Georgia @ohshittwins
🦸🏿Motherhood & Womanhood
Mama to twins Ayanna & Azaria
Lover of binge watching shows & travelling 🗺️
My daughters are full blown toddlers which means two vocal little humans, especially around the food they want to eat. I’d say they’re OK eaters, but I would like them to eat more vegetables – I think most parents are in the same boat as me with this! I have found ways of hiding them as they’re going through a stage where they don’t like anything green… Only apples.
It was Ayanna that first started taking an interest in our ‘adult meals’ and would lean over and point ‘me please’. It then graduated to both Ayanna and Azaria pushing their plates away or stopping eating all together to taste what we were eating.
The full transition to family meals has been an interesting one as I’m cautious that not everything we eat is suitable for them. So if I’m cooking a Jamaican chicken curry for example, I take the girls’ portion out before adding scotch bonnets. Also the girls aren’t always great lovers of rice so I will sometimes give them noodles instead.
I have a few occasions where the girls just look at a meal and refuse to eat it, which can be frustrating – recently I’ve just started saying ‘OK, we will try again later’. I will take them out of their highchairs and majority of the time they will come back to it. Of course, this isn’t always practical, especially when we’re out where it seems that eating is the last thing on my daughters’ minds.
At home, I limit the amount of distractions for them, so no television while we’re eating, but when we’re out it, can be difficult to get them to focus. Also at home, I let the girls take all the time they need to finish their food. I’ve learnt the hard way not to take their plate away as soon as they say they’re finished. A few times they’ve gone back to have more of their food and I’d already thrown it away!
The hardest thing I have found so far is introducing new foods and being consistent when I’ve had a few refusals. It’s easier to stop because seeing the food just being wasted is painful. I have to admit I have not conquered this one. I do try to eat the new food I am trying to introduce to encourage them to try it, but I’ve read it can take up to ten tries before a child may try new food. So I have to stick it out. I’ve learnt to let go of wanting to see them finish everything on the plate – they won’t starve and they’ll eat and try things at their own pace.
