Welcome to The 10 tips Series – where Tina Gray {dot} Me readers and myself will share with you what we know. Scroll right to the bottom to find out how you can submit your own 10 tips.
In this post, Di shares her 10 tips for making dinner time easier with young kids…
Whenever I catch up with other mums, we invariably end up talking about our kids’ eating habits and the trials of dinnertime.
I’m not a dietician or an expert in child nutrition but I am a mother of four year’s experience who faces the challenge every day.
I rely on these tips to make “feeding time at the zoo” easier on me.
- Cook ahead and reheat at mealtime. If I have to start cooking dinner from scratch at dinner time, I quickly lose control of the night. I try to cook or prepare as much of the meal ahead of time and then only defrost/reheat and blanch vegetables at dinner time.
- Have an evening schedule and stick to it. Sounds obvious but having a regular routine keeps both me and my daughter on track. At 5pm I run the bath and get her washed. Meanwhile any heating up/cooking happens. By 5.45pm she’s in pyjamas eating dinner and [hopefully] in bed at 7pm for stories. Find an evening routine that works for you and your kids.
- Set the table. Young kids love to help mum out. Setting the table is an easy job for them to do unaided and also ensures that the table is clear and ready for them to sit down and eat.
- Turn off the TV. Kids won’t concentrate on eating if their favourite TV show is on.
- Sit down with your child while they eat. Sometimes I’m too busy working on the grown up dinner to sit down with my daughter while she eats – and it’s those days that she plays with her food. Sitting down with her seems to encourage my daughter to eat all her dinner up.
- Know their favourite meals and draw up a weekly/fortnightly menu plan. A weekly/fortnightly menu plan will not only solve the ‘What am I going to give them for dinner tonight’ problem, it also means you’ll have the ingredients in the cupboard/freezer. Some of the favourites at our house include fish fingers, sausages, broccoli, raw carrot sticks, porcupine meatballs, pasta, gnocchi, risotto, macaroni cheese and ‘special chicken’ (homemade nuggets). Review it every couple of months to include some new meal favourites.
- Don’t overload the plate. Young kids don’t have huge stomachs. A small helping of food won’t overwhelm timid eaters and helps educate kids about healthy portion sizes. They can always ask for more. When portioning food for freezing, I use a muffin tray lined with small freezer bags.
- Serve up a little of their favourite bit and the vegetables you really want them to eat first. All too often my daughter has gobbled up her favourite part of the meal to leave the vegetables languishing on the side of the plate and announcing that she’s too full. Now I give her a little of her favourite part with the vegetables first. When she finishes this I give her some more of her favourite.
- Make it fun. Not everyone is a food stylist at Donna Hay Kids magazine but there’s a couple of simple things you can do make food look more interesting/fun on the plate.
- Use colourful plates or napkins.
- Serve food in little noodle bowls.
- Put sauce in a dipping bowl.
- Arrange broccoli florets around the edge of the bowl.
- Put a straw in their water cup.
- Draw a smiley face or flower with a squeezy bottle of tomato sauce.
- Put food onto a skewer.
10. Accept that some days they just won’t eat. Kids will be kids. Some days they’re just not interested in eating and that’s OK. Don’t worry about it. When they’re hungry, they’ll let you know.
About Di - Di Nolan is an aspiring domestic goddess who is mastering the art of baking, motherhood and a happy home over at her blog Life is Di-licious. It isn’t a fairytale but every day seems to end with a happy ending.
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If you are interested in submitting a post for The 10 Tips series, please get in touch – tinagray.me@gmail.com
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