So with regards to food and feeding for your child:
- Do you think you/ your partner has a real love of good, healthy food? If so, where did this come from? How do you try and pass that on to your child?
Mine comes from childhood. My dad grew his own fruit and veg - memories of picking raspberries and eating them straight from the canes in summer. My mum was a real cook - baked her own bread, cakes, made jam and even cheese sometimes. She was adventurous for her day too. I still remember the first taste of curry, sitting on her lap and being amazed how good it tasted.
- What challenges do you feel you face in establishing good food foundations for your little one?
DS2 was very ill with twisted gut and chronic reflux that resulted in FTT. So all my plans for healthy weaning and happy family mealtimes went awry. Had to work really hard to get him to enjoy eating. My trick was to put tiny bits of healthy food in his mouth all day long while he wasn't concentrating, and then at meal times only serve treats, so he associated sitting up to table with pleasure, but was still getting his five a day. Because he ate so little I became vigilant about every mouthful counting.
What has surprised you about your child?s journey with food so far
DS 1 was very adventurous from a young age. He loved olives and feta and used to snaffle them from food markets when he was so tiny I still carried him in a baby sling. He loves strong flavours: chilli and coffee.
Do your children love all food or can it be a challenge at times to get them to try and enjoy new foods?
It's a challenge. I usually try introducing new food in the context of familiar food, so would put tiny amounts of spinach in a ragout sauce, then up the quantities gradually. Once it became familiar I'd stop putting it in ragout but add it elsewhere and remind them they ate it in other sauces.
What kinds of foods do you find more challenging to try with your little one - with DS1, he's not keen on specific items, like broccoli or ham. With Ds2 he hates certain textures, especially thick veg or lentil purees which are the basis of some soups, dahls etc that the rest of us love.
- What worries and concerns do you have about their future enjoyment of food? How do you deal with these?
My main worry is that I spent so much time in their toddler and early years trying to get DS2 to eat anything at all, that table manners (which I'd hoped would be important) are almost zero, even now they're heading towards their teens. They know in theory how to use cutlery properly but don't bother, and because meals were such a stressful time for so long, I don't enforce good habits but know I must soon
- What hopes and aspirations do you have for their lifelong eating habits
That they can cook from scratch, appreciate healthy food, learn to be polite about food that is not to their taste, try food from other cultures, and most of all, have a very healthy diet of fresh food throughout their lives
- What help and support are you looking for? Where do you get that support currently?
In early years, HVs helped, but their advice changes all the time, so I took it with a pinch of salt.
I am thinking of getting someone in to teach them proper table manners. Not that I haven't, but they might listen to an outsider. That aside, I'm happy to teach them how to cook, shop, choose good fresh veg etc (they know broccoli is good when purplish blue and old when starting to flower yellow)
- When do you want to receive help, support, info and where?
There was very little advice for weaning reflux babies when DS2 was little. The best advice I got was word of mouth from other mums. It would have been helpful to have a leaflet on this/ Even baby books rarely mentioned it in their glossaries, and yet it's so widespread and can have a real knock on effect on weaning and interest in food generally.
General tips on healthy eating are welcome from all sources - GPs and clinics, supermarkets, online etc. Right now I'm looking for suggestions for healthy snacks for after school, so they don't munch on biscuits to fill the gap between school and dinner.