need advice on clean eating

noexcuses84

My hubby and I r considering switching to clean eating. We have 2 kids, 4 and 1 yr old and they both flat out refuse to eat fruits and vegies so we thought the best thing for them would b to remove all the snack items in the house. at the moment the eat muesli bars, arrowroot biscuits,le Snacks, brownie bites, shapes and sometimes they have chips. I got sick of wasting fruit a month ago and haven't cut any up for them since but i still offer everyday. When dinner rolls around neither child eats any vegies and barely touches their meat. My 1 yr old use to eat anything i put in front of him but he got really sick about 5 mths ago and went completely off everything! Everyone i talk to about this, including peads, says that its a faze and they will grow out of it but i refuse to believe that anymore. i need as much advice on how to cut the junk; do i do it gradually or bite the bullet and cut it out now???? We r already eating well but it will be an ajustment to go to clean eating for us but we r looking forward to it. anyone out there done this with kids as well as themselves???

phillips529

I hear your struggle. I have 5 children and my two youngest 4 & 3 were the same way. I tried one method which was to offer fruits and veggies at meal time and if they don't eat it offer again at the next meal and so forth. My kids were practically playing me for a fool. They did not budge and I was losing hope. So I asked my doctor and he said I was on the right track and that if they do not eat their fruits and veggie at meal time that I should give it to them for their next meal and that was it....nothing else until they finished that meal. It was hard but I saw progress. What really changed their ways was that we went vegan and I stopped buying some of the snacks they loved so much. I also gave them breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks and baked or created deserts for after dinner. The deal was that if they did not finish dinner they would not enjoy deserts with their older siblings. No more in between snacking or grazing until dinner. That cured it. They don't eat as much veggies as I would like, but it's a drastic improvement. So what I realized that it was all me...not them. If I stood strong they would have no choice but to comply. So my advice to you is that if you want them to eat their veggies and fruits, no fun until they have a complete meal, stay strong and remember your doing this because you love them and you truly know best. I hope this helps from one mom to a next.