I snack on my baby's food..Help!

Are you logging it always? I don't have this problem, but I did used to snack on bits and pieces as I was making the evening meal. Making sure I log it accurately helped. Firstly, it's a big pain working out exactly how much I was consuming through picking at bits here and there. I can't be bothered working that out, so I don't do it any more. Also, seeing how many calories it added - I realised I wanted to use those calories for other things that I would actually enjoy rather than mindlessly stuffing into my mouth. It took a little while to change, but seeing the calories add up each day eventually sunk in.

If that's not stopping it altogether, maybe you're just going to summon up enough willpower to just stop doing it - for as long as it takes to become habit. Just don't put it in your mouth while you're feeding her, and then just throw it out. Also, try chewing gum while you're making it, feeding her and clearing away her food.

I can't give any advice about changing her eating habits, because I've not been there, so I really don't know how hard it is. As picky as she is though, remember that you're still in control of what food comes in the house. No child needs to have nutella, for example.

Maybe if all else fails, you could just take into account the fact that as part of your diet, you will also have a couple of hundred calories of her leftovers. Work it into your calorie goal so that you're not overeating overall.

At 19 months old should you be feeding your child things that you don't consider to be healthy for YOU? Just asking... :flowerforyou:

At 19 months old should you be feeding your child things that you don't consider to be healthy for YOU? Just asking... :flowerforyou:

i was thinking the same. The food habits a child learns at this age may set them up for their adult eating patterns.

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make an effort to teach your baby to like the healthy foods

Any way you could anticipate and fix smaller portions so that there aren't leftovers? I have a 3 yr old so I understand that sometimes you fix them food that they will eat, and it's not always the healthiest options. Also, young children need fat for healthy brain development, so sometimes they need to eat stuff that we might not want to when we're trying to lose weight.

Perhaps you can plan your snack times around her eating times if her meals don't match up with your meals. That way you could have your own healthy snack to pick at instead of her leftovers.

Does she eat at the table, or do you let her graze? My 3 year old is a serious grazer, she wants to pick at her food all day long. She will eventually eat everything on her plate, but it might take her two hours. If your LO is this way, it might be a good idea to start enforcing meal and snack times at the table, so that she will sit and eat, then when she's done, you get rid of her plate so that it's not sitting in front of you all the time. Eliminate the temptation as best you can.

When I was little and my family had "plain" grilled chicken, my dad always served mine with just a hint of honey on the side for dipping. You can dilute the honey with a little water or lemon juice to make it even a little less sweet. (microwave the honey and water together and give it a stir) Kids are hard wired to go for sweets (like berries and such) because they are growing fast. They have more taste buds for sweets and less for other flavors. So adding just a little sweet can make something plain more up their ally until they grow to like other things. For comparison, there are about 64 calories in a tablespoon of honey vs 100 in a tablespoon of Nutella. Honey sandwiches have always been a favorite snack in my house. (A slice of whole wheat bread with honey, folded over and smashed as flat as could be... Way better than candy.) Lemon and honey also go really well on steamed carrots and a many other vegetables.

Just watch out for the sticky fingers that go with all the honey.

And only dilute it as you need it. Don't dilute the whole jar at once! If you dilute it all and put it in your cabinet it can grow bacteria.