I'm a little bit worried about mothers who worry about their children not eating. Believe me, if they are hungry they will eat. If they are not hungry they will be picky and that is the worrisome part. A lot of weight problems in later life come from being encouraged to eat more than we need when we are little, and develop bad eating habits before we know it.
We try very hard to not pass our childhood food baggage on to Lily. Hubby & I were both products of "clean plate club" families, and we see the effect it has had on us. We take the approach that it is our job to put good food in front of her, and it is her job to eat it. We do have a house rule that she has to try one bite of each new food before she can say "no, thank you" to finishing it. We don't call food yucky, as that is rude and bad manners. I also give Lily veggies as her "appetizer" so she will eat them when she is the most hungry. I've also tuned in to which veggies she prefers cooked or raw. I'm not a short order cook, so she eats what we eat. If she decides that she just doesn't want to eat what has been fixes, I remind her that the next meal offered will be breakfast, and that is a long time after dinner. She gets to choose to eat or not, and she also gets to live with the consequence (being hungry) of her choice. She is almost 5 and has only chosen no dinner twice. She usually can find one thing on her plate she likes. We are lucky to have a child that will eat Thai, Italian, Mexican, etc. She's developed a sense of adventure by us encouraging just trying one bite.
I brined two turkey tenderloins overnight, and just roasted them. They are perfect - flavorful & juicy. I'll use them to make turkey & noodles (tons of veggies added), with leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
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