Just Try It (more food adventures)

What is it that is supposed to be the “hardest job you’ll ever love?” Peace Corps, right? Well, maybe the second hardest is getting a picky selective T1D kid to try new foods. I was not expecting to love this job – not after 5 years of failing and hating every minute. But so far our new plan has been much better than I hoped.

So far, the Bear has at least tried everything we have asked her to and with a couple of decently successful weeks behind us, the BHE has jumped in with enthusiasm – helping to plan last week and really helping out with the cooking and prep. He said he is really enjoying the meals too and I feel like we are all eating healthier. We are even eating together at the table! As I said in an earlier post, this isn’t rocket science and is what most families already do or went through when their kids were a lot younger than this. But, with the Bear’s diagnosis at 3 and her unpredictable eating (and the difficulty in getting very small doses of insulin into her), I think that we were concentrating on other things and not “normal” healthy eating habits.

Anyway, I’m excited and relieved and cautiously optimistic that we are on a much better path. We are going to the Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings and choosing some new foods to try and the Bear is helping out a bit more in the kitchen. And, she’s seeing both myself & her dad more interested in the foods we are serving and eating — pretty big stuff for us. The Bear continues to at least TRY foods we put on her plate and I think even she is surprised when foods aren’t as bad or as scary as she anticipated. Some wins:

• Honey-glazed carrots: these are a recipe in the book I referenced before (Dinner Solved!). She likes these enough to eat what I would consider an actual serving of vegetables! And she has asked to have them again.
• Oven sweet potato “fries”: The Bear has eaten many sweet potato fries in restaurants, but these are not deep fried and actually have some seasonings on them and the peels (hello, vitamins!), and she ate the equivalent of a whole, large sweet potato. I’m good with that.
• “Actual Meal”: Caesar-Roasted Artic Char, roasted potatoes, green beans sauteed with mushrooms – The Bear not only tried everything, but she ate multiple bites of the fish (fish!!), lots of potatoes (ok, not too surprising), and a few green beans and one bite of a mushroom. If anyone had predicted any of that to me a month ago, I never would have believed it. I’m sure it didn’t hurt that the BHE makes the most amazing caesar dressing ever!
• Broccoli: on the side of some shrimp scampi. She probably ate about 8 very small florets. A miracle. She also had one bite of asparagus (thank you farmer’s market!), said she didn’t really like it but then ate two more bites! The shrimp scampi was a no-go, but the veggies were worth it.
• Tacos: We had veggie (protein crumbles, black beans, toppings) tacos tonight with spanish rice. Couldn’t get her to try even one bite of avocado, but she liked the spanish rice (with chunks of tomatoes removed) that had corn and peas (what??!!) in it and ate one taco with a bit of the taco filling in it. But, biggest surprise? Just before bed she asked if we could have taco Tuesdays in the future!

I can’t wait to go back to the dietician and be able to report some small successes! It’s still a lot of work planning meals, prepping and cooking everything, and keeping it going day after day – but it’s getting more enjoyable and it’s less work with all that the BHE has been doing to help. It’s fabulous not to feel frustrated and guilty around dinner every night.