February 21, 2016

Dear Baby,

All month I have watched you watching me eat. You gaze longingly at my bowl of oatmeal and make tiny chew movements with your mouth so I was certain that you were signalling to me “feed me.”

Yesterday we decided to make all your gastro dreams come true. Baby, you met sweet potato and your life was forever changed. 

We put you in your cute little booster chair, tied a bib on and gave you a spoonful of sweet potato mush and you just loved it. Your expression went from “this is weird” to “are you really letting me eat this” to “more more more”!

With such a successful experience under our belt, I thought I would share some ways to help encourage a love of food:

1. Make food fun. Whether it is plopping some mush down on your tray so you could get your hands right into it or making a family style bouillabaisse that everyone digs into sans utensils after way too much wine (aka last night), it’s fun to enjoy food in a relaxed way. 

2. Lead by example. If you want everyone around you to be good, healthy eaters than eat something good and healthy. If you won’t eat what you want others to eat, you can expect food issues to pop up right, left and centre. Be mindful

3. Make food time a time for family and friends. Food is best shared. Mealtime is a great time to talk and enjoy something with others. 

4. Get messy. You have to clean up after dinner either way. 

5. Get creative. Explore different tastes and textures any time you can. The world has a lot to offer. Some things will just amaze you and you will learn by trial what you don’t like too  

6. Cook. Nothing makes you appreciate something more than building it yourself. 

Overall Baby, I hope you love food and that you guys have a great relationship. So far, it seems to be going along swimmingly.

xo

Mom