our weird food

my kids are picky eaters. both of them. sailor as an infant ate everything i put in her mouth. then she started on table food. now she has a wholesale ban on fruits and vegetables- except sometimes raw carrots or apples, if she sees i'm eating them. who knew a child who didn't like bananas? not my daughter. she has been know to shake her head violently - or, even better, throw them off of the table.
they (who are they?:) advise you just to keep offering the healthy foods - "studies show" that it takes several exposures to a different food for children to accept it. so every mealtime she has some fruit or vegs on her plate. i offer them to her when she's hungry; by themselves before dinner; dressed up with cheese or ranch.
nope.
sunny is now old enough that we can pretty much force him to take a few bites of something. the only problem with him is his gag reflex - if he really doesn't like something, it may come back up - along with everything else he's already eaten.
so i am sneaky. i admit it, and it goes against my principles, and it doesn't necessarily teach good habits.
but i do it anyway.
i'm really good at taking something my kids like that may be moderately unhealthy and finding a healthier (albeit usually more expensive) alternative.
like my "veggie" (read tofu) corn dogs. both my little ones like them (without ketchup. apparently ketchup counts as a veg). they are low in fat and full of vegetable protein.
i also do tofu nuggets (sneaky chicken nuggets :) for the same reason. sailor eats them in pieces off of a fork.
my kids will eat Total brand whole grain cereal for a snack. it's packed with calcium and iron and b vitamins.
i am pretty picky, too, about whole grain in their diets. we do whole grain goldfish, tortillas, mac n' cheese (thank, kraft!!!) and whole wheat flour in everything i bake. (no bread. my kiddos won't eat bread.) (well, sunny sometimes eats it entirely plain. go figure.)
and sunny loves his "moothies" - stonyfield farm organic yogurt smoothies. they're higher in sugar than i'd like them to be, but they are full of milk (ie calcium) and probiotics. and he would drink them all day if i let him.
my crowning touch, though, is v8 fusion juice. two toddler servings of fruit and two toddler servings of vegetables in one eight ounce glass.
i dilute it well with water (usually 2/3 water to 1/3 juice), but over the course of the day they do pretty well with it - especially my son, who would only drink and never eat if he could.
anyway, as i look back over this list i'm laughing at how funky it is. and sometimes people give me funny looks when i offer their kids tofu corndogs (which i did for a playdate today). but their kids ate them up.
and my kids are (reasonably) healthy and happy.
isn't that what counts? ;)