5 Servings of YUCK!

When we met with the dietitian at NIH, she nicely encouraged us to work on Teddy eating vegetables, limiting juice and reducing the amount of treats he eats. I wish we could redo that meeting now because what I could tell her now sounds much better than what I told her 6 weeks ago.

Then: Umm, yeah. The only vegetable he eats is potato in the form of a French fry and ketchup, which is technically made from tomatoes. He'll eat spaghetti sauce, too, but that's about it. He eats a lot of pancakes. And waffles. He once ate at least 6 pancakes for breakfast in a single day. What? This milkshake. He's been having milkshakes every day here because he's so traumatized.

Now: Oh, Teddy quite a few vegetables. He loves pancakes and waffles, so he eats all whole-grain pancakes with either added wheat germ or pumpkin. The waffles he eats for snack are whole grain with zucchini. He also enjoys zucchini as a treat in a whole-grain zucchini cake with extra anti-oxidants (a.k.a. cocoa powder). Aside from those vegetables, he eats broccoli and cauliflower tots. We also add pumpkin into our spaghetti sauce to give him an extra nutritional boost. He will drink a green juice as a treat that has additional minerals and herbs. He'll occasionally drink a green smoothie with avocado and spinach, along with chia and flax seeds.

Zucchini waffles. Approved by Teddy.

I realize Teddy still doesn't love vegetables, but all it took was someone pointing out the obvious that Teddy still needs to get those vitamins, minerals and nutrients from vegetables for me to think creatively enough to get him eating vegetables.

Now, don't get me wrong. The kid still ate ice cream today. And a piece of cake, but at least the cake had bananas and whole grain flour. But, we're making a conscious effort to incorporate vegetables and things like wheat germ, and it's working. A huge thank you to Lindsay for suggesting the broccoli tots. He may eat the cauliflower ones with ranch dressing, but at least he's eating a full serving of vegetables in a meal.

He still eats probably more pancakes and waffles than he should. But at least they're all whole grain, and some have pumpkin or zucchini, depending on which bag he grabs.

This kid loves his pancakes and waffles!

And on the really bright side, this morning when he opened the freezer door, I told him to wait to make a choice. He shut the door and waited for me. I grabbed his talker and gave him a choice of waffles or pancakes. He choose pancakes, so I gave him the bag of pancakes to take one. He took the whole bag to the table and sat in his chair. He then proceeded to eat 2 to 3 of them, but at least he sat on the table. There's a lot of wins in that story.