Munchkin Meals: 16 Month Edition

I'm excited to be joining Brittany once again for Munchkin Meals!  Ben just turned 16 months old and typically has a BIG appetite.  He wasn't feeling very well today, which was made obvious by the 3+ hr nap he took starting at 10am, and his relative lack of interest in food.  Perhaps I could have chosen a more representative day, but just trying to keep it real over here ;)

Our day starts off with a nursing session - usually lasts anywhere from 8-20 minutes - just depends on how awake/curious he is and how much that outweighs wanting to be close to his Mama.  Today it was definitely closer to the 20 minute mark.  About 15 minutes after nursing, he asked for a cracker.  This is odd, because usually he asks for a banana or just says "eat, eat" and tries to scale his highchair.  I put him in his high chair and gave him a cracker and got this:

Misery :(

Don't get me wrong - he ate the whole cracker, but was very upset about it.  We transitioned right into breakfast, hoping that he would be happier with more typical morning fare.

Waffle and Banana

 This seems to be going better.  BUT - we tried a different kind of waffle today than we usually get and he wasn't thrilled.  Cue my secret jelly weapon:

For some reason, growing up, I always assumed this jelly was strictly for old people.  Not parents, but grandparents and above.  BUT, as I learned more and more about reading labels, etc. I discovered that this is actually the healthiest option on my grocery store shelf!  Check out this ingredient list:

Other than Malodextrin - I know what all of the ingredients are! Plus no added sugar! And it's surprisingly delicious! I put a teeny tiny bit on each piece of waffle - total amount of jelly was just enough to fill a baby sized spoon.  Did the trick and he gobbled up more of the waffle and banana but definitely didn't finish as much as he normally would.

 This was followed by 2 hours of playing and book reading.  Then he asked for "milk" and fell asleep nursing, beginning the aforementioned 3+ hour nap.

Sweet boy was rubbing the baby bump while he fell asleep :-)

Because Ben normally only naps for 1-1.5 hrs, this was an unexpected treat, but I took full advantage by making a loaf of bread, and some zucchini carrot muffins.  When he woke up, I thought for sure he would be SUPER hungry.  Not true!

Lunch was a piece of cauliflower crust pizza with peppers and onions (loosely based on Brittany's recipe), 2 zucchini carrot mini muffins, and sauteed kale.

 Muffin, muffin, muffin.  He seemed to really like this, although he only ate 1 1/2.  I plan to do some tweaking to the recipe and post it soon. Whole wheat, shreds of veggies, and sweetened with banana and a small amount of maple syrup.

My boy is definitely his Mama's son - he LOVES his greens!  I was SHOCKED that he didn't finish all of this kale as he normally asks for more.  He took maybe 3-4 bites.  He refused to touch the cauliflower pizza - wouldn't even try it, even though he ate it the night before with no complaint. I guess you win some you lose some!

Several hours later we had a snack - an apple!  He is recently obsessed with apples and I thought it would be a good way to get some food in him.  I peeled an apple for him and set him up in his high chair once again.

This one just makes me laugh :-)

He actually gnawed on and ate about 1/2 of this apple before giving up.  I cut up the rest and gave it to him periodically as he was running through the kitchen.

About 2 hours later, we jumped into dinner.

 Hubs and I had vegetable "fried" rice, chickpeas, more kale, my attempt at disguising the cauliflower pizza by covering it in his favorite - hummus.  Clearly, I need to work on my game.  Not impressed.

 He ate all the kale but really just moved everything else around with his fork.  I know this looks like a good amount of "exotic" type foods, but he has happily eaten all of these things before!  He wouldn't even try the vegetable rice and licked the hummus off of his spoon but that is as close as he got to the "pizza".

About an hour later, we nurse again and go to bed.  This nursing schedule is "typical" for a day that I stay home with him.  It's pretty much anywhere from 3-5 nursing sessions and I do offer him either hemp or almond milk other times throughout the day, but he usually doesn't drink more that just a few sips if he knows the real source is nearby.  On a daycare day he has dropped down to 2 feedings most days, occasionally he will ask for milk when we first get home and I'm still fine with that - just kind of letting him lead the way on that one.

I'm not sure if we have entered into "picky eater" territory, or if today was more of a "sick" day and he just didn't feel like eating.  I've heard of babies not eating on days when they are teething, but he has 16 teeth for crying out loud!  I really hope for his sake he's not getting the 2 year molars anytime soon!  I'm not really worried about him not eating that much today though.  He definitely makes up for it on other days, plus he's still getting all kinds of good stuff from whatever milk he's getting from me at this point.  My biggest thing is not wanting to keep trying to please him by offering more different things after he refuses to eat what I give him.  I know he is still a bit young to really be manipulating meals like that, but I don't want him to think that he can cry and refuse what we give him and get something that he likes more.  Oh well, hopefully he'll be more interested in food tomorrow!

Do you have a "picky" eater?  A different plan of attack for refused food?  Please share!