[NovelMama]

Originally Posted by bananacake

Would she drink lemon Natural Calm?

Possibly - she likes lemonade, does it taste like that at all? I've never heard of it.

Originally Posted by Llee

For one of mine, we had to do Miramax daily (nothing natural worked) until her body relearned how to listen to itself. For my other, she needs it for a couple of days every few months. A good friend had to have her son hospitalized and cleansed out because nothing else worked. So I'm Very anti-constipation.

For food, I make tortillas on Sundays. Friday nights we usually have haystack (DIY Frito salad). Those two meals are guaranteed eaten.

Yeah, having lived with constipation for most of my life (we weren't AT ALL crunchy when I was growing up and I LIVED on gluten ) I DO NOT want this to become an ongoing issue for her. I would hate, hate, hate to have to resort to something like Miralax (partly because of what it is, partly because getting her to consistantly take ANY liquid medication/supplement is extremely difficult), but I'm getting pretty close to desperate.

Originally Posted by mamaKristin

I'm seeing a lot of issues in your posts, that I'm going to try to see if I've got the info right:

- none of you are eating enough vegetables/fruit
- none of you are taking in enough fibre/whole grain (and most gluten free foods are super lacking in fibre)
- crunch is good, soft is bad
- more water intake is needed
- your DH's additional aversions make this all even harder

Does that cover the bases, mostly?

Yes. I would say, though, that the main root issue is the sensory stuff, which means their willingness to "grin and bear it" with foods is slim to none.

A few questions:
- do your kids do any food prep with you?
- have they done any meal planning/cookbook reading?
- are your kids creative? Artsy? because that can be applied to meal planning, for sure.
- have they watched much in the way of cooking shows? (this helped my kids be willing to try new things a LOT)
- have you ever shown them/looked at a balanced plate image? Or talked about what benefits each type of food brings? (protein, carbs, fats, vegetables, fruit, calcium rich choices, and some fun choices too! Balance is helpful!)

1. AJ has no interest (she inherited my utter lack of interest in any and all of the domestic arts ). PJ loves to experiment in the kitchen - and she's also my artsy one. She's also the one who is more likely to try new foods, and of everyone, she's the one I'm least concerned about.

2. Yes, I did for a a few months. It was difficult for me to keep up with because of my own difficulties with planning and follow through, with how weird our schedule gets. (Like, I'd plan a particular meal on a particular night, but then something comes up and we need to eat something I can prep faster or cook quicker, so then it gets swapped with something else, but that messes up another meal, etc.), and with the unpredictability of how much time I'll have on any given day to do meal prep.

3. See #1.

4. PJ does occasionally. Her interests are far more in the baking/decorating realm, however.

5. I talk ALL the time about how foods work together, what our bodies need, how our particular bodies seem to be wired (can't handle gluten, for example), etc. PJ is receptive, AJ is not. This is a typical AJ thing, though - she's very uncoachable in most things.

Originally Posted by Quiteria

Have you ever read Ellen Satter's Child of Mine book about picky eating?

Satter recommends serving one meal with something everyone can eat...maybe two of your four people like the protein, three like the carb, one likes the veggie, two like the fruit...everyone fills up on what they like while seeing others eat the rest, and that exposure helps over time. Emphasis is on dinner together socially and drawn away from the food itself. Less anxiety...less revulsion.

One thing that helps me make food knowing it won't please everyone is that I make large batches and rotate who gets a favorite main entree. If you hate it, you can reheat yourself some leftovers from a better night. It's tricky making sure they don't get sick of eating the same leftovers too many days in a row if they really hate all the new options, but it keeps me cooking more variety than limiting myself to crowd-pleasers only. It's more doable than being a short-order cook, and yet keeps them from not eating because they all do have options if they refuse to try tonight's meal.

I haven't read that book, but that sounds like an interesting idea! I'll have to see what meals I could put together that would work well that way...