Sprinkles for the win!

An update for those of you that have toddlers. That don’t eat. Unless you bribe them. Ok, using the word bribe may be a bit extreme. Can we call it negotiation? It makes me feel better. So the whole stuff on a stick concept was working pretty well for us at the Harding household. And for some meals/food items, it still does. Nothing says “eat me” like a toothpick studded strawberry according to my toddler.

But… for other things the toothpick strategy no longer suffices. Nor does “dip it”, putting on his “eating music” (a.k.a. the world’s most annoying kid-CD), or screaming “for the love of God!” at him. What does work is sprinkles. Yep, the colorful mini-sugar tablets mainly used for increasing the profit-margin at ice cream stores. And they work like a charm. Some may argue that lacing my child’s food with sugary goodness may not be the best parenting strategy. But, at least he’s getting vitamin and protein goodness too. So don’t judge. Or if you do judge, don’t tell me.

So how does this sprinkle strategy work? It’s kind of a last ditch effort. At meal time, Plan A is bringing out the “dip it”. For example, we’re eating broccoli, so I pour some ranch dressing in a container. Graham eats a bite or two, then refuses to eat anymore. Time for Plan B. We skewer the broccoli with toothpicks, then dip it in the dressing. Works for a few more bites. Then more refusal. So we add sprinkles to the dressing. Graham thinks it’s fun to fish for the different colors with his broccoli-toothpick skewer. And he’ll eat the rest of the broccoli.

Sure, he probably thinks he won the food battle. But, I got him his iron, Vitamin C and folic acid. There may have been a few extra sugar calories and a minor “gross” factor, but my kid enters the clean plate club. The war has been won. For this week.