Every bite is a battle with my four-year-old. How many times I sit there saying, “Three more bites… two more bites…. One more bite.” And sometimes she’ll insist she doesn’t like something that she ate happily two days ago. Or that it is cut in to too big pieces. Or too small pieces. Or she doesn’t like things that are orange today.
I confess to sometimes taking food off of her plate because I’ve realized that I just gave her too much food. And I’m so tired of fighting and arguing and begging her to eat. I confess that I don’t understand portion sizes… maybe if I gave her proper portion sizes, it wouldn’t be such a battle.
I took Evenflo’s What Is Your Feeding Style Quiz, and it was dead on: “You are in the RED section of the Eating Arc. It seems like negotiation is the game at mealtime and as a parent you may be overloading the child’s plate. This will overwhelm the child even with foods that they love to eat. “ Well, that sounds about right!
Enter Smart Steps from Evenflo. I received the Portion Plate, Discovery Spoons and Insulated Cup.
What they say about them:
- Discovery Spoons grow with your toddler to help them learn to feed themselves.
- Spoons have soft siding to be gentle on tender gums and are shallow, facilitating children to learn to scoop and the easily remove food.
- Portion Plates are designed to help toddlers explore new foods with the innovative cup that can be used to create a small, taste appealing bite of a new food or can be used to hold dipping sauce with the cup that attaches in various locations on the plate.
- The second plate can be placed on top for storage.
- The Insulated Cup features a soft spout, which releases the fluid effortlessly but does not leak.
- Cup features an innovative neoprene sleeve keeps drinks cool or warm longer and sleeve is machine washable.
What I say:
I used the discovery spoon with my 11-month-old and he loved it. He’s too big for those tiny infant spoons so this was a perfect size for his mouth. It was nice and soft, which he loved chewing on. It has a shallow tip, so he could easily get everything on the spoon. It is a bit small, clearly its sized for a child to self-feed, but my four-year-old thought it was perfect for eating her morning yogurt.
The Insulated Cup is fantastic. Two words: NO VALVES! Most sippy cups are so difficult to clean or the valves wear out or the tips get chewed up and they don’t work. And this is the only cup my 11-month-old has ever drunk out of! EVER! He has HATED any single cup I have given him – and I’ve tried four or five different brands. However, I wouldn’t use it at mealtimes. Its too much to clean the cup part (in the dishwasher) and then have to separately wash the cover.
I gave the portion plate to my older two kids, ages 4 and 6. And they thought these plates were so neat! We have a “you-have-to-try-one-bite-before-you-say-you-don’t-like-it” policy in our house, so the attachable cup is perfect. It’s a “innovative cup that can be used to create a small, taste appealing bite of a new food.” It’s much less intimidating than piling a strange food on their plate. Now my kids are asking “What will be in our try-it-cup tonight?” How great is that?
And check out the website for Conversation Starters, a great list for helping jump start great conversations at the dinner table. We tried the question “Lots of people eat “weird” things. What is one kind of food that you would never eat?” which the kids thought was HILARIOUS as we came up with the grossest things we could possibly think of.
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