Re: [fast5] Old Member Struggling to implement Fast 5. I just can't gain control. Help!

Hi! and welcome!

You already got great advice and I only have one thing to add:
2-year-olds don't need to be forced to eat either. There is
a real danger, given your background, that you will
feel the need to do what your parents did to you, without
realizing you are doing it. But even without that, it just
seems to most parents that kids "don't eat enough".
It was an issue with my dd when she was young: everyone
kept trying to get her to "eat more". She'd sit down and
eat, say, one piece of broccoli and stop.

My own take is that kids know what they want to eat,
and trying to fit them into the average American "snack
all day" plan is setting them up for failure later. Things
calmed down a lot in our house when we stopped
having so many meals. We have one "together" meal
in the afternoon and the others snack a bit a dinner time while they
read books or watch tv. I don't snack at that time,
but it doesn't make much difference ... the time doesn't
revolve around food.

In the "together" meal, the kids are expected to
be at the table, whether they eat or not.

However, it's hard to get kids to think about food,
so when there is a time they do need to eat and it's
not a "meal", one thing I've done is read to them.
They love hearing someone read, and it makes me
less bored too (and less likely to grab something off
their plate they aren't eating). And for a little kid,
the trick is to give them VERY LITTLE. They seriously
don't need much food. If the kid is getting skinny or
has nutrition problems, that's one thing. But most
kids eat too much! And you can feed them good food ...
the crackers and sandwiches etc. that are in most
snack packs are pure nutritional junk ... most juice
drinks are too.

But you can cut up one orange into
little pieces, sprinkle a little coconut on it and maybe
chopped roasted nuts, and put it in the fridge. Spoon
out maybe 2 tbls into a little dish ... when she eats
that, spoon out 2 tbls more. Or make some good
homemade custard (it's not hard, really) and put
that in the fridge ... most little kids love it and it
doesn't need so much sugar as they put in the commercial
versions. Or open a can of roasted nuts, if she can
chew them. Or have some apple slices handy and
spread peanut butter on them. Good hot dogs are
nice too ... just feed her a teeny bit of one.

Anyway, the thing is: the stuff you feed her now will
be her "comfort foods" when she gets older. Her
memory foods. And also the foods you might be tempted
to snack on. So choose some special foods that
actually are GOOD in both taste and for the body,
and dish them out in very small portions ("always
leave them wanting more" is the show business adage).

And I'd also advise against giving in to "picky eater
syndrome". I do know parents with kids who will ONLY
eat "macaroni and cheese" ... which is horrid stuff nutritionally,
and the fact they crave it so much probably points to a
problem. It's better to act like the stuff just doesn't exist
in your world and give the kid a choice of foods that
are pretty good. If they get hungry enough, they'll eat. It's
a lot easier to build habits at age 2 than it is when they reach 6
or 13!

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