Melody's Eating Habits — Pink Glitter Pumpkins

I have contemplated making posts about things such as this one. I am always afraid of the criticism that may come with it. For whatever reason, many parents feel the need to criticize one another. I don't think I ever truly realized that until I became a parent myself. [I mentioned mom shaming in a previous post about my first year as a mother.]

So one of the things we struggle with when it comes to Melody is her eating habits. Unfortunately she doesn't have the best ones. This isn't from a lack of trying on our part, but she is much like her daddy and is fairly picky. I hear that is common with most toddlers, but some people would say what I feed Melody is unacceptable. Well if you are going to think such things, you might as well not read any further. Otherwise, enjoy 8-)

Breakfast

Breakfast is one of our easier meals. She will eat just about anything I give her for breakfast. A lot of times I feed her whatever I am eating.

4 oz. of milk followed by water

Then one or two of the following:

Gerber Cereal Bars [apple cinnamon is her favorite]
Pop-Tarts [Strawberry or Brown Sugar Cinnamon]
Oatmeal
Toaster Strudel [Cinnamon Roll or Strawberry]
Donuts [Powdered or Cinnamon]
Buttered Toast
Bacon and Egg Yolks
Chocolate Gravy and Biscuits
Cheerios and Fruit Loops
Yogurt

Lunch

Lunch is the most difficult meal of the day. I think it is because Melody is super picky outside of breakfast, and lunch isn't as well planned. I am also dealing with Melody on my own typically. The lunch foods I can get her to consistently eat require a lot of prep too, and Melody doesn't like to wait when she sees food being prepared!

She will usually eat some combination of the following for lunch unless we go out to eat. If we go out to eat, I usually will order something for myself that she can eat too, or I will bring her some sort of food such as applesauce or yogurt with puffs. We have recently started ordering her kid's meals if we go somewhere that we know she will eat what we buy (or if kids eat free/cheap).

4 oz. of milk followed by water

And two or three of the following:

Chicken Nuggets [has to be baked or fried; microwave won't cut it]
Nutella Sandwich [yea, I know; it's nothing more than a chocolate sandwich, but it is the only way she will get peanuts in her system]
Egg Salad Sandwich [made with egg yolk only]
Cheese Ravioli with Marinara Sauce [she likes the Costco brand that comes frozen]
Plain crackers
Chips [she loves just about any...cheetos, plain, tortilla, etc.]
Mashed Potatoes
Baked Potato
French Fries/Tater Tots
Applesauce
Yogurt
Cheez-It/Goldfish

Above are things she will always eat without any argument. She may not eat a lot of it, but she will eat some. I have to be careful and be sure to give her the "main" food first. If she gets the applesauce or tater tots first, she will never eat anything else. I try other things too. But we usually resort back to what we know she will eat. For instance, I have tried grilled cheese, various forms of peanut butter sandwiches, grilled chicken, frozen pizza, tuna salad, chicken salad, peanut butter crackers, and I am sure many more things. She is just super picky. I re-attmept things once-twice a week, but I often fail.

Dinner

Dinner is a whole other ballgame. We always try and make Melody attempt to eat what we are eating for dinner. Exceptions to this are things that are too spicy, provide too much of a choking hazard, or things we absolutely know she will refuse to eat. Even in some of those cases, we try to make her eat it in some sort of way. Some examples: [spicy] grilled chicken with various spices - we cut of the top layer of chicken and feed her very little spice; [choking hazard] hotdogs - we slice into small enough pieces she won't choke; [refusal to eat] hamburger - we attempt it anyways. If we know we are cooking something she won't eat (or we think she won't eat), I will make her something from her liked lunches above.

Right now we only give her water at dinner. When we start to break her from her nighttime bottle, I will give her milk at dinner as a supplement. Below are some of the dinners we have had that we attempted to feed Melody. Some were semi-successful, others not so much.

Spaghetti - hit or miss
Pork Chops - no success
Various forms of chicken - if it isn't baked/fried she won't eat it
Chicken Enchiladas - successful
Lasagna - no success
Mac and Cheese - no success
Sweet Potatoes - no success
Ribs - successful [BBQ, not dry rub/spicy]
Potato Salad - no success
Green Beans - hit or miss
Hotdogs - success
Spring Rolls - hot or miss
Cornbread - unsuccessful
Fried Shrimp - successful
Crab - hit or miss

Snacks/Desserts

Melody loves to snack almost as much as she likes dessert. I give her some sort of snack each day in the afternoon. It is usually something that we can put in these Munchkin Treat Cups we found at Target. I like it because it doesn't require her highchair, and she can eat it wherever I am if she wants. Desserts are uncommon for her. She usually only gets desserts at her grandparents' house, on nights she has to sit in her highchair longer than usual (my treat to her), or nights we spend with friends when one of us provides a dessert anyhow.

Cheez-Its [usually gripz]
Goldfish
Plain Crackers
Gerber Puffs
Graham Crackers [whole or gripz]
Rice Rusks
Animal Crackers
Ice Cream [most flavors]
Blue Bell Ice Cream Cones
Donuts
Chocolate Chip Cookies [gripz]
Gerber Cookies
Cake

Restaurants

Lastly, I wanted to give you some intel on what restaurants she likes. We eat anywhere we want, but nowadays I do like to think about her and what she may actually eat at said restaurant.