Crackers and Air

I have so far successfully kept Drew and Brady alive for 3 and 2 years, respectively.  Until very recently, they subsisted mostly on crackers and air.  I know that I am not alone in this--other mommies are with me on the ease of throwing some goldfish in a snack trap to take in the stroller. Or in the diaper bag to have at a waiting room. Or in a car. Or at a park.  I think you follow me here so I'll stop revealing how horribly I fed my kids. Anyway I hated meal times because I would cook and cook all these lovely well-rounded meals and they wouldn't get touched.

Drew decided around 18 months that he no longer enjoyed green foods (read: hated all things that grow in the ground, on trees, on vines, or on farms.) Brady being so close in age to Drew and learning to eat solids around this same time began mimicking his refusals.  I could only ever get them to eat Gerber purees and not a wholesome variety of those.  Oh and Brady would eat a banana every day for 2 weeks before growing sick of them and taking a week off.

I am so jealous of my friends whose kids love snacking on fruits and/or veggies. Or just a fruit and/or a veggie. I would take anything over the Gerber purees.  Betsy's daughter eats plates and plates of raw veggies.  We were preparing crock pot meals and I was chopping a red onion and she tried to steal a chunk of that from the counter. Yuck, but whatever floats your boat, kid. Better than nothing but mac'n cheese.

So I finally got fed up with the boys' refusal to eat wholesome meals and I stopped buying crackers of any kind. We never buy chips or cookies (except animal crackers) so I really didn't make any sacrifices there.

What ensued was a battle of wills. An epic battle.  Wars were waged. Food was thrown. There may have been some swearing. There was definitely some screaming. But never mind my behavior.  The boys were forced to sit in their high chairs with only fruits to eat until they caved.  They were not given snacks.  They were only fed fruits and once they ate those I would give them cereal or a sandwich, whatever was appropriate.

So after a week of this, continuing on the no-snack trend, my kids finally got hungry enough to eat fruit without me forcing them.

Were they starving? Nah. Probably not. And even if they were, they aren't anymore.

 I won this battle, but I haven't won the war. Every day is a fight for control and I have yet to begin the down and dirty vegetable boot camp.