Transitioning into Food

My post two days ago focused on basic principles of transitioning back into home life after travel. One of the other major transitions made is dietary. Finding foods our daughter would eat was one of my largest concerns.


There are a variety of foods our daughter transitioned into easily. Such items were scrambled eggs, toast, crackers, peanut butter (make sure your child does not have a nut allergy) sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, apples, apple juice, cooked carrots, dry cereal, oatmeal, cooked peas, any type of fruit, canned peaches and pears, fish sticks, rice with vegetables, and anything else that contributed to weight gain. Some children have lactose intolerance, so cheese is not appropriate. We were lucky. Our daughter is able to drink milk and loves cheese. A positive means of fat in her diet and one which increases her calcium intake. Many times, this list of food was an alternative to what we put on the table. No, my husband (he loves to cook, so he does a majority of the cooking in our house) is not a short order cook, however we were and still are flexible. Weight gain and maintaining weight is the ultimate goal for a majority of parents.

There are a few foods which our daughter simply will not eat however they are simple to avoid. For example, any cold food is suspect like ice cream or yogurt. This makes sense as our guide in China let us know the Chinese do not use ice or eat a lot of cold foods. It is their belief that it contributes to arthritis. Any recipes with ground meat, or meat period, are suspect. We might be able to sneak in a few bites masking meat with other foods, but she will certainly not consume meat willingly. We are aware that meat was probably not a large part of her diet. Of course, I hear the exact opposite from many adoptive parents. Some say their children want no sweets. We are the exact opposite; our daughter will eat any cookies and candy she can get her hands on.

Internet recipes also made it easy to make foods like congee. This was a comfort to our daughter. My mother prepared a large bowl of congee from a recipe she found online. We were able to warm this up in the microwave and add small bits of meat and vegetable.

Last, we found consistency in our daughter's diet by making sure we ate meals in the same location every day and through trial and error when introducing new foods. This routine allowed our daughter to learn that food would be provided everyday in the same location, and over several months she developed trust. Yes, this meant we did not go out for a lot of meals, however after spending money on an international trip to China; it was nice to cut back on spending.