Last week we worked on the letter H. Fitting for Halloween! Here’s what we did.

The Letter H

Charcter – Honest, Helpful
Heaven – talked about it
Halloween – decorate pumpkins, made a bat, work party, boo at the zoo, made cookies, work party
Craft – we made Junior Asparagus and Laura (just for fun), we made a bat using Rebeccas Handprints
Bake – pumpkin cookies, Halloween cookies
memory verse – We are his people, the sheep of his pasture
KM assignment – made our shaker (last week’s assignment), this week – I’m an artist
food – hamburgers

Earlier this week I posted some information about what could be the cause of a picky eater. Now I’d like to give some tips on what to do about it. I’ll start with what the GAPS book suggests. And also give some ideas that have worked for us.

The main solution in the GAPS book is called Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)…in other words behavior modification. One step at a time get your child to change their behavior so that they can get the nourishment they need…which will in turn heal them and allow them to taste food normally and eat normally and stop the cravings for the bad stuff. Basically the child has to work for what they want…they have to try something new (the undesired food) before they can get the food they want. Most children are resistant at first, so it is tough on the parents. But over time it can really help. Children learn quickly 🙂  Start small…start the meal with trying one bite of a new food. And create a reward that goes along with it…a treat (a “safe” one…homemade baked good, crispy nuts, dried fruit) or even a toy (sticker, silly band, etc.). If the child eats the bite of food they get the reward…and LOTS of praise. That is key. If the child will not try the food…the reward isn’t good enough/isn’t worth it. Find a new reward. Gradually increase to 2, 3, 4, etc. bites of a new food. Keep trying this with a variety of foods. Try something new/eat the good stuff…get a reward. Over time the child will change their tastes and be eating a variety of healthy food. Be sure to give lots of praise and encouragement in the process. And don’t make a big fuss when it doesn’t work. Talk about the food with your child…how it nourishes them, how it’s grown/where it comes from, etc.

We have been somewhat doing this with Rebecca lately. With things like squash and eggs. We say she has to try just one bite. If she doesn’t like it, that’s fine. She just has to taste one bite, then she can eat the rest of her dinner…the stuff we know she likes. And so far it has gone well. Amazingly she is starting to like squash. Sometimes there will be a larger reward too…a special dessert at snack time if dinner goes well (if she chews well, etc.). Last night she ate her entire serving of squash! And she kept saying, “momma I like this.” Amazing.

Here are a few other things we’re trying.

1. Set a time limit on meals – Lately I’ve been showing Rebecca where the minute hand is on the clock. Then I tell her where it will be when meal time is over. Regardless of how much she has eaten, that’s when the meal is over. This helps encourage her to keep chewing/swallowing and not hold food in her mouth.

2. Play time – I tell her that if she eats faster (not necessarily a good idea for some kids, but for her it’s necessary) she will have more play time.

3. Hide food – I mix some of the foods she thinks she doesn’t like into things she does like. This helps give her a small taste of them (without knowing it). Then when she does try them on their own it’s not a foreign/gross taste. Lately for breakfast every day I serve Rebecca a mix of pumpkin, kefir, plain yogurt, 1 egg yolk and a little honey. Then I let her choose what we mix in – peanut butter, frozen blueberries, crispy nuts, granola or sometimes a few chocolate chips. I also make smoothies with some type of fruit, avocado, kefir, egg yolk and honey.

4. Thin it out – for a while Rebecca had major texture issues with thick/pureed soups. So I started adding a little water or broth to hers to thin it out. She loves brothy soups. So she’ll eat them that way. Again, she’s getting the taste of them…so now she’s starting to enjoy them without being thinned (like pea soup and squash soup).

5. Try a different form – Rebecca has always had issues chewing/swallowing eggs. But we’ve found she’ll eat them cooked like a thin tortilla (but gags on scrambled eggs). So I make that for her instead of scrambling them. Same food, just a different texture. Plus it’s more fun. She uses the tortilla to make little sandwiches with pesto, cheese and chicken.

6. Don’t ask/don’t tell – Sometimes it’s best to just not say anything. I just serve her some food and don’t tell her what’s in it (like if I mix avocado or something into a dish). And see what she does. If I tell her ahead of time that I’ve mixed something in she’s less likely to eat it.

7. Set a good example and share – You can’t expect your child to eat healthy if you don’t. So you have to eat what you want them to eat. If you are eating junk food and then say they can’t have it, it doesn’t work so well. I find it helpful that I share a lot of food with Rebecca…meaning I often take bites of what she’s eating/what’s on her plate. It’s actually quite funny. I’ll sneak a bite of her food and she’ll say “thank you for sharing, momma.” 🙂  She often offers me a bite of her food too. When we share she’s more likely to eat her food.

8. Bring on the broth – broth and stock are so nourishing and healing. Find ways to add it to your meals daily. I’m thankful that Rebecca loves chicken broth. She’ll drink it plain out of a cup. Or I just make random soup with whatever is in the fridge for her lunch. The chicken stock I make is so mild that I find I can use it in place of water in many things. I personally use chicken stock instead of water when I make my smoothies. I also mix it in with squash as a tasty snack or side dish. It works great in sauces (like sweet and sour sauce for stir fry). Be creative.

9. Make it fun – Rebecca loves using unique bowls, cups, straws, etc. So if I give her a cup of broth with a fun straw she’ll slurp it down. If I make a smoothie or pumpkin yogurt and use a fun spoon she thinks it’s great! Her breakfast is most often served in her Aerial cup with a Sebastian spoon 🙂  You can get creative and use all kinds of kitchen items to serve food. I sometimes use Rebecca’s play dishes (after making sure they’re clean 🙂 for her food. Or you can use muffin tins, misc. serving bowls, mugs, etc. Let your child pick the dishes and silverware. Make meal time fun.

If you have a picky eater I encourage you to try some of these tips and be sure to include lots of nourishing broth in their diet. And if you’re struggling to come up with snacks and meal ideas, here are some of our favorites. The recipes for most of them are on my recipe page.

Chicken noodle soup – Rebecca LOVES this – I use homemade whole wheat noodles in hers. And she uses a straw to drink the broth.
Egg tortillas – with a variety of fillings and dips (Rebecca loves homemade pesto and parmesan cheese)
Kefir smoothies
Yogurt/kefir with add-ins – egg yolk, honey, fresh or frozen fruit, nut butter, pumpkin, spices
Dried fruit – raisins and dried apples are Rebecca’s favorites
Fruit leather
Fresh or frozen fruit – Rebecca loves blueberries that are frozen…I guess they’re more fun that way 🙂
Any kind of pureed soup thinned with extra broth – add toppings to make it more fun (cheese, nuts, etc.)
Chicken nuggets – with homemade dips (honey mustard, honey, ketchup)
Veggies with dips – Rebecca likes to dip things in nut butter and pesto
Homemade graham crackers with nut butter
Crispy nuts
Salmon cakes or fish sticks with homemade tartar sauce
Hamburgers – you can mix in a variety of veggies – squash, pumpkin, avocado
Quiche
Nut butter bread or coconut flour bread
Homemade milkshakes
Chicken salad made with homemade mayo
Meatloaf – you can mix in a variety of veggies
Apple raisin bars
Homemade vanilla wafers

Do you have any tips for feeding a picky eater? Any favorite nourishing foods?

I hope you find some of these tips helpful. Remember to keep it fun, keep praising your child for the good things and be patient.

This post is linked to Fat Tuesday at Real Food Forager.

Last week we were pretty busy, so we didn’t do as many projects. But we still had fun. Here’s how it went.

The Letter G

Character – Giving, Gratitude – we talked a lot about what we are thankful for. And we went through Rebeca’s toy box and picked out a few things to give away.
Grandparents – we had to postpone our visit to my grandparents because we had colds, but we’ll do it this week.
Bible stories – Goliath, Gideon, God
Games – we did lots of games and puzzles this week.
Ghost – we made Rebecca’s stuffed animals into ghosts (temporarily :). She had fun playing with them.
Memory Verse – It is He who made us and we are his.
KM assignment – make a shaker/intsrument (we’ll be doing that today or tomorrow)
outings – Children’s Museum (Grocery shopping is Rebecca’s favorite thing there); Koetsiers; MOPS, Grassfields
greater than/less than – workbooks
lots of coloring
numbers/counting

 Vet

 Painting

 Doctor

Koetsiers

I read and re-read parts of the GAPS book all the time. I catch things I missed before. I refresh my memory. But one thing that stood out the very first time I read it was the part that talked about GAPS children having eating/chewing/texture issues. And immediately I thought of my daughter.

 Although she’s always been a good eater, we have struggled since she first started solids with her chewing. She would (and still does sometimes) gag on simple things like scrambled eggs and squash. 

Even as recently as a few weeks ago she puked up a mouthful of yogurt that she swallowed because I had mixed in a little pearsauce and she said it had “strings” and “chunks” in it. She has always had major issues with the texture of her food. And it is not uncommon for her to hold food in her mouth (in her cheek) for a long time…like holding a grape or a piece of meat in her cheek for 30+ minutes. Or even holding a wad of mushy chewed up food in her mouth for 5 minutes without swallowing it.

We have to tell her over and over to chew or swallow. It makes meal times very tough. I don’t want eating to be a battle. But sometimes I just can’t get her to chew/swallow her food and it gets very frustrating. She can spend an hour eating literally 3 bites of food…meaning she has food in her mouth the entire time but only manages to finish 3 bites.

I assumed she was just picky. But I think there is more to it than that. I know she got a messed up gut from me. Which could be the cause. Here are a few snippets of what the GAPS book says about GAPS children.

“Some cannot chew properly and hold food in their mouth for a long time or try to swallow it in a lump.”

“[There] is a distorted sensory input. The taste buds in their mouth receive the information about food, which gets passed to the brain. A GAPS brain is clogged with toxicity and cannot process this information properly. As a result, to these people the food can taste completely different to what it should taste like. The taste, texture and feeling of food can be quite offensive to them.”

“[There] is a craving for sweet starchy foods that is typical of all people with abnormal gut flora. No matter how finicky…most of them would accept sugary drinks, biscuits, cakes, sweets,…white bread.”

“A human mouth is home for a large population of microbes which normally protect the mouth…GAPS children often have a very abnormal bacterial flora in their mouths…The activity of this abnormal flora produces a lot of toxins, which are stored in the mucous membranes of the mouth and alter the functioning of the taste buds, saliva glands and other structures. This also causes a chronic inflammation in the mucous membranes, making it a target for the immune system. As a result many GAPS patients have bad breath, very red lips and mouth, various spots and ulcers on the cheeks and a coated furry tongue. Many foods like raw fruit and vegetables, herbs, uncooked nuts and seeds, cold pressed oils and other foods have strong detoxifying substances, which bind to the toxins in the mouth trying to remove them. This can feel far from nice, ranging from stinging, itching and burning to simply an unpleasant taste. And these are often the foods GAPS patients will not accept.”

“In some cases [there is] an inability of the toxic brain to orchestrate normal movements of the muscles in the mouth, tongue and other structures involved in chewing and swallowing. Foods have to be very soft for [these patients] and they very often vomit.”

Turns out that the foods I think are so easy to eat/chew may actually taste very odd/funny to her. No wonder she can eat starchy foods without problems (very frustrating for it to take her 30 minutes to eat one grape but have her scarf down a pile of pretzels in a minute).

It may also be why she has always needed to drink so much milk when she eats. She drinks with almost every bite of food she takes…even before she has finished chewing/swallowing half of the time. It’s like she just can’t do it without milk. Even with liquidy things like yogurt or ice cream. She still guzzles milk after every bite. I’m not sure if it’s because the food tastes bad or there is a funny feeling in her mouth or what. And she does not like any amount of spice in her food. She likes salt, but that’s about it.

I’m happy to say that we have made some progress in her food choices/aversions. I have been trying to make a point of getting broth in her diet more regularly and cutting back on grains. Now she is starting to request butter on veggies and bread (she wouldn’t eat things with it before).

She will happily drink a cup of broth with her meal (she LOVES brothy soup). Thankfully she has always liked broth. She especially likes it in a cup with a fun straw 🙂  She now likes pea soup (before she would gag on one tiny bite…literally puke it up) and will eat a whole bowl. She has tried a couple varieties of squash recently and said she liked them. Surprisingly she liked spaghetti squash the best (this is the girl who doesn’t like strings :P). She only eats a few bites of it, but still huge progress from crying about having to try it and practically puking it up.

We’re still working on eggs. She will eat some forms now. She couldn’t eat raw/hard foods for a long time becaise she just would not/could not chew them and would either almost choke on them or just hold them in her mouth. Now she loves raw peppers, nuts, grapes, apples, etc.

We are starting a cow share soon, and I am hoping that using raw milk instead of pasteurized milk will make a big difference for her.

Stay tuned for a future post on what the GAPS book suggests to do about a fussy eater.

Ghee is the first dairy product introduced on GAPS and the mostly widely tolerated. It is clarified butter. Unlike butter it does not contain any whey, milk protein or lactose. Just milk fat. Up to this point I have never had ghee. I guess I thought it would be hard to make. Not sure why. Today I finally got around to it. And guess what? It’s sooo easy. I wish I would have tried it sooner. Basically you heat butter in the oven. That’s it. Really. I’m excited to have a jar in the fridge now and to start using it! What a great way to get more fat in my diet. I’m going to start adding it to each bowl of soup I make. And I can use it for cooking and baking. I used the method in the GAPS book to make this. Now I’m excited to try making other forms of fat. I’d really love to do goose or duck fat. I’ll have to see what the co-op has for meat next month. In the mean time I need to make another batch of lard.

Ghee

Butter

Heat oven to 150 – 250 (I did 200). Place a block of unsalted butter in a metal pan (I used 2 sticks…you can do as much or as little as you want). Place in oven for 45-60 minutes (I did 45 minutes). Carefully pour the golden fat (ghee) into a glass jar, leaving the white liquid in the pan. Discard the white liquid. Store the ghee in the refrigerator.

This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven.

This is what was left after pouring off the ghee.

We had a fun week with the letter F. Of course I had more ideas than we could actually do. Here’s what we did.

The Letter F

science/nature/craft – learn fun facts about fish, make a shimmery fish, play AB Seas game, make a fish shaped sandwich for lunch
character – faith (believing) and forgiveness
fun – had a princess tea party with finger sandwiches, tea (warm milk w/ honey) and cake…just for Fun 🙂
family – visit from my in-laws, made cards for my brother and my father-in-law (birthdays)
fall food – pumpkin bread, apple dumpling muffins, pumpkin cake, pumpkin scones, squash soup
favorite foods – chicken nuggets, pizza
Kindermusik assignment – collecting – what can you find (both imaginary and real)
Memory verse – “Know that the Lord is God”
Bible story – Jonah and the big Fish
Baking project – Frost Grandpa’s birthday cake