Parenting strategies: how to feed kids

Since my first son was just a baby, we made a habit of eating dinner together – now we do it with all 3 kids! My mom was over last week to witness the spectacle that is dinner at our house, and her opinion was that we should feed the kids first and then we’ll be able to eat better afterwards. Although she does have a pretty good point, I decided that I would stick to our current routine.

My 4 year old has grown so accustomed to the family dinner that he completely misses it if we are out or if for some reason he has to eat alone. I found that having this routine with my kids, no matter how challenging it can be at times, has made them pretty good eaters. I mean, I know that it is possible that they just naturally love food, but I have a feeling that the practice is a key part in them not being fussy eaters.

While they were still within their first year of baby-hood, I did feed them before we had our dinner, but I would still keep them in their highchair with us and I think each of them grew comfortable and accustomed to sitting down at the table and eating a meal. Routines are greatly instrumental in the development of kids and really helps them to understand complex concepts and to have situation-appropriate behavior – simply by the virtue that they know what to expect.

When it comes to the actual dinner, I do try to make one meal usually, but I will not force them to eat things that I know they don’t prefer, like red peppers for example, I will instead choose the ingredients that I know they enjoy and this way I know that the chance of them finishing their meal is greater – and isn’t that the aim? Often parents may forget that the point is to get kids to eat healthy foods, and not necessarily to eat foods that we may enjoy! Serving kids a healthy selection of foods that they like is key in ensuring that they are actually getting all the nutrients they need, and not complaining about they stuff they may not be particularly fond of.

There are surely times when they refuse to eat – they are kids after all – but I don’t really push them at those times because in general I know they are good eaters, and because I am usually careful with what they eat at home, when we go out I don’t mind if they indulge in ‘not-so-healthy’ alternatives!

How do you feed your kids?

Don’t panic, I’ve got you covered

Occasionally, and mostly at nighttime, I feel like I am dying – no, not in an ‘inevitably’ kind of way, but in a ‘right-this-instant’ kind of way.

This past weekend when I thought I was actually having a heart attack, I decided to pay attention to my feelings and visit a doctor, who diagnosed that I am in fact suffering from anxiety and not heart disease.

It was in many ways a huge relief to hear this news, not only because of the obvious reasons, but also because not having any answers was really just adding to my anxiety and making matters worse. It was also a tremendous comfort to know that I was not the only one that was experiencing this (as I felt slightly stupid about my ‘fake’ heart attack), and thanks for all of your comments and emails!

I am feeling 100% better, and not because my problems have been solved, but because I finally understand what is happening to me.

The interesting thing that I discovered was that the anxiety is not necessarily brought on by stress, I mean, it can be caused by stress and workload, but I think that it depends on how each individual person handles stress or workload – I think that the anxiety comes because of things in our lives that we feel are our responsibility, but that we are perhaps overwhelmed by. In many cases when the anxiety is caused by workload, I think it is because the person does not completely enjoy and/or understand the work, leading not only to stress, but also to panic.

My panic is not caused by my workload, I don’t think, because I really enjoy my job, and to me, it is almost therapeutic to lose myself in a website design or a challenging project, even my writing is a point of emotional release for me, and because I love these things, although they may become stressful at times, I don’t feel the anxiety.

I know the cause of my panic attacks, and I am doing everything that I can to find a solution, but sometimes I forget that I am not the one in control. Looking back at all of times that I have felt this way, I realize that those were the moments where I felt like it was my duty to solve all our problems but I didn’t know the answers, all I knew was that I couldn’t do it – that I was failing, which of course led to feelings of insecurity and panic. Often the feelings would just sneak up on me, at times when I felt like I wasn’t thinking about anything, but of course feelings of insecurity and failure do not leave us, they remain and linger, just waiting for us to let our defenses down…

When discussing possible treatments, medication like Zoloft often comes up, and although I know that there are people who need it (some years ago, it helped my mom), I don’t think I am in need of medication at this stage, instead I am opting to employ some self-care strategies.

My first defense mechanism is meditation, and for Muslims this usually comes in the form of prayer – it does help the most, at least for me. Secondly, I am trying to keep up with the squash, or I think any form of physical activity, but the reason I am so in love with squash is because it is a competitive game and provides a welcome escape from the somewhat dehabilitating (I know that this is not a real word) thoughts that fill my head.

Thirdly, I love crafty things, so I am trying to just do things that I enjoy, and sometimes I even include the kids! Today for example, I spend an hour outside coloring the patio stones with chalk – coloring is somehow very relaxing for me. I also started to do art journaling, which is somewhat akin to scrapbooking but without the expense and the stress of having to create with perfection, but more like free expression of thoughts in a visual form, and again the process is very relaxing – I also bought journals (from the dollar store) for my kids so we occasionally work on it together. [a more detailed post about art journaling later]

Here is some more information about anxiety and panic attacks, there is also some other suggestions for self-care.

How are you dealing with the panic?