Feeding Your Foster Child

This is a photo comparison of Jayden the month he came home (two and a half years old), and him 9 months later. The skin color difference is because of the flash on my camera lightening up the April photo, and the fact that he is darker in the summer.

But what I wanted to point out is his size difference. He has only gained 2 lbs. in a year and that is because of height. Which means he actually lost body fat. When he came home, he was accustomed to a diet of fast food burgers and burritos, ramen noodles, chips and soda. His teeth were literally rotting in his mouth...poor baby. And he was chubby.

My friend recently welcomed home her first foster kids, and the toddler boy is thick as well. His mother stated that he only liked to eat cold hotdogs and vienna sausages. Lovely! So she is working through getting him to eat a wide range of foods. Plus, he is hungry all the time and will cry for more food even when she has fed him plenty.

My advice to her and anyone welcoming a toddler into their home from state foster care, is to expect that they will have food issues. They may eat every thing in sight (Isaac) due to the fact they they were deprived. OR they may reject everything but mac n' cheese and chicken nuggets. Both my boys had to get acquainted with fruits and vegetables. Isaac was 16 months old, and even though he ate every thing I put on his highchair tray, and cried when it was gone, fruit reacted to his digestive system in a bad way for about a week as his body adjusted to fiber, so I had to introduce it slowly. Jayden flat out refused all fresh food. With him, I would give him the food I desired for him to eat first in a small portion with nothing else on his plate. When he finished it, I gave him the food he was more comfortable eating (anything soft...lasagna, pancakes, noodles). I slowly phased out foods that were not nutritious. For example, he loved cereal. He would eat it all day long. So I mixed what he liked (sugar cereal) with Kix a bowl at a time until I ran out of the sugar cereal and he was great with the Kix. Then I never bought the sugar cereal again. I did the same with fruits and vegetables...starting with soft canned and gradually introducing fresh/raw/steamed.

A year later, Jayden hardly refuses anything. There are things he doesn't like (eggs in any form) and will push around on his plate. But we don't have any food battles. Some things I dropped cold turkey (soda in favor of skim milk)...and other things I waited a month or two to let him have again (burgers and a few fries). Kids are very resilient and adjust quickly if you are consistently giving the healthy foods. I don't limit quantities with my boys because what they are eating is nutritionally solid. I only limit portions on junk food, treats, and carb snacks. Jayden was also anemic so it was imperative that he receive iron rich foods and vitamin C foods to be healthy. I didn't want to put him on an iron supplement if I could avoid it. For awhile I had to hide the "good" stuff inside foods he already liked...veggie Quesadillas, lasagna, sweet potato puree in pancakes, etc. But now he will take most things fresh and raw.

We have come a long way!