S/O- WDYD when your kid clearly needs more protein

[milosh]

I'm not a parent, so I probably have no good advice, but what about yogurt tubes? She can squeeze them and they are kind of fun?

[looseseal]

I try for peanut butter, cheese, and greek yogurt. You want a cracker? Fine, let me smear it with pb or hummus first.

Now that he's older, he's not such a fan of yogurt anymore, but will eat meat better than when he was younger.

[thedutchgirl]

I'm not a parent, but could you make fruit smoothies with Greek yogurt? Or just fruit, ice, milk, and some protein powder?

[shananagins]

I bought reuse able pouches. I mix fruit pouches with plain Greek yogurt and fill the reusable pouches with that.

[ginandjucie24]

I found some pouches that we use that have protein and fiber. 3 grams of protien in each pouch. Happy family is the brand name. I bought them at target.

[sofamonkey]

Beets? ::shiver:: There are good smoothie recipes that she'd surely like. Also, is she at the age that helpin make the meal would help her eat the meal?

[sofamonkey]

Oh, also quinoa pasta. It has protein in it. And it has a decent texture!

[Deleted]

Dec 20, 2014 23:30:35 GMT -5 looseseal said:

I try for peanut butter, cheese, and greek yogurt. You want a cracker? Fine, let me smear it with pb or hummus first.

Now that he's older, he's not such a fan of yogurt anymore, but will eat meat better than when he was younger.

All of this.

PB crackers happen often here.

[cville]

Cheese sticks work 99/100 times for us. And we'll have quesadillas and I'll stick refried beans in there with the cheese and cook them up to be more crispy so that's kind of cracker like. They both love black bean burgers and those Morningstar farms grillers too, if she won't eat meat.

Also, dip. Most kids like to dip things in other stuff. So fruit into yogurt, carrots or tomatoes or pita chips into hummus (my friend's kid prefers white bean hummus because it's more mild), apples into peanut butter.

Eta: also, cutting things into shapes. I'm no bento box queen, but I'll make sandwiches into pinwheels or slice cheese into triangles or really really skinny sticks or whatever. I mix it up.

[shell24]

Dec 20, 2014 23:40:20 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

we're classy like this - turkey/deli meat/cheese slice rollups. would she eat that? he wont eat a deli meat/cheese sandwich but he'll mow through rollups for whatever reason

My kids will do this too.  The only sandwiches they'll eat are PB&J and cream cheese and jelly but a lunch meat roll up?  Devoured in seconds.  

[mala]

B loves unsalted sunflower seeds. It was her only non-cheese protein source for months. I get them shelled and unsalted from the bulk bins at our grocery store.

[sofamonkey]

Dec 20, 2014 23:40:47 GMT -5 @tambcat said:

She won't eat mac n cheese unless it is from a box with orange powder, but I wonder if I could swap out the regular noodles for quinoa ones. Do they make elbows?

Hells yeah!!  There really is something magic about that orange powder.   

[Deleted]

We love these energy bites. Basically protein and iron. www.momables.com/easy-snack-no-bake-energy-bites/

[CloudBee]

YoBaby yogurt pouches. He ate them often when he was younger, and I just started buyng them again. A few times I've made his milk chocolatey, too. He downs it fast when I do that!

[CloudBee]

Whole wheat toast is loaded with protein, so we sometimes offer a slice with sunflower seed butter or PB. Double whammy.

[DotAndBuzz]

Make it "fun"

My kids go nuts for things with sprinkles and cut into shapes. Greek yogurt with sprinkles, peanut butter toast or cheese quesadilla in a star (or heart, butterfly, whatever cookie cutters you have) shape, and SUPER special if the shape toast/sandwich has sprinkles. Pick up some Christmas sprinkles and let her pick which ones to use.

Also, "fancy" eggs with melted cheese on top, or rolled into a piece of ham is a big hit in our house too.

[speckledfrog]

Dec 20, 2014 23:44:30 GMT -5 mala said:

B loves unsalted sunflower seeds. It was her only non-cheese protein source for months. I get them shelled and unsalted from the bulk bins at our grocery store.

I am going to try this on W!   

[Deleted]

@tambcat I just bought D these nature valley chocolate granola protein bars that have 10g each! D likes them because of the chocolate but they help her when she's hangry

[Deleted]

Oh and she's very into peanuts right now

[Deleted]

And I've made it a point to teach her that protein mAkes her strong and makes her hungry tummy feel better so now she says she needs protein haha and I always say "you need to eat you ____, that's where your protein is!" And she's getting it more

[shostakovich]

I love the quinoa/corn pasta. The texture is surprisingly good.

Also, whole foods has these fruit and veggie pouches, and some of them have like turkey and chicken pureed and mixed in. I don't eat turkey or chicken, but I do eat their pouches with just fruits and veggies and they are yummy.

[rubysapphire]

I have the pickiest eater on the planet and protein is a struggle, but she will eat this:

Attachments:

[bab]

scrambled eggs
chicken
nuts

[Deleted]

Oh and delaney loves rice and beans! (We are always looking for dairy free protein)
I buy refried or black beans and heat them up, then make this rice- you just pop it in the microwave, no water or anything needed

[mrsukyankee]

Greek yogurt has the highest amount of protein - but you also have to be picky about which one you choose. I would also suggest buying a vanilla flavoured protein powder (best I've found is from www.myprotein.com for taste) as it seems to mix the best.

[Jillaroo]

Tonight at Target I bought pouches that had protein as a pp suggested. I also got powdered PediaSure. You could use that in smoothies. We also already had pre-made PediaSure. I plan to mix the powdered PediaSure with milk and a little Peanut Butter.
My dd hasn't been eating well because she has her first cold. And it is evidently a man cold because she is not handling this well at all.

[jr009j]

You could try nuts. My DD1 who eats almost nothing would eat cashews all day long.

[my4girls]

My girls love hard boiled eggs. I bought a couple egg molds -they really love eggs in shapes

[auntie]

Protein is hard, yo. I had a picky eater who didn't drink milk until he hit the prepuberty growth spurt and avoided most meats.

One thing I did was deliberately sabotage empty calorie snacks. I let myself run out. Try to find a similar texture/salty/savory replacement. In spedworld this is called "food chaining".

Oopsie- all out of Goldfish. (this was quite a challenge when DS was younger- my dad owned a biscuit franchise at the time) Let's have peanuts salted in their shells instead. Or roasted chickpeas. Or ants on logs (PB on a pretzel stick with raisins). Baby carrots with a Greek yogurt-based dip. Ham and cheese roll ups served like a grown up app. My BFF who has a kid whose pickier than mine- still eats kids meals at 24- used to have a minimuffin tray she'd stock with a tablespoon or two of various snacks like nuts, carrots, dip, fruit slices and dip.

Around 2, I started fading snacks as a thing. I don't like the concept of eating in the car or a stroller- so I started making DS stop what he was doing and sit for snacks. He insisted on fewer and ate better at meals.

[aprilsails]

This probably won't help and in retrospect is probably pretty awful, but when my brother was 3 or so and living off of Oreos and Kraft single slices my Mom took him into the pediatrician's office for a check up. When she pricked his finger for blood she kind of swished it away and then told him his blood was orange and if he didn't eat properly he would turn orange too.

Poor guy - he ate much better after that.

I'm pretty sure my Mom is the devil.