I have always had poor eating habits. As a child, it would take me hours to finish my meal and eating was such a chore. Even as an adult I don’t eat regularly and am quite picky about a lot of foods. It’s hard to try to engender good eating habits in my children, despite my desire and attempts, when I have such a distaste for food myself. I wish Drake ate a wider variety of foods as well as better foods at times, but it’s hard since I myself have eating issues as well. I admit I’m a little embarrassed at what Drake eats on a daily basis in comparison to other kids his age, but at least he is eating and is growing properly.

Breakfast

Drakes breakfasts are 99% always the same.  He always has Yogurt (Yo Baby/Toddler by Stonyfield) and his Organic whole milk in his straw cup.  After yogurt I always insist he have something else before he can have some kind of snack (whole wheat goldfish, Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies, graham crackers, etc.). This morning I peeled 2 mini oranges for him. Drake loves oranges so he ate all of it, and he always finishes his yogurt so this was a good breakfast. Afterwards he had 2 bowls of Goldfish which he finished, as well as more milk.

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Yogurt is almost a daily thing where he will eat at least one container, if not two, per day.  For breakfast Drake will also have bagels, cereal, pancakes, and waffles.  He loves his carbs.

Lunch

Drake eats practically the same things every day for lunch and dinners. Most days his choices are chicken nuggets, peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat bread, or grilled cheese (I try to buy everything organic when I can).  Sometimes he will eat eggs, ravioli, or noodles with sauce, but most days these are the staples because he likes them and because they are easy for me to make while also holding Juliet with my other hand.  This day he chose peanut butter and jelly and I forgot to snap a photo of it before he started to eat.  He usually will finish at least one half and some of the other. On this day he ate both.

Drake likes to snack and graze throughout the day, mostly crackers and stuff like I listed above. He also likes Popcorners and vegetable sticks and dried apple slices we get at Costco.  I usually try to get some other kind of fruit in him in between all the carb snacking. We usually do bananas,  oranges, cut up apples, and sometimes he will eat blueberries or grapes. He loves strawberries, but of course they aren’t always in season. He also drinks milk or water on and off throughout the day.

 Dinner

Dinner has always been a struggle for us as Drake rarely likes to eat any of the things we make, even if he has eaten and liked it in the past. Usually we have a rule that he has to take at least a certain number of bites before he can eat something else he wants. If he doesn’t eat a lot, then he has to have a yogurt or fruit before he can snack. If he eats a good amount then he can have his carb snacks.

There are a few meals we make that Drake will eat. One of them is mac and cheese, and the others are the orzo meal, eggs, ravioli, and sometimes other pasta dishes. We made mac and cheese this night so Drake ate everything. This doesnt happen often, so I had to take a picture to savor it. We usually make mac and cheese once a week as we know it’s the one day Drake will actually eat dinner.  Some nights when we make something we know he won’t touch — kielbasa is one that comes to mind. But we make him his own separate meal of chicken nuggets, eggs, pb&j, grilled cheese, or leftover mac and cheese if we have some.