Cooking but Not Eating

Grace loves to cook.

Despite the fact that she loves to cook, Grace does not always love to eat. Unless we're talking about M&Ms or Hershey bars, and then she eats like she's never eaten before.

Toddlers' appetites are unpredictable.

Some days, Grace eats all day long. There are no meals and no snacks, just constant eating. This past Saturday was one of those days. She started the day with an orange, followed shortly after by a banana, then half of a piece of toast, a few bites of scrambled egg, a handful of Goldfish crackers, nearly a whole pint of strawberries, a couple of Club crackers, a slice of cheese, and a glass of milk. This was all before noon, when we ate lunch. Her voracious appetite continued through the whole day.

On Sunday, Grace ate one strawberry, two bites of french toast, and two lollipops (provided by Pappy) before noon.

I have given up trying to predict what Grace will want to eat at any meal. The vast majority of the time, she is a typical toddler - she eats a few bites and then does the all done sign. Lately, she even reinforces the sign by saying, "All done. All done."

Toddlers eat when they are hungry.

When her erratic eating habits began, I did some research and discovered that toddlers notoriously the toddler appetite slump.  Still, I worried about meeting her needs nutritionally. I continued to research and learned that most toddlers appetites are sufficient to meet their bodies' requirements.

Next week in Grace's Kitchen, I'll tell you what I learned about the nutritional needs of toddlers.

Grace's Kitchen Friends

Please join in Grace's Kitchen Friends! To play along, all you have to do is fill out Mr. Linky below. (If Mr. Linky isn't there, leave your link in the comments.) You can link up any post that talks about kids and food:

• feeding kids
• cooking with kids
• play with food or play kitchens
• crafts with or about food
• and probably a lot of other kids and food things I can't think of now.

I'm easy like that, Dear Reader. The only thing I ask is that you link back here to Grace's Kitchen Friends in your post. I can't wait to see what your kids are doing!