Nutrition for Littles

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What if fun brunch food didn’t have to be full of chemicals or refined sugar? As a mom of 2 and a self-confessed mega food enthusiast, I hope this blog post can help you rediscover some healthy, classic breakfast foods with your kids this Mother’s Day.

From prepare-ahead oatmeal cookies to rainbow yogurt bowls and talking teddy bear toast, there should be a couple of options suitable for any household with kids aged 2+!

Fun, Kid-Friendly Mother’s Day Brunch Suggestions

1. Fruit and Friends Fiesta

I hope you slept well because you’re invited to a fiesta!

Simply fill bowls with slices of your favorite fruits, cheeses, lean lunch meats, boiled eggs, crackers, nut kinds of butter and more. Then in the morning, pop the food onto the table and Voila! You have a picky bits Mother’s Day brunch fit for a queen.

You can also prepare this set up the night before Mother’s Day, so you can your family can connect over the food on your day of celebrating parenthood.

Bonus: This idea may also help you work on food chaining from breakfast foods your kids already enjoy and encourage them to try similar foods.

2. Yogurt Bowl Buffet

This next idea is similar to the first. However, it focuses on starting with a bowl of Greek yogurt (swap to a soy-based yogurt for a dairy-free and vegan alternative!). Then set up bowls with topping options to allow for full customization, including hemp seeds, chia seeds, sliced strawberries, a drizzle of runny almond butter (or a creamy, chocolatey homemade nutella!) and granola.

Pro tip: Add some natural coloring to your yogurt to create fun rainbow colors! Use fresh fruit (dragon fruit, blueberries, acai berries), superfood powder (spirulina or beetroot), or even a tiny amount of turmeric powder to add some unicorn magic to your brunch.

3. Pancakes / Waffles

Pancakes and waffles are a great option for parents of kids aged 2 or even 6+. And there is no need to head to the Waffle House when you have waffles at the house!

Depending on your Mother’s Day schedule or kid’s cooking abilities, you could opt for a totally homemade batter recipe (such as these healthy banana oatmeal pancakes) or use a protein pancake mix that you can mix with milk to create your batter on a sleepy morning.

Similarly to the yogurt bowl idea above, the beauty of this meal is that is also highly customisable and involves fun food play for picky eaters to get your little ones excited about their food. You can also add a dash of cinnamon or blueberries into the pancake mix to, well, mix up your flavours!

Try new shapes: My son loves the idea of adding pointy or sharp things to his foods so cutting his strawberries into stars or making the banana chunks into triangles is something I love to do to keep him curious about the fruit topping options!

4. Breakfast Banana Cookies

The cookies contain oats for long-lasting energy, healthy fats including almond butter and seeds and no refined sugar, they should keep you and your littles full of energy all morning.

Breakfast banana cookies are a great grab-and-go option if you and your household are heading out to visit other family members or have a jam-packed day of activities as you can make them ahead of time! And speaking of Jam (aka British Jelly!), you can even top the cookies with some strawberry jelly to get your little ones accustomed to the idea of a refined breakfast.

To go: Pack as an emergency snack to satisfy hungry toddlers during the day!

5. Talking Teddy Bear Toast

If you follow my Instagram, you’ll know I am a huge advocate for making food enjoyable for children. So why not spend the extra 5 minutes transforming a ‘boring’ meal, such as peanut butter on toast, into a teddy bear to ignite your kid’s interest in what goes in their mouth?

Simply take your wholegrain toast and help your kids spread over their favourite nut butter. Then help them arrange banana slices, berries or seeds into the toast teddy’s ears, eyes and mouth.

Bonus: encourage your kids to get creative and prompt them to come up with a name and story for each toast teddy.

6. Allergen-Friendly Banana Bread

Of course, I can forget that some parents or kids have dietary restrictions. So this delectable allergy-friendly banana bread recipe will suit most household requirements!

It’s a goddess when it comes to being free from dairy, eggs, gluten, nuts and refined sugar while delivering all the whole food goodness you and your family deserve. And like most of these ideas in this blog post, your kids can get involved, as all stages until the baking part are heat-free.

7. Simply Boost Your Regular Breakfast

Follow the PFCF rule (if you are new to this concept this Instagram slideshow from my page Nutrition for Littles can help) to add some additional ingredients to transform your regular breakfast into one that is dynamic, rich in micro and macronutrients and even more tasty!

For example, add some crushed nuts to your cereals, add creamy nut butter to your waffles, pair your eggs with a slice of wholegrain toast and a side of sliced apples.

Get your creative juices flowing: You can also make this DIY vanilla coffee syrup with your kids to use in your morning brew to go alongside your Mother’s Day breakfast.

Happy Mother’s Day!

Hopefully, these simple and delightful brunch ideas for kids of all ages, including those as little as 2 years old, can inspire you to get creative in the kitchen with your family this Mother’s Day.

These recipe recommendations are just a starting point to help you involve your littlies in the kitchen and foster their love for healthy eating so feel free to send me a message on social media with your ideas for what you are making for your Mother’s Day breakfast this year.

You may also like this previous blog post from my website on easy ways to boost breakfast. And don’t forget to hop over to my Nutrition for Littles Instagram for more content on how to raise confident eaters who love the food that fuels them. See you there!

Grass patch guacamole with carrot crackers is an easy Easter appetizer that doubles as an interactive activity for kids. Amid menu planning for this year’s family Easter meal, I wanted to come up with something delicious, relatively light, with lots of fresh ingredients and several tactile steps. Furthermore, I wanted it hearty enough to fuel the little ones for a pre-dinner Easter egg hunt, and this hit all the marks! The guacamole is nice and creamy with a bright tartness, while the crackers are crispy, buttery, and infused with the subtle sweetness of carrot.

Why You’ll Love This Easy Easter Appetizer

Customizable: Developed with picky eaters in mind, this easy Easter appetizer recipe can be changed to suit the preferences of any palate. 

Palate cleansing: This is primarily due to the citrus juice in the guacamole.

Interactive: From preparing the carrot cracker dough to rolling it out, cutting cracker shapes, and mashing the avocado, kids can be involved in pretty much every step of the process. 

Nutritious: This appetizer is packed with healthy fats from the avocados, has fiber from the carrots, and an array of vitamins and minerals from the other fresh ingredients.

Great make ahead: The cracker dough (or crackers themselves) and guacamole can be made 1-2 days in advance. 

Ingredients Notes

• Flour: All-purpose is the way to go here. 
• Butter: I use unsalted butter to control sodium. The fat helps achieve light, crispy crackers.
• Carrots: Although carrots with the green tops attached are the freshest and offer the fresher, richer, more true carrot flavor, the bagged ones are sweeter, making them more appealing to younger palates. 
• Avocado: I always look to the stem end to determine ripeness. If it comes off easily and I can see green underneath, the avocado is ready to go!
• Citrus: I add a little lemon juice to the cracker dough to tenderize it and make the dough easier to work with. Fresh lemon or lime juice also goes into the guacamole for acidity. 
• Tomato: Roma tomatoes are best for this recipe because of their tangy-sweet taste and low water content.
• Extras: Have extra vegetables, fruits, and herbs on hand, including shredded lettuce, julienned cucumber, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, sliced radish, etc. Since I serve grass patch guacamole and carrot crackers in individual bowls, I like offering ways to customize each serving. 

Find the complete list of ingredients with precise measurements in the recipe below!

How to Make Grass Patch Guacamole and Carrot Crackers

• Prepare the dough: Call your little ones into the kitchen because this is their moment to shine! Teach them how to measure ingredients, have them squeeze the juice from the carrots, cut the butter into the flour, and knead once the dough is hydrated enough to gather into a ball. Dough prep is primarily what makes this a tactile recipe.
• Roll and cut: Chilling the dough before rolling it out isn’t required. Roll the dough out on a clean, floured work surface and have carrot-shaped and other Easter-themed cookie cutters on hand. Size does not matter. The only exceptions where chilling is suggested are hot days when the butter is likely to melt. 
• Bake: First, I bake the carrot crackers at a lower temperature to cook them through and dry them out. Then, I increase the oven temperature so they get nice and brown.
• Make the guacamole: Mash the avocado, add the citrus juice of choice, and season, then fold in the onion and tomato until everything is well combined.
• Assemble and decorate: You can do as much or as little as you want. I set up a small activity station for this easy Easter appetizer. I divide the guacamole into 3-ounce portions and place those in small bowls or cups, then arrange the crackers along with the extra produce on the side. This gives everyone a chance to customize their appetizer while possibly encouraging picky eaters to try new foods.

Variations, Substitutions, and Tips

Make it vegan – Replace the butter with a vegan alternative like Earth Balance or use refined coconut oil that has been chilled. Refined is important. Otherwise, the crackers will have an apparent coconut flavor.

Go gluten-free – Gluten-free all-purpose flour can replace all-purpose flour 1:1; however, unless you use gluten-free flour with xanthan gum, you will need to add some.

Use a light baking sheet – Light-colored baking sheets reflect heat, while dark ones absorb it. Stick to a light one to reduce the chance of burning the crackers. 

Grass Patch Guacamole with Carrot Crackers

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 12 minutes

Ingredients

Serves 4

Crackers

• ¼ cup (30g) finely grated carrot 
• 2/3 cup (100g) all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting  
• ¾ teaspoon (4g) granulated sugar
• ¼ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt 
• ¼ cup (60g) cold unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 ½ tablespoons (21mL) cold water
• ¼ teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Guacamole 

• 2 medium avocados, ripe
• 2-3 tablespoons (30-40mL) fresh lime or lemon juice
• ¼-½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¼-½ teaspoon black pepper
• 2 tablespoons (20g) chopped onion
• 1 Roma tomato, seeds removed and diced

Optional Extras

• Shredded lettuce
• Cherry tomatoes, halved
• Chopped fresh cilantro
• Julienned cucumber
• Sliced radish
• Chopped green onion

Instructions

Crackers

• Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
• Place the grated carrot in a paper towel or piece of cheesecloth and squeeze the liquid into a cup. Reserve the juice. This will yield about ½ tablespoon (7mL) of carrot juice. Follow this with enough water to make 2 tablespoons (28mL) of liquid. 
• Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a mixing bowl. 
• Add the butter and grated carrot. 
• Cut the butter into the flour by hand using a quick pinching motion until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. This is a great time to get kids involved as the process is a fun tactile activity that also benefits the texture of the crackers. 
• Add the lemon juice and half of the liquid. Mix by hand, then add the remaining liquid if needed. The dough will be scraggly and moist enough to stick together when pressed.
• Knead the dough a few times to form it into a relatively smooth ball, then shape it into a flattened disk.
• Lightly flour a work surface and roll the dough out until it is 1/8 inch (3mm) thick. 
• Cut into crackers using cute carrot or bunny-shaped cookie cutters, or cut into squares with a knife. Gather scraps into a ball and roll them out again to reduce waste if you use cookie cutters. 
• Arrange the crackers on the baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes or until set and cooked through but not browned. 
• Remove from the oven and increase the temperature to 400°F (200°C).
• Once the oven comes to temperature, return the crackers to the oven for 3-4 minutes or until brown. 
• Set the carrot crackers aside to cool on the baking sheet.

Guacamole

• As the crackers cool, mash the avocado in a bowl using a fork or potato masher. 
• Add the lemon/lime juice, salt, and pepper. Mix until well combined. 
• Fold in the onion and tomato.

Assembly 

• Divide the guacamole into bowls.  
• Arrange the crackers in each bowl along with any desired extras. 
• Enjoy. 

Whether you’re new to dealing with a picky eater, or an experienced pro, building a firm foundation for your family’s habits is critical. Without a strong foundation, the rest of your picky-eating transformation tactics will crumble. Navigating this journey can often feel like solving a complex puzzle, one where each piece represents a different aspect of your child’s relationship with food. But fear not—today, I’ll guide you through three of the six basic structures for dealing with a picky eater. 

These foundational strategies are designed to create a supportive and positive environment, encouraging your child to explore and enjoy a variety of foods. By focusing on these key areas, you can start building a resilient framework that will not only help in overcoming picky eating habits but also foster a lifelong healthy relationship with food for your child.

1. Avoid Emotional Reactions

Even the calmest, most resilient of parents can struggle to maintain their composure with a picky eater. So whether you’re new to picky eating or not, it’s essential that you avoid emotional reactions regardless of your child’s behavior. 

Your emotion may manifest as a guilt-driven negotiation. For example, you might say, “I’ve worked so hard to make this food, you don’t want to hurt my feelings, do you?” Alternatively, we might resort to punishment, declaring, “If you don’t eat this, you’re going straight to bed” or “You can’t leave the table until you’ve eaten your food.” However, these tactics are extremely unlikely to effectively address picky eating.

Conversely, it’s also easy to respond overly positively when your picky eater finally tries something new. For instance, you might be tempted to express excessive excitement when they try the carrots you’ve been serving for months. While positive reinforcement is important, overdoing it can create a complex scenario for children to navigate. 

Children have a natural desire to please their parents, and often, they will engage in behaviors outside their comfort zone to receive approval and praise. The way we communicate with our children about food in their formative years sets the tone for their relationship with food throughout their lives. Attaching strong emotions, whether negative or positive, to their eating habits can adversely affect their long-term food preferences and eating behaviors. 

Sharing this is not about adding guilt or pressure. Quite the opposite. By steering clear of emotional reactions, you not only prevent negative behaviors in the future but also alleviate your own stress in the present. Rather than focusing solely on what they did or didn’t eat, you can shift the conversation to other enriching topics altogether.

2. Create an Eating Rhythm

Some families refer to their mealtime plans as an eating routine or schedule. I prefer to think of it as a rhythm. A schedule, for example, might rigidly specify lunch at 2 pm every day. In contrast, a rhythm allows for more flexibility, such as having lunch after a midday nap.

Choosing the best approach for your family, whether a rhythm or a routine, plays a crucial role for picky eaters. A rhythm helps them understand the who, where, and when of eating. It sets clear expectations for meal and snack times.

Established meal and snack times within this rhythm are key to preventing all-day grazing. Continuous snacking can lead to a lack of hunger, which is counterproductive for picky eaters. Feeling hungry at meal times can be a natural motivator for children to try new foods.

Conversely, a lack of a predictable eating rhythm can lead to stress for children. They might not understand the timing of their next meal amidst busy family schedules. This uncertainty can cause two types of reactions: 

1. They overindulge in carbohydrates. Our bodies are genetically driven to prefer carbohydrates if we think a famine is coming. So when your kids aren’t sure of when their next meal will be, their bodies may encourage them to desire potatoes and avoid the broccoli when the food eventually arrives.
   
2. They shut down. On the flip side, because their bodies are experiencing this fight-or-flight stress response, they may shut down and not feel hunger at all. The best example of this is with public speaking. You could skip 2 meals before a speech, but you’ll likely forget your hungry until after your speech because you’re so anxious about your environment. 

Establishing a consistent eating rhythm is one of the most impactful foundations you can set for your picky eater. 

3. Serve Safe Foods

Serve safe foods at every meal. These are any food that your little one has reliably eaten in the past. 

When I share this basic structure with parents, they often ask if they can wait until they’ve presented the new food or if they can skip it altogether. I get it, the fear is that kids will only eat the safe food. And while this will happen at some point, safe foods can actually encourage kids to try new things too—trust me.

To put this into a relatable adult context, imagine you’re faced with cleaning your house, and the bathroom is your least favorite task. You might start with something less daunting, like laundry, before tackling the bathroom. This strategy makes the overall task feel less overwhelming. Similarly, safe foods act as a comfortable starting point for children, easing them into trying new foods.

Safe foods give kids a safe launching and landing pad for them to use when they experiment with new culinary experiences—safe foods effectively take the edge off new foods. 

Final Thoughts

There you have it! The first three areas to start building a foundation as you tackle picky eating. 

Let’s recap. The three key strategies for transforming your picky eater’s habits are:

1. Avoiding Emotional Reactions: Steer clear of guilt-driven negotiations and punitive responses, as well as overenthusiastic praise. By managing your emotional responses, you can set a healthier tone at meal times and influence your child’s long-term relationship with food in a positive way.
   
2. Creating an Eating Rhythm: Establish a flexible yet consistent eating routine. This helps your child anticipate meal times and build hunger, making them more likely to try new foods. It also prevents the stress of unpredictability, which can lead to unhealthy eating habits.
   
3. Serving Safe Foods: Introduce familiar foods alongside new ones. This approach offers comfort and eases the transition to trying new flavors and textures. It’s about balancing the familiar with the new, providing a safety net that encourages exploration without overwhelming your child.

Implementing these strategies forms a solid foundation for addressing picky eating. They are not only about changing immediate behaviors but also about nurturing a healthier, more adventurous approach to eating in the long term. 

Remember, consistency and patience are key in your journey with picky eaters.

Kicking off the New Year, many of us are looking for fresh starts and new approaches, especially when it comes to our family’s eating habits. Today’s blog post, inspired by a popular Instagram post, focuses on a topic close to many parents’ hearts: reversing picky eating. Join me as I share the first five steps I would take to tackle picky eating, setting the stage for a year of healthier, happier mealtimes with your little ones.

1. Sit with Your Kids

January often marks the return to normalcy after the hectic holiday season, with its travel and family visits disrupting our usual routines. But as we leave the chaos behind, it’s a great time to reestablish your regular family routines, particularly when it comes to meal times with your kiddos.

I won’t bore you with the science highlighting the numerous benefits of eating with your little ones. But for those interested in exploring some of the scholarly work on this subject, here are two:

Systematic Review of the Effects of Family Meal Frequency on Psychosocial Outcomes in Youth

The Benefits of the Family Table

Ultimately, for our children, sharing meals at the table presents an opportunity to watch us enjoy the various foods we serve. This acts as a real-time, live-action, nonverbal demonstration of our relationship with food—remember, our kids are always observing and learning from our actions, especially at the dinner table.

2. Stop Using Pressure Techniques

Pressure techniques are the many different ways we apply pressure on our children to get a desired result, particularly at mealtimes. These techniques can take several forms, including:

• Bribing – “You can have dessert if you finish this broccoli.”
• Negotiating – “You don’t have to eat all of the broccoli, but you do have to take at least two bites.” 
• Begging – “Please, please eat this for Mommy? I really want you to try this for me, please.”
• Guilting – “I spent a lot of time making this yummy food for you. Don’t you want to make Mommy happy?”
• Demanding – “You cannot leave this table if you do not finish your broccoli.”
• Praising – “You did so great eating that broccoli! I am so, so proud of you for eating that for me!”

Knowing what the most common pressure techniques are is great. But let’s take it one step further and truly understand why these are things you should refrain from. 

• Bribing – With bribing, children learn to eat for a reward rather than because of their own hunger or joy. This pressure technique can be especially troublesome because it causes children to learn to eat based on external factors rather than internal ones. 
• Negotiating – Going back and forth over when and what to eat sets a precedent for power struggles, creating an environment where they may seek to negotiate to get what they want.
• Begging and Guilting – These create a sense of obligation, which detracts from a child’s natural ability to gauge when they’re hungry and when they’d like to try new things. It can also lead to feelings of shame or anxiety around eating.
• Demanding – Demands at the dinner table can make the dining experience anxiety-inducing and stressful, which may completely deter your little from not only experimenting with new foods, but wanting to engage with family meal time at all.
• Praising – Excessive praise can cause children to eat for approval rather than in accordance with their own internal cues. Praise can also concede kids into thinking that non-praised foods are less desirable or valuable, leading to picky eating in other areas. 

Everyone’s family is different. So while these are general rules that apply to most families, they may not apply to yours—I get that. If one of these techniques seems effective, consider closely why your child is responding to it. The aim is to ensure that they are trying new foods based on their own curiosity and hunger cues, rather than to avoid conflict, fulfill a request, or earn a reward.

3. Be Considerate, Don’t Cater

As a parent, my approach involves being considerate of my children’s preferences without yielding to every complaint or resistance they might show. I do this by offering what I call safety foods.

Safety foods are foods I know my kids will find safe and enjoyable, which creates a comfortable launch pad they can leap from (or come back to) when testing the waters with new foods.

What’s important is to avoid running into the kitchen to prepare an alternative meal because your littles refuse to eat what’s on the table. Catering like this often leads to selective eating habits, rather than the open and diverse habits we’re looking to foster.

4. Be Mindful of Food Communication

Our society is deeply entrenched in diet culture. Consider how frequently conversations revolve around guilt for indulging in a treat, counting calories, or declaring a ‘cheat day.’ As adults, we navigate a complex relationship with food, often voicing sentiments like, “I shouldn’t be eating this,” among peers who grasp the cultural context of these statements.

But our attitudes toward food can be confusing to a toddler, who doesn’t understand the cultural and contextual complexities of diet culture. When they hear an adult express regret over eating certain foods—often those that are sweet and appealing—they receive mixed messages. 

While an adult may exhibit avoidant behavior towards these sweet, sugary foods, a child becomes conflicted. Then, they struggle to reconcile their enjoyment in these foods with the negative social cues they observe from family members. And as a result, they gravitate toward those foods more in an attempt to understand their internal conflict about those foods. 

5. Focus on Making Meals Fun

I vividly remember my childhood mealtimes being incredibly stressful. Now, as a parent dealing with picky eaters, I totally get that mealtime can be filled with questions and concerns. As parents, we often find ourselves too focused on what and how much our kids eat rather than simply being present and enjoying the time with our families. We get fixated on what’s on their forks instead of the shared moments around the table.

Dinner time should be about connecting with your family, and it’s important to make it fun in whatever way best suits your household. This could be through using funny placemats, playing games before dinner, or telling silly stories about the food on your plates. Making meals enjoyable and lighthearted can be incredibly effective in transforming the dining experience into something exciting and welcoming, especially for picky eaters.

Final Thoughts

There you have it, the first five steps I’d take to reverse picky eating in 2024.

By implementing these five steps, you’re laying the groundwork for healthier eating habits, amongst numerous other benefits. Remember, the journey to overcoming picky eating is a gradual process that requires patience, understanding, and a dash of creativity. Embrace these strategies, and watch as mealtime transforms from a battleground into a space of exploration, laughter, and bonding for your entire family.