’m guilty of if you eat it all you can have a chocolate I once ate 4 fun size chocolates in front of my son to encourage him to eat he was not very happy with me but he did eat it all eventually

- - mom109463 said
  - 09 Dec 2014
    9:51 pm
This actually makes sense, our family doctor told my mother many years ago that no child has ever starved when food is available, so we only ever had what was served up, we were not forced to eat everything on our plates, we could leave the peas etc, but there was nothing else, no treats etc, I am one of four and we all grew up eating basically everything, like all kids we had fads but I am sure it made mums life easier, I had twins and used to feed them with the one spoon one bowl method that most twin mums use, but when my daughter came along she basically ate whatever was going, she never actually had blended food, I used to mash with a fork and she tolerated small lumps from a young age and was certainly a lot easier to feed as she became older, the twins were still choking on lumps at 1 year old, where she wouldn’t at 6 mnths, I think we have become a little precious about feeding our kids and we need to let them take the lead and we need to tolerate a bit of mess.
- meedee replied
  
  10 Dec 2014 , 12:54 pm
  I agree.
  My Mum was the same. We never had the rule of having to eat everything.
  My husband was the last child in his family and came along long after the others so his mother delighted in having another child and she indulged him.
  This caused issues when my youngest one decided to pull the “I dont like anything on my plate” trick. I responded with a calm ” Thats ok…if you dont want to eat it then you dont have to but there is nothing else” …..My husband ended up getting angry with me because our child was going to starve to death and then he would make her eggs. Shes 18 now and admits that whenever she felt like eggs she just said she didnt like what was served and sat there looking sad becasue she knew her Dad would make her eggs….ggrr
- - june11 said
  - 09 Dec 2014
    9:08 pm
If you have a dog sitting there even babies soon work out that if they drop the food over the edge the dog will eat it. You may have a laughing baby instead of eating until the novelty wears off. I personally would not give a baby that young solids to eat by hand. They could choke on it if not concentrating. You need to sitting next to your baby and paying very close attention. If you spoon feed a baby that young baby will gradually learn to spoon feed too.