Reply to What are your dinner time rules? Advice please

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[quote=Anonymous]I used to be of the ilk: "You will try everything."  Which was a downward negotiation from "You will eat what Mama and Papa eat."

Now we have the following "rules" for dinnertime:

1. The kids mostly choose from what we eat, but if we know there are healthy main meal components they'll refuse (we've been a family now for 4 years, so we know the drill) we'll provide a most-likely appetizing alternative for them to choose from.  So, for example, we know DD won't eat red meat burgers, but she will eat a healthy alternative hot dog.  The primary goal is to get her calories in, in a healthy way.

2.  We always have some sort of veg on the table.  For a child to get dessert, she has to have eaten a healthy, well-rounded meal.  Before we start, we point out what combinations and how much are considered healthy and why.  Veg is almost always a component of this.  Again, we know there are many (almost all) veg she won't eat, so usually but not always we also offer a palatable veg choice.  In her case, cucumber appears to be the most-acceptable.

3. The children choose from what's on the table.  We don't force them to eat, but we do try to encurage, often with the promise of dessert afterwards if they get the well-roundedness in.

As a consequence of #3, the children often go without dessert.  (We're talking homemade yogurt pops here, folks, or maybe five gummy bunnies: coveted treats that don't break the nutrition bank).  But you know what?  Sometimes they do.  :)[/quote]

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