Playing with Food

When I was a kid, my parents taught me not to play with my food. I think I’ll teach that to my teenagers. But for now, play has gotten me farther with eating than manners ever did.

Books About Food

My toddlers loved porridge. My older children… know there are more interesting things in the world. But porridge is so good for you! Then one day I brought out Goldilocks and the Three Bears, along with matching toys. During each step of the story, I would encourage them to take a bite. Here’s how it goes.

• “One day there was a girl named Goldilocks who went out into the woods to pick flowers. She went farther and farther until she was lost and came to house where she smelled something good. What did she smell?” (Kids: “Porridge!”) “Then take a bite of porridge for that nice smell!”
• “She knocked but no one answered so she went inside and what did she see?” (Kids: “Porridge!”) “Yes! Take a bite!”
• Then I keep telling the story and make them take bites for trying each of the bears’ porridge and then a few bites for when she eats it all up.
• Then I stretch things a little and try to get them to take bites for each of the chairs and beds. Sometimes that works.
• But of course, the bears come home and inspect each bowl. They must take another bite for each of those inspections.
• Then I finish the story and they ask me to tell it again! And so on, until their porridge is done. They love acting it out with the toys at the same time.

My porridge trick was so successful that I moved the book onto a shelf in the kitchen, along with a few other food-themed books.

Pancakes

There is a Curious George book about pancakes! Somehow they don’t need quite as much encouragement with each bite!

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Spaghetti

Sandwiches

Most kids probably don’t need much encouragement to eat a sandwich, but my kids have gotten so much joy out of eating their sandwiches by reading this book. It’s very well-written and illustrated.

Waffles

I realize that as deliciously warm carbs covered in sugar, waffles are not difficult to convince someone to eat, but, again, the kids absolutely love this book and enjoy it even more when paired with actual waffles. Sometimes they request it and just pretend that what they’re eating is waffles.

Broccoli – The Real Test of Ingenuity

The kids had loved playing with the Goldilocks characters so much that I brought them out for broccoli and pretended the veges were trees. To my surprise, the 2/3 kids who will actually eat broccoli ate a TON of it. The one who doesn’t like broccoli played happily without complaining, at least creating more positive associations with it. And she did eventually try it one day. They ate even more when I brought out dinosaurs!

And to mix things up, Ponies!

Note: Make sure to break up the skewers before throwing them out, or you will end up with a hole in the bag and garbage water all over the bottom of your garbage bin.