Appealing to the taste of my son

October 17, 2008

One of my friend is concerned about how much his son eats. It seems that toddler eats very little and I read that it is normal for toddler to eat very little. At the age of 3, my son is not eating much either. It is very little compared to the diet of an adult.

I used to be worried about how much he eats, now I am used to the fact that he will eat only 3 pieces of chicken nuggets together with a handful of fruit loops for lunch and a small plate of macroni cheese for dinner. Sometimes he even skip a meal but he will ask for food at a later time. That's something good. At 3, he is able to tell me he is hungry and I will just feed him. Another friend of mine commented that his doctor advise that as long as children below 5 drink lots of milk, they are ok. A medical and parenting web site suggest giving enough milk at 16 oz per day. Normally, I just feed my son 2 cups of milk per day. And it's vitamin D milk. The web site suggest changing vitamin D milk to 2% reduced fat milk for kids turning 2 or 3. I discussed with my wife and we decided to stick to vitamin D milk as we are worried that my son is not taking enough fat. She says he needs the fat.

Other food that I feed my son per serving includes two lengths of sausage with a handful of rice ( I would boil the sausage to remove the sodium) or two pieces of egg white (he hates egg yolk) or one scrambled egg with handful of rice (he eats the egg yolk here) or a bowl of cut corn or a couple of oreos/biscuits or a bowl of cereals (fruit loops/frosted flakes/applejacks etc) with milk or a slice of pizza or a slice of bread with spread.

I am also concerned with the quality of the food that my son eats. Besides making sure that he has enough calcium for his bones (that's why he needs milk) , I am trying my best to make sure that he takes enough iron (important for making the red blood cells). He gets his iron from the bread. Sometimes from ice-cream. Some iron from the macaroni and cheese. Some from the cereals. The cereals and bread is nutritious with lots of vitamins and trace elements. He is getting the vitamin C from the orange juice and the chewable ascorbic acid tablet.

One of my friend's daughter is already eating meals together with the family and she eats what they eat. But my son does not. He is a picky eater. Maybe it is because he is not eating together with us ( We feed him before or after we eat) . I tried to introduce new food to him but as long as he does not like it, he doesn't eat. So the advice from one of our friends is true, appeal to his taste.

Maybe I am too worried. My mom who knew not too much about nutrition also raised me successfully. Except for my high cholesterol, I am quite healthy. I guess we live by faith. How much of the food that we eat gets broken down and assimilated and used in cell building as we know in microbiology is not within the control of any human being. We live by faith that what we eat is being used for the benefit of the body. Besides offering the best food that we have for our son, we live by faith that he will be healthy boy in days to come.