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Use Apple Juice to Help Baby Eat Better
It turns out that the secret to baby and toddler nutrition is apple juice. Can’t get your young one to drink enough water? Offer them apple juice. Can’t get your toddler to eat oatmeal? Make it with apple juice instead of water.
100% Pure Apple Juice
Let’s start at the beginning. You want 100% apple juice. Not apple juice drink, not apple juice beverage, 100% apple juice only. Juice manufacturers are sneaky and are constantly trying to fool parents (and others) into thinking that they are getting good high quality juice when they are not. So, the only way to be sure is to check the ingredients list. It should say Apple Juice, and nothing else. If it says grape juice, or sugar, or heaven forbid, high fructose corn syrup, put it back on the shelf and buy something else, no matter what the price difference is. Otherwise, you are buying apple flavored sugar water, and the only thing that does is start your baby on the road to fatty town.
Once you have the right juice (remember Apple Juice as the only ingredient), you are ready to implement the Apple Juice Contingency. The apple juice contingency works by using apple juice to provide a sweet and pleasant flavor for your baby in a way that does no harm to them. In the oatmeal example above, the apple juice gives the oatmeal a sweet flavor without using sugar. As for getting baby to drink, apple juice is a desired drink for most young ones. Worried about giving them too much juice? No problem. Dilute the apple juice. A 50/50 apple juice water mix will still be just fine for most young ones. Many will be happy with even weaker blends. 30/70 isn’t uncommon to be fully accepted as “juice”. The good news is that your toddler is getting plenty of water along with that juice, and at that rate of consumption you have nothing to worry about calories and sugar wise as long as we aren’t talking about 8 cups a day.
The only caution required is getting your son or daughter used to drinking only juice. You know they are getting plenty of water, but they don’t. You don’t want them getting it in their minds that they only like juice, so be sure to offer plenty of milk and water as well. In fact, insist that they drink milk and water on a regular basis.
Other Juices
This technique can be used with other juices, but apple juice is what is considered a “clear liquid". In other words, there isn’t really anything in apple juice to interfere with absorption of other food stuffs, and it won’t really fill up your baby making them full instead of eating. You know this from your own experience. If you just came in from a long bike ride on a hot day and there was no water only apple juice or orange juice, which would you choose to help your thirst? The apple juice because it is lighter and closer to water. Same thing for baby.
Make Soft Rice Krispie Treats With Dad
Ok, a real man doesn’t stop being a dad at the kitchen door. Face it, sooner or later your child is going to need to eat, and what you provide shouldn’t begin and end with what comes in a jar or can. Besides, you can hardly call yourself undefeated if you won’t even put the kitchen team on the schedule.
Dad Makes Treats
Children associate certain actions from their parents. Sometimes, they expect some things more from Mom, and some things more from Dad. Since you don’t want to be the guy who never provides new treats, you need to be able to make something yummy to eat.
At the same time, you aren’t looking to spend hours in the kitchen and even the “simple” things that pop into mind like apple pie, or cake, or fudge take forever to make. You need something fast and simple. For that, it is time to reach back into your childhood and remember Rice Krispie Treats.
Almost everybody likes Rice Krispie Treats. Granted, not everyone will say that the “love” them, but there are very few people out there who say they actively don’t like them. When you find someone who says that, show up with some at a 3:00pm meeting and see if they refuse to have one. Chances are they don’t dislike them as much as they say.
How to Make Rice Krispie Treats
One of the great things about making Rice Krispie Treats is that you always have the recipe. Assuming you are smart enough to remember to breathe in and out on a regular basis, you should probably have no trouble remembering the main ingredient in Rice Krispie Treats is Rice Krispies. Either you have some in your pantry or you don’t. If you don’t, a run to the store is in order. Either way, the recipe is on the side of the box. It couldn’t be any easier than that.
Except, there is one big thing to remember. That recipe on the side of the box is a big fat fraud. You see, somewhere along the line, a Kelloggs executive who ate a lot of paint chips as a kid, sat out in the sun too long, inhaled the paint fumes in his freshly painted office, and then hit his head on the corner of the coffee table. At that moment, he had an idea. A spectacularly stupid idea even for someone who had just been through all of that.
The REAL RICE KRISPIES TREATS recipe calls for one whole stick of butter. The one on the side of the box calls for something like 3 tablespoons. Why? Well, if you remember the moron from above, he decided that they could market Rice Krispie Treats as a “low-fat” snack. Now, if you are laughing or scoffing, then congratulations you officially have at least two brain cells. Of course, a whole stick of butter has a lot of fat in it, so you have to cut it back to even pretend that Rice Krispie Treats are low fat. So, they lied, and changed the recipe on the box. The result? Hard, crumbly, terrible, blocks of junk that neither you, your kids, or their friends will want to eat. You’ll laugh out loud when you read on the box that they can only be stored in an airtight container for two days. They are worthless as soon as they cool.
Now, if you actually follow common sense (“Hello? A recipe that calls for 40 marshmallows will never ever never be considered healthy!”) and use a whole stick of butter you will get delicious soft Rice Krispie treats that will keep just fine under saran wrap for a week or so. That is, if your family can lay off them for that long.
Otherwise, it is super easy. Melt one WHOLE STICK of butter. Add one bag of marshmallows and stir while they melt. Then, turn off heat, and add six cups of Rice Krispies. That’s it. (Oh yeah, spread them out in a pan before they cool. Don’t bother with wax paper or greasing your hand. Use a plastic cooking spoon. Some will stick, but not enough to be a problem. I be the sticking issue is worse if you use the artificially low amount of butter.)
So, next time you head down the cereal aisle and see that box, grab it. The regular sized small one has enough to make two batches. Check the box for the recipe and get the rest of the ingredients. Then, pick the day you want to be a hero and use 15 minutes to make it happen.
No one defeats your daddy!
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