Like most children, Ben quickly decided that vegetables are undesirable. I try to add vegetables to almost everything we eat, so most of his foods have some hidden within. However, I still like him to see some vegetables and see Pat and I eating them to promote good eating habits. Well, every so often Ben decides he is amenable to eating the vegetables as is, without them being hidden in another food. This is a rare event, so we try to be very supportive of Ben when he eats his veges.
This is called a Code Green. What this means is that whatever vegetable Ben has decided to eat becomes his. It doesn’t matter who’s plate it is on. I have told Pat to stop eating broccoli and hand it over to feed to Ben on an occasion when Ben started eating broccoli. Tonight, it was peas and green beans. The green beans were particularly surprising, as this was his original hate food. He started eating the peas I pulled out of our soup. So I gave him all the peas from my serving. He finished all those. Pat didn’t have any more at this point, or he would have lost them to Ben. I dug through the leftover soup and pulled out all the green beans and peas I could find. He ate them all!
Pat and I fall back on sports superstitions during these times. You don’t talk about Ben eating vegetables while he is eating them, because somehow that will spook him into stopping. We are calm on the outside, but inside it is “Code Green! Code Green! All the veggies to the kid now! Go! Go! Go!”
Be warned, if a Code Green takes place while you are eating with us, I will take whatever vegetable Ben has deemed acceptable from you to feed to him. I’m only half joking 😉
Code Green!! |
Ben gets all the peas!! |
–Kim