Would you consider this a healthy menu?

I believe I am feeding my children healthy foods but I started to think about it and thought I'd ask you.
Am I giving them too much sugar? fat? empty carbs?

Do you have any suggestions?

Normally I give them a plate with an assortment of:

Breakfast:
-bananas/grapes/pears
-ham or salami
-rye bread with butter/jam or nutella
-yogurt with cereal added to thicken in an ice cream cone
-poached eggs
-cheese
-pancakes with real maple syrup
-muffin

Lunch:
-pasta with homemade cheese sauce and tuna
-peas/corn
-olives/pickles
-crackers with cream cheese
-rye bread with butter
-cheese
-avocado/pear
-yogurt or pudding in ice cream cone
-salami/ham

Supper:
-same as lunch but also
-spaghetti
-stir fry
-chicken, rice, peas
-or parts of our supper

Snacks
-rice cakes
-homemade cookies
-cheese and crackers
-fruit salad

 

Looking at your menu, I think you are feeding them well with a wide variety of foods. :good:

 

Sounds good to me! I'd try to add some veggies, but if yours are like mine, they would probably not eat them anyway...

 

Looks good to me too! Actually, it's making me quite Hungry! :lol: Thanks a lot!

Is there a reason for the sprout of your concern?

 

Yes, actually there is. I recently received a package from my local health unit with a daily recommended serving guide for toddlers which detailed what they should be eating. Unfortunately, I can't figure out a way to get everything into their menu and I have no idea how to expand what I am doing. I guess you could say that I am stuck in a rut and if I don't have to change anything it would make it much easier for me.

 

A great book `if you are interested is "Child of mine: feeding with love and good sense" a great book for any age, fussy kids, normal kids, larger kids, low weight kids. It is just a great place to start on feeding and not necessarily on specific meals. It gets your head in the right space.

 

I'd love to see the recommendations you saw...what types of foods do you think you're lacking?

I roast a lot of veggies for them and they love them that way. Eggplant, sweet potato chunks, brussel sprouts, carrots, etc. all taste great if you toss them in a little olive oil and whatever spices your kids like and bake/roast them in the oven. One way I sneak in a bunch of extra veggies is by making omlets...if yours like eggs they might like it. I put in a ton of different veggies with a little cheese to help it hold together and mine gobble it up.

I've never given mine ice cream cones, but it sounds like a creative way to give yogurt. I'm not sure if they are a lot of empty calories, but another way that works for us is to eaither put a small amount of yogurt in a small plastic cup and give them spoons (messy at first but now mine are surprisingly good at it - they don't want to lose any of the yummy yogurt!) or I toast multigrain bread, cut it up and mix in the yogurt - it makes a mushy mess when they eat it, but it allows them to pick up the yogurt on their own. Just some thoughts...I'm definitely interested to see what other types of things you'd need to change. Your menu sounds pretty healthy and yummy to me!

 

I'd say it looks good - the only thing I could think of was to add in more multigrain and whole grain products - whole wheat bread, whole wheat pastas, use whole wheat flour in your pancakes etc. If you're giving white pasta and white flour products then you are giving more of an 'empty carb'. Also Nutella is pretty packed with sugar so you could just give peanut butter (if allergies aren't an issue).

 

I was also going to suggest the whole grain pasta, ours love it, and its actually quite tasty. we are stuck in our own rut... but we do get in more veggies. their favorites right now are broccoli and cauliflower (not my favorites... but they love them!), and carrots too.

I just checked out the Super Baby Food book again by Ruth Yaron to see if I have a good mix for the day, and I haven't figured it out yet. good luck to you.

 

Yeah I was thinking the same thing...

I'd say, just try to give whole grain stuff instead of empty carbs, and reduce their sugar intake overall... We don't give rice cakes, pudding, nutella, maple syrup, ice cream cones. They get cookies once a week maybe... they get cheerios, kix, cereal bars, almond butter. Drinkable yogurt (I'd give regular yogurt in a bowl and not an ice cream cone). But we're really bad with carbs here, as they don't eat that much of everything else. Salami is pretty fattening too, so I'd stick to harm or turkey (none of which mine eat though).

You could try hummus too, on whole grain bread or crackers.

 

Thanks for all your help. The food guideline recommends 6-7 grains and 4-5 servings of vegetables a day which I felt was a lot. I just gave them oatmeal for breakfast and they loved it so I can add that grain into the mix. I do use whole grain pasta so I guess that would count as well. As for the vegetables, I will continue to set them out in front of them and can only hope one day they will put some in their mouth and not throw it on the floor.

 

Yup... right there with you with veggies. I give them fruit to make up for it... and veggie raviolis. I've tried pasta with tomato sauce and that doesn't work either, so I'm a bit at a loss. I've been giving them veggies every night for 10 months now... and they're still not eating them. They used to eat veggie burgers but have refused them for a few months now. So much for food guidelines.