Dinnertime is a changing!

Meal times are supposed to be this wonderful gathering of people over food. People eating together and having conversations during the meal. Norman Rockwell paintings comes to mind when I see the perfect family sitting down to a meal.

Then I remember that my kids are not in that mental imagery and the fighting begins.

Normal statements my daughter will hear during a meal:

"Would you slow down, you're going to choke....or hoark!"
"Please sit down!" or "Please sit still!"
"Chew! Chew your food please! Do I have to make you chew it 20 times before you swallow?"
"Breathe please!"
"Please don't talk with food in your mouth, please!"
"People with manners use their forks (spoons)." Alternately, "Please stop using your hands, we have forks/spoons."

As you can tell, Princess also inhales what she eats. Literally, stops breathing to shove food in her mouth, chew and then upon swallowing, will finally inhale. I have seen this child actually two-fist a California sushi roll.

Normal statements my son will hear during a meal:

"Stop playing with your food and eat."
"No, you are not done eating, you have to eat more (insert random food here)."
"6 more bites and you can be done."
"No you can't have dessert, you haven't finished dinner yet!"
"Eat please!"

As you can tell, Little Dude is the complete opposite. Little Dude is one of the most frustrating children, in my opinion, to feed. He's what I like to call a grazer. If he were allowed to graze all day long, he would. He would love to snack every hour, if allowed.

On one side of the table, I'm telling one child to stop eating so fast, and on the other, I'm begging the other child to please eat something. Obviously meals are not my favorite thing. They are stressful because I'm worried my son isn't eating enough. I'm also worried that at some point I'm going to have to perform the Heimlich on my daughter. So I've decided that since meals suck, we're going to do things differently.

How do you things differently when everything you ever learned is centered around 3 big meals, daily? I grew up knowing that some poor kid in pretty much any other country was starving, so I had to finish my food or...I never got the last part because I was thinking of ways to trying to convince my parents to FedEx that 5 bean soup, cabbage or corned beef. Also if I didn't eat all my dinner, I sure in hell wasn't getting dessert.

Since I have hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) I have done tons of research on blood sugar levels. I am continually told to eat at least 5 times a day and forego the big heavy meals. The smaller meals, spread throughout the day, actually does a better job at maintaining blood sugar levels than anything else I've read. Interestingly enough, when you maintain your blood sugar levels, you eat less on average.

Wait! What was that? How does eating all day, make me eat less?

Yep, eating smaller meals that are nutrient dense (and high in fiber), we aren't talking chocolate chip cookies here, will maintain your blood sugar. Seriously simplified, when you feel hungry it's because your blood sugar level is low (if you aren't diabetic). Also, if you aren't eating often, you tend to want to eat bigger meals because you feel like you're starving. So instead of eating a small 2-300 calorie meal, you head over to your favorite fast food joint and super-size it...normally around 1000 calories. When you feel like you are starving, you shove food in your mouth, like Princess does. 30 minutes after you're done and your stomach has caught up to all the food, how do you feel? Same as Princess does, "Mommy, my tummy hurts, I think I ate too much!"

It seems Little Dude has the right idea; graze all day. So if it's great for me, why shouldn't I start my kids on this wonderful path of eating better? It's rhetorical, continue reading.

Instead of 3 big meals I'm going to break the meals into smaller parts. Veggies are the easiest thing to move around, because raw veggies can be edible in a few minutes. If my kids want a snack right before dinner, I look at what our menu says, pull out the veggies and dish them up. For dinner, I make sure they have a second serving of veggies, a small carbohydrate and enough protein. Smaller servings are also key here. Give them a little and more than likely they will ask for seconds. Or, for once, they will finish their meal without asking!

The hardest part will be letting them decide how much food they want to eat. If Little Dude says he's full, then I have to realize he may eat later. I'm obviously not going to feed him dessert, but I will let him eat his dinner later if he's hungry.

Hopefully, allowing Princess to snack before dinner will slow her down during dinner. I think I force her into a starving situation, because I don't want to ruin her dinner, by letting her eat an hour ahead of time.

Ultimately, I'd rather put the food in the middle of the table, let them dish out what they want to eat and then just sit and have a conversation around the meal. It will take some time, but I think for my sanity and my kid's health, it's probably a good idea.