A "Good Eater"?

Tonight Euna screamed bloody murder at one of her favourite meals, homemade tomato sauce and baby pasta. She did it last week too and I had put it down as a one-off. Now I'm thinking...

What the hell?

I want her to love food. I want her to experiment with food. I want her to visit a place and be excited to try a local dish. Food is one of life's greatest pleasures and I want her to open herself to it. Also before that I want us, as a family, to be open to it.

I don't want to be banished to McDonalds and Pizza Hut for the next 18 years just to please the kids. I want us to eat out as a family in local restaurants/pubs/cafes and find new food we love together.

So we started with "baby led weaning", 100% seduced by Gill Rapley's promise that we could make meal times enjoyable, food playtime. Is it working? Yes. I guess. I think so. She eats food. I don't really have a lot to compare it to?

Here are the "rules"I'm writing for us to get us all in to good habits...

1) Where ever and whenever possible we eat the same meal as a family.

2) We take her to eat out as regularly as we can find time and money. 

3) If she does not like something, she can fill up on fruit. She will not be cooked a second dinner.

4) I will keep offering her new foods. Aim for 2 new things a week. She doesn't have to finish it, she just has to try it.

5) Be flexible with these rules and do not allow them to dictate the success or failure of a mealtime. That's when food starts to become political. Food is fun, food is fun, food is fun. 

Some eating out fun...

Still enjoying January walks...

Fresh air induced snoozing...

I am quite sure our journey to becoming a "good eater" is only just beginning, the first step is recognising this is important to us and how we raise our children. Lessons will come later. 

I'm quite sure Lesson 1 will be "do not set rules, you only set yourself up..." but it's a process.