Starting daycare...

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Cold mac&cheese? Or do you have one of those thermos bowls?

That's the one thing my kid complains about vs his private school... no hot lunch (he doesn't like to get food from the cafeteria).
 
They nuke it at ICDC.  So far she has eaten only the cookies we packed for her...  No more cookies from now on.  I'm still debating whether to send a pizza to her for lunch from papa johns.
 
We infrequently have had the "picky eater" problem with both of our little ones.
Wait until she hits a growth spurt and she'll be eating everything in the house.

As for no nuts: Maybe just a jelly sandwich, omitting the PB? Or ham and cheese?

-IrvineDad
 
The PB&J dilemma has an easy solution. Switch out the peanut butter for cashew butter, almond butter, or other nut butters. They are generally accepted at peanut butter allergy locations however you may want to check first since they are tree nuts just the same. They may or may not allow it. You can still make the sandwich with soynut butter or sunflower seed butter. These are specifically created for nut allergies. I've seen at least two of these nut butters at Trader Joe's. Check other whole foods stores.

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Get a sandwich cutter to make creative shapes. I have these. They got my picky eater super excited:

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Mr. Picky will eat a sandwich cut-out with just a slice of American cheese inside.

Since he always liked cheese & crackers, I use a mini set of cookie cutters to cut out slices of cheese. I put each cut-out on top of a Ritz cracker. Again, he always gets really excited when the food is in some kind of fun shape. Half the battle is won by making the food look fun. You can get kids to try pretty much anything that way. I even made a platter for the whole preschool class at a party once with just Ritz crackers topped with the mini cheese cut-outs. They were the only food gone in an instant. 

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Popcorn is often enjoyed by picky eats. Just be careful of the hulls. Make sure you are comfortable with them being careful popcorn eaters. Sometimes all he would eat would just be goldfish crackers. So, I would always pack those but still offer things I know he wouldn't eat. It's important to keep trying. Our doctor says to keep offering normal-sized portions, not reduced portions. It feels like a waste but I do it. It has worked over time.


You can take that popcorn and goldfish crackers and transform it into cute snack bags like this butterfly. For a really young child, I would cut the grapes in half so that they do not get lodged in their throat. As you see, you can do dry cereal, fruit, or whatever they like. If you're short on time, you don't have to make that silly face. You can use a plain clothes pin or some pipe cleaner to make antennaes.

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Hope this helps.
 
what happened to eat what i give you, otherwise you don't get to eat concept? i doubt any of our parents made our food into cute little shapes....
 
Heck... I made my own lunch when I was my kids age.

And they complain about how hard their lives are... sheesh.

Instead of "I walked through snow uphill... both ways"... it's now "I made my own lunch... and there was no such thing as touch screen phones, handheld video games*, Netflix or Internet!".

*well... there were handheld video games... but nothing like what they have now
 
irvinehomeowner said:
What ever happen to crustless bread?

I spend so much time cutting the crust off... those cutouts might work better.
Click to expand...

I?m with you on the cutting off the crust.
The same goes with pizza.
Where can you buy those cutouts?

Also, I read on an article that was posted on the Drudge report last week regarding the benefits of raw milk over pasteurized.
Any parents give their kids raw milk?
Where do you buy it?
 
WoodburyDad said:
irvinehomeowner said:
I spend so much time cutting the crust off... those cutouts might work better.
Click to expand...
Where can you buy those cutouts?
Click to expand...

IHO: Yup. They are designed to cut the crust off the bread & cut the sandwich in half at the same time. Smaller loaves like Sara Lee don't fit quite as well so you will have bits of crust on there still. That's our favorite so I use it anyway and just try to position it carefully / stretch the bread. Bigger slices are easier to use such as Orowheat. If you use a potato bread, I recommend not cutting it if stored recently in the refrigerator. When that bread is cold, it is not elastic enough and will break. Needs to be room-temp or use a different bread to get a clean shape.

WoodburyDad: Ralph's on hangers throughout the store usually near the cereal or bread. Sometimes near the Tupperware-type containers. Also can be found at Michael's (arts & crafts store). On Amazon, too.
 
SoCal78 said:
WoodburyDad said:
irvinehomeowner said:
I spend so much time cutting the crust off... those cutouts might work better.
Click to expand...
Where can you buy those cutouts?
Click to expand...

IHO: Yup. They are designed to cut the crust off the bread & cut the sandwich in half at the same time. Smaller loaves like Sara Lee don't fit quite as well so you will have bits of crust on there still. That's our favorite so I use it anyway and just try to position it carefully / stretch the bread. Bigger slices are easier to use such as Orowheat. If you use a potato bread, I recommend not cutting it if stored recently in the refrigerator. When that bread is cold, it is not elastic enough and will break. Needs to be room-temp or use a different bread to get a clean shape.

WoodburyDad: Ralph's on hangers throughout the store usually near the cereal or bread. Sometimes near the Tupperware-type containers. Also can be found at Michael's (arts & crafts store). On Amazon, too.
Click to expand...

We made the mistake of buying the cinnamon raisin bread at Panera.
Now I have to call and drive to other Panera locations when the Woodbury Panera is out, which is often. 
 
P.S. As the kids get older, I have more luck getting them to want to make their own snack when they can cut out the shapes themselves. The plastic cutters are safe, not sharp. The mini cutters are available through Pampered Chef (their website, Ebay, Amazon). They are a little sharper because they are metal but as safe as a biscuit-cutter.

For the butterfly snack bags, you may also use chip clips instead of clothes pins. Try the plastic kind that close like a hair barrette. You can draw a face & antennae on with a sharpie and reuse!
 
our daughter is 15 months old and we are considering day care.  we checked out ICDC today and it looked nice but a lot of kids.  adult to child ratio was really good with less that 4 to 1 adult.  as PS noted, you have to bring your own lunch which we werent a big fan of.  otherwise it was a good school.  wait list is long with earliest possible spot at june and that too, no guarantee as other parents are ahead of us

our ideal is a small setting with something like 10 or so kids for 4-6 hours a day.  we have full time help from our mother in law and wife and i both work from home so baby gets plenty of attention.  what she is lacking is interaction with other kids and she actually is scared of other kids for first hour of meeting them.  its getting better but we really need to remove her from her adult only environment

any recommendations of places that will take a 15 month old soon?
 
One option would be having your MIL / wife join Mom's Club of Irvine. The whole point is to get young children and their stay-at-home moms / families together for interaction and support. They have weekly play dates at the park - usually one weekday morning around 10. Then they have a bunch of other optional activities thrown into the mix whether it's a holiday party, a charity drive, a field trip, etc. They even have a mom's night where the moms get together on their own once per month. Since your wife doesn't have regular coworkers, she might like that opportunity to know more moms in the area. The cost is a negligible fee per year. I did this type of club for five years. It was a very good experience.

This way, baby gets to play with other kids, plus you don't have a big monthly cash outlay, and mom / grandma get to form bonds of their own with neighbor families.

Here is a list of M.C. Chapters. It has 5 listed for Irvine. If you don't see your area listed, you should contact Moms' Club. Sometimes there will be chapters that are newly formed and haven't been added to the roster yet.
http://www.momsclub.org/links.html#California

rkp said:
our daughter is 15 months old and we are considering day care.  we checked out ICDC today and it looked nice but a lot of kids.  adult to child ratio was really good with less that 4 to 1 adult.  as PS noted, you have to bring your own lunch which we werent a big fan of.  otherwise it was a good school.  wait list is long with earliest possible spot at june and that too, no guarantee as other parents are ahead of us

our ideal is a small setting with something like 10 or so kids for 4-6 hours a day.  we have full time help from our mother in law and wife and i both work from home so baby gets plenty of attention.  what she is lacking is interaction with other kids and she actually is scared of other kids for first hour of meeting them.  its getting better but we really need to remove her from her adult only environment

any recommendations of places that will take a 15 month old soon?
Click to expand...
 
USCTrojanCPA said:
I'm going to start a company that sells crustless bread and become a FCB. 
Click to expand...

Sara Lee used to sell crustless bread. I don't know what happened to that product though.. all the crust cutters are still doing good.
 
SoCal78 said:
One option would be having your MIL / wife join Mom's Club of Irvine. The whole point is to get young children and their stay-at-home moms / families together for interaction and support. They have weekly play dates at the park - usually one weekday morning around 10. Then they have a bunch of other optional activities thrown into the mix whether it's a holiday party, a charity drive, a field trip, etc. They even have a mom's night where the moms get together on their own once per month. Since your wife doesn't have regular coworkers, she might like that opportunity to know more moms in the area. The cost is a negligible fee per year. I did this type of club for five years. It was a very good experience.

This way, baby gets to play with other kids, plus you don't have a big monthly cash outlay, and mom / grandma get to form bonds of their own with neighbor families.

Here is a list of M.C. Chapters. It has 5 listed for Irvine. If you don't see your area listed, you should contact Moms' Club. Sometimes there will be chapters that are newly formed and haven't been added to the roster yet.
http://www.momsclub.org/links.html#California
Click to expand...

thank you SoCal.  my wife looked into that but she has lots of mommy friends in the area and they meet a couple times a week for play dates so the baby is getting more exposure.  problem is that everyones nap schedule is different right now and the kiddies havent seen each other as much.  and it is only for an hour or 2 as my wife works.  but it is getting better and baby isnt as scared anymore.  yesterday at ICDC, she started saying hi to other kids after 10 minutes :)

a 4-6 hour program would be ideal for all.  i think baby would learn a lot hanging out with other kids and my MIL could use the break. 
 
@rkp, are you guys looking for part time or full?  part time might be easier to get in, just have to check in once a month to see if there are any openings...  we were pretty far down on the list and my wife just randomly followed up with them one day.. next month we're in..  So far so good... the teachers seem really attentive but then of course i only see at drop off..  I do like the teacher to kids ratio as opposed to our last school at Tutortime.  my daughter is doing well, just not eating her lunch but we have the same problem at home... 

@socal78, thanks for all the tips..  too lazy to read the parenting magazines... this will be our crash course in prepping lunches... 
 
I bought one of those crust cutters at Ralph's this morning... works pretty good. It even has the sealer attachment that works like PStars Hello Kitty example (not sure if he deleted that post).

It makes a nice little sealed "pocket" sandwich... we'll see how the kids like it.
 
@ps - i think we will start with m-w-f.  i do like that you can bring the child in anytime before 11am and pick them up any time in the afternoon.  though the price tag is hefty if you only use them for 4 hours per day 3 days a week

has anyone used home daycares?  i tried searching on craigslist but couldnt find anything. 
 
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