please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

i am trying so hard to figure out what is causing my 3 year olds behavioral problems. I have researched tremendously and am going to cut out artifiicial colors as well as as much sugar that i can. He is a VERY picky eater. Please share your 3 year olds meals and snacks that you give to them. thanks

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

We cut out dyes with my 3 yo as well.

Breakfast: oatmeal cooked with blueberries, waffles ( make sure no coloring), hard boiled egg, pancakes w banana sliced very thin, milk

Lunch: Annie's Mac and cheese ( no dyes) chicken nuggets , trader joes ( wontons, dumplings, chicken nuggets etc) udon noodles, once in a while he will eat sliced chicken on whole wheat

Dinner: usually what we eat. Lots of veggies, white rice, fish, or chicken

Snacks are wheat thins, gold fish, saltine crackers, pretzels and vanilla yogurt ( no dye)

Ds Is so much better, but I'm not sure if it's from the diet, or the fact that he is approaching 4. He has always eaten decent food, but there were a lot of things that had food dye that surprised me like Kraft Mac and cheese and some waffle brands

please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

Thanks so much.

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

My kids are 2 and 4. While they eat their share of not so healthy stuff, they are pretty good at eating healthy!

It can get expensive- that is why I love Trader Joe's! They have an excellent selection of foods/snacks that are healthy, and the prices are very reasonable. Good portion sizes too. They also clearly label gluten free and vegan items.

Also- I have been able to have the boys try a variety of ethnic foods from there. They have had Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Indian and Mexican from there.

Good luck!

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

I don't use really anything with artificials dyes in it. and I avoid HFCS as much as I can. I cook a lot from scratch and I don't buy anything marketed for kids for snacking.

typically, he'll have cereal with craisins (raisin bran, cheerios, honey bunches of oats) OR some kind of bread with Nutella (I try to stick to the european imports which is less swee to me). he also LOVES oatmeal. on weekends I will make pancakes or waffles or french toast (all from scratch, with white and whole wheat flour or bread)

during the day, he eats fruits. strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, peaches, plums, apples, pears, bananas, oranges, kiwi...the only fruit he doesn't really like so far is papaya.

for his meals, he eats what we eat with minor exceptions. lunch is almost always leftovers from the dinner before. he loves rice, beans, meats, stews, soup, pasta, avocados, carrots, tomatoes, olives, pizza. (homemade or from the pizzeria. we don't do frozen meals b/c of the sugar/salt-I like control)

yogurts I buy plain greek. he eats it like that but I can also mix fruit into it.

I don't buy juice boxes b/c all of his juice is watered down. if I do buy it, I buy the HonestAde pouches. less sugar.

he does get dessert and I have no problem giving him cake/cookies/donuts but it's almost always either homemade by me or from a farmers market or occasionally from Whole Foods. I do cakes but no icing unless I make it and can control the sugar.

he has stuff like Shake Shack and 5 Guys occasionally. I don't do any other chains with him. We took him to Pizza Uno the other day b/c my husband wanted to, he ate two apples b/c he didn't like the pizza lol.

It may sound like a lot or whatever but it's really easy to me. it's just the way it is. he is a pretty good eater and very rarely gives me problems. He has a tendancy to be off the wall so I will keep him eating this way as long as I can.

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

Mine is 2... but he eats what we do (with some exceptions).

His favorites are:

Chicken breast grilled or chicken leg from soup

Steak & meatballs (home made)

Pork (grilled)

Veggies are corn, rice, zucchini, edamame, potato (depending on mood)

He loves spaghetti with butter & it's easy to get if we go out

Salad: tomato & cucumbers

We do variations of combos of that stuff... we make extra for dinner & heat up for a few days.

We ONLY do milk & water for beverages (but he's only 2).

Snacks: here's the pricey part: tomatoes (a favorite), berries of any sort, peaches, plums, or a slice of whole wheat bread

Breakfast: yogurt, oatmeal or eggs with a slice of bread or fruit

please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

i seriously am so jealous of all of you. my ds will not eat more than half of what you listed. he wont even try things. it is freaking hard to get him to eat! im hoping ds2 will LOVE all food, he slready seems to like ANYTHING i give him.
Ive tried oatmeal, he says yucky, fruits and veggies, he hardly eats any fruits and NO veggies, wont even give them a chance.

i am at a loss.

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

What does he like to eat?

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

Breakfast - oatmeal or cheerios and bananas, or I make my own french toast sticks (take whole wheat bread- I mix in a bowl - egg, cinnamon and a little vanilla extract - which you can leave out) - then dip the bread into the mix and put it in a pan. I cut it into sticks and sprinkle a tiny bit of powdered sugar.), and hard boil eggs.

Lunch - Turkey (applegate farms- also has ham, chicken, salami etc and they are preservative free) rolled with cheese, hard boil eggs, hummus on crackers, peanut butter and honey. Then she will have a variety of things with it - carrot sticks, bananas, white peaches, canteloupe, honeydew, watermelon, grapes, apples, pineapple - we rotate and it depends on what is in season too.

Dinners - we frequently have chicken drumsticks - we usually bake them plain but once in a while I will put a little sauce of some kind on them - but they prefer them plain. We do broccoli or green beans and some kind of fruit. I also do stir fries some time - I take boneless chicken breast and dice it - and fry it in a wok add in onions, carrots, broccoli and green beans, I sometimes throw in a small amount of rice or whole wheat pasta with a little lemon juice and a small amount of low sodium soy sauce (you can get an organic brand) and a little garlic.

I was surprised but the girls like the gaspacho soup I make - they call it veggie soup. It is served cold so easy to stick in the fridge and pull out when needed. I make a huge batch because I change the recipe and make it spicey for me and DH and no spice for the girls.

You can use the food processor but I don't love it - I prefer it with little chucks of veggies - the girls like it that way better too.

1 head celery
2 green peppers
2 red peppers
2 cucumbers
1 red onion
cilantro
red vinegar to taste
Then you need some tomato liquid - I have done it with both - low sodium tomato juice (not v8) and I have done it with organic tomato sauce. I prefer it with the juice - but my friend likes hers better with the sauce.

You can add salt and pepper - but I don't like to put a lot of salt in my or my girls food. But you can to taste.

If you want to make some for you - I simply add tabasco sauce - enough to give it a kick (or to your personal taste). My girls LOVE this. My DD won't eat any of those things by themselves but will eat bowls of the soup.

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

My daughter loves baby carrots and ranch dressing. She also LOVES peeled apples, bananas, and strawberries.

She drinks organic milk and watered down natural apple juice.

She likes Salami (yuck), chicken nuggets and steak. Pretty much nothing else meaty wise.

She LOVES pasta with feta cheese and any veggies mixed in it. Low fat cheese sticks.

Oh and natural Peanut Butter and home made Jelly on wheat bread.

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

Ann just turned three and all of the sudden she's giving us a problem. It seems all she ever wants for dinner is pizza, hot dogs, bologna sandwich or noodles/pasta.
I guess the upside is she loves all fruits and will eat broccoli, peas & corn with no fuss.

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

I am in the "how do you get them to eat all that?" group....lol....DD eats the same stuff all the time. She also won't eat meat. The only thing she will eat is chicken nuggets and meatballs. She loves pizza of any kind and pasta. She loves bologna and cheese.

The healthy stuff she eats is yogurt, cheese sticks, brocolli, carrots, celery (raw), corn, strawberries, bananas, apples, grapes.

She used to eat almost everything and then turned 2 and it was all downhill!

Re: please share your 3 year olds HEALTHY diet

my ds loves eggs & ketchup & cheese.

so to get veggies in him, i make an omelet. i chop spinach up really, really small [sometimes in a food processor], same for onions and tomatoes instead of the ketchup, and sprinkle parm or cheddar cheese on top when it's done. he eats it up! been chopping in chunks lately, and sometimes he doesn't like it, but i'm trying to get him used to realizing what he is actually eating. i do the same with rice and a chicken stock. ground beef or turkey meatballs can be a good hiding place for veggies too.

next step is showing him how it's done, so he knows that these foods can taste great.

i find stuff he likes, and "hide" the good stuff inside. sometimes he refuses it, but a lot of the time he does not. i also present him with a meal i know he'll love, and add sliced carrots [not a fav] and we'll have dialogue about it, even though he may not touch it. he loves bunnies, so we talk about how bunnies eat them, and it intrigues him, so he might take a bite. it's a tiny victory.

he loves fruit, so no problem there. although he stopped liking bananas, so i might stick 'em in his french toast or pancakes.

we don't do snacks either anymore. i found that it helped a lot during meal time.

he can go full days without any full meals. he'll literally take 3 bites, and be done. but i know he'll be hungry eventually, and that's when i get the best into him.

as for juice, i buy the Trader Joe's organic apple juice, and water it down by up to 3 quarters, and it's been working great! but lately, i guess from all the parties that serve regular juice, he's been exclaiming that his juice is too watery. heh. he still loves water though.

hope this helps :)