My Kid Eats Better Than I Do!

Perhaps I sit alone in this boat, but my son's eating habits are far better than my own. And believe me, I am not complaining! When I got pregnant, I made the choice to really improve my nutrition for the sake of my growing baby. I breastfed as much as I could from birth up until he weaned himself at 13 months. When he began eating solids, I made my own baby food for him, and only fed him organic baby food/snacks with no additives/preservatives when I did store buy it occasionally. He didn't even taste refined sugar until he was around 1 year old (obviously with his b-day cake).

Now, as an 18 month old, his eating habits are inspiring. He's a bit thin due to his high activity level and low fat/sugar diet, but he's as healthy as they come, and is setting up great habits for life. For examples, he happily eats lettuce with no dressing. He loves to eat fresh tomatoes and cucumbers as finger food. Of course he indulges in french fries and less healthy foods occassionally when we are at a restaurant. Now, he'll sometimes turn down ice cream in favor of strawberries. It's remarkable to me, as I see other moms prying chicken nuggets out of their kids' fingers, and others stuffing them into them.

Here is a typical day of food for my little one.

• Breakfast- Cheerios or corn flakes and fresh fruit like strawberries, blueberries, and bananas


• Morning snack- crackers and/or more fruit


• Lunch- ham/turkey and cheese sandwich or roll-ups (piece of cheese rolled up in a meat slice)


• Afternoon snack- Gerber Yogurt Melts, whole grain Goldfish, or Cheerios


• Dinner- whatever we have, typically a meat, pasta (or other grain), and vegetables (asparagus are his favorite vegetable)


• Dessert- a few bites of ice cream or a couple small cookies, sometimes more fruit

To me, that diet sounds pretty healthy, especially compared to the diets of other 1 1/2 year olds that we meet here and there. People are always blown away as they watch him chomp happily into a slice of raw onion or scarf undressed salad. I don't know if he's just a healthy eater or if it all has to do with how I fed him as a younger baby. Either way, I like it! How do your kids eat?