Five new foods

Rena has been a pretty picky eater for the past couple of years. She was great with the baby food and tried all kinds of new foods as a toddler, but then she suddenly got picky and only eats a few things. Her usual meals consist of plain pasta, hot dogs, quesadillas, tacos, and a couple other things. She does eat most fruit and still loves to drink her milk, so that is something. But she hates to try any new food, which includes she ate as a toddler but won't eat now! I grew up eating all kinds of food and am not a picky eater at all, so this has been frustrating for me that my kiddo doesn't try new foods. So I've been on a mission lately to get Rena to try new things. Partly because she's home more and we can't pick up Chick-fil-A for lunch everyday, but also because she's starting kindergarten in the fall and I really need to pack a variety of foods in her lunches. So we came up with an "incentive" program to get Rena to try new foods. Whenever she tries a new food I record it on a little post-it note and when she's tried 5 things she gets to pick out a new small toy like a coloring book, little Barbie figurine, craft, etc.

I first started this last summer and it didn't go so well. She didn't care at all about getting a new toy and would literally scream every time I even asked her to try something! So we kind of gave up on that plan once she started school but I decided it wouldn't hurt to try it again last month. And somehow she is doing great this time around! She was a little hesitant at first but the plan has slowly worked and she's trying new foods almost daily! She gets so excited about adding a new food to the post-it note and we discuss whether she likes it or not. She only has to take one bite (and not spit it out!) for the food to go on the list. And I'm happy to say that she usually ends up liking the food and will ask for more. And now she doesn't even seem to care about getting the new toy! She is asking to try foods on her own and is very interested in what we are eating now. Before she would freak out if she saw something new, but now she is very curious and will usually ask to taste it. I knew we had a major victory when we went to Pei Wei last weekend and Rena asked to try the chicken lo mein without any prompting. She used to love the lo mein when she was younger but for the past couple years she would just eat plain rice and a chocolate chip cookie at Pei Wei. She ate over half of the lo mein (the kids meal is a huge serving!) and some plain rice too. I was sooo excited about this! Others might find this silly but when your kid is a picky eater and suddenly starts eating more than 5 things, it's a HUGE deal! :)  And just this week she tried some cucumber! She didn't love it but I was still happy she tried something green and healthly after a very long time!! I'm very proud of Rena... and of myself too for pushing through this even when I wanted to give up and just give her another hot dog. ;)

 

I aim to have relatively healthy foods on the list, but any new food she tries goes on the list! She tried a fruit roll-up at a friend's house and was very proud of herself :) And after almost two years she is eating mac n cheese and deli meat again! She still won't eat bread but hopefully she will soon so I can pack sandwiches in her lunch!

Rena trying a Chobani greek yogurt for the first time. I got her the vanilla chocolate chip flavor and she really liked it!

Rena now loves Target popcorn! She had never tried it until recently and now she asks to get it every time we go...which is like twice a week ha! Not the healthiest snack...but at least mommy has someone to split the big bag with now!! ;)