My “big boy,” after weaning and after his first hair cut. I realized, only after weaning, that I have no pictures of him nursing… which is really sad .

Weaning had been on my mind for a while.

In January I shared my thoughts about nursing — and potentially weaning — a toddler.

In March I weaned Oliver’s morning feed, leaving only a single feed before bedtime. The process didn’t go as well as I’d hoped it would, and I was filled with regret about the way I chose to do it.

About a month later, things started to improve. Oliver’s protestations after night feedings diminished from several minutes of truly upset crying, to just a few seconds of half-hearted fussing. I began to gradually scale back the length of his feeds, until they were only 10 to 15 minutes long.

Then Oliver started ending his own feeds. He would nurse for a few minutes on one side, pop off and ask, “Other side?” A few minutes after switching sides, he would declare, “All done,” before scurrying down from my lap to try to get into some pre-bedtime mischief.

I was really hoping Oliver would simply lose interest on his own. And perhaps he would have eventually, if I’d given it enough time. But alas, I reached my limit of squirming, kicking, scratching, throat punching and painfully abysmal latching. I chose May 14th, Oliver’s 21-month “birthday,” as our final day of nursing.

On May 12th, I began to prepare Oliver for the impending weaning. At bedtime, just before nursing him, I pulled him into my lap and said to him, “Oliver, listen very carefully. Mommy has something important to tell you. Soon we are not going to have milkies anymore.” He began to cry.

I continued, “Tonight you can have milkies, tomorrow night you can have milkies, and the next night you can have milkies, but after that, milkies will be all finished.” Then I reiterated, “Tonight we will have milkies.” He stopped crying and nursed, cutting himself off after less than 10 minutes.

The next night, I repeated the process, and he didn’t cry. Again, he nursed for a short time and then cut himself off. I wasn’t sure what, if anything, he had actually internalized from those preparatory conversations.

On his final night of nursing, we started his bedtime routine early, just in case, but I suspected it would largely go the same way as the previous two nights. More than anything, it was the following night — the first night of no nursing – that I was worried about.

Once again, I sat him on my lap. “Oliver,” I began, “Remember what Mommy told you? Tonight is the last night we are going to have milkies. After tonight there will be no more milkies, but we can read stories and cuddle and sing songs.” He didn’t even flinch.

He started nursing, and continued for about 15 minutes before finally asking to switch sides. He nursed about another 15 minutes on the other side, then asked to switch sides again. I realized at that point that he understood exactly what was happening, and that he was going to continue nursing for as long as he possibly could. Unfortunately, while I thought I’d left plenty of time, I had a sleep consultation booked for 8:00 PM, and after another 15 minutes, I was running out of time and I had to cut him off.

On his last night of nursing, I had to cut him off before he was ready to finish.

I wished with all my heart that I had thought that through more carefully, but I honestly didn’t expect that Oliver would want to nurse for more than 10 or 15 minutes. So with a heavy heart, I told Oliver, “We have to finish up now. I’m going to sing Baa baa black sheep, and when I’m finished singing, we have to stop.” It was pretty much the slowest and saddest Baa baa black sheep I’ve ever sung, and it took everything I had to keep from bawling, knowing that these were Oliver’s last few seconds of nursing… ever.

As soon as I stopped singing, Oliver began to cry. Not just his usual cry, but a distinctly pained, mournful and desperate cry. He knew it was over for good. I held him and cried too. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see him so upset, but I knew that going back on my word would only make things worse at this point. The best I could do was be there for him, hold him, and try to take the weight of his emotions.

We cuddled and cried for a while, and then in a very sad voice, Oliver told me that he was hungry. I didn’t believe he was actually hungry (I figured this was another way of asking for milk), but by his third request, I decided to humour him and offer half an avocado. We broke all of our household eating rules as Oliver ate his avocado in his bedroom, seated on J’s lap, after having brushed his teeth. He devoured the first half, and then asked for more.

As much food as Oliver eats at supper, I guess he has always been saving a little bit of his appetite for his pre-bedtime milk, and he got caught off guard.

When I initially decided to wean, I thought it might be easier for both of us if I were to be out of the house for the first few days during Oliver’s bedtime. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that leaving was just was a cop-out — a way to avoid dealing with the tough stuff. Weaning was likely going to stir up some strong emotions for both of us, and it was most important for me to be fully present to support Oliver and allow all of his emotions to be processed.

The following evening (the first official night of weaning) we had more tears, as Oliver faced his new reality. When I came into his bedroom, he immediately gathered all of the toys he used to hold during nursing, as if having those items in his hands would somehow ensure the return of his beloved “milkies.” It, too, was a sad and difficult night, but not nearly as heart-wrenching as the first night. Once Oliver finally settled down, we cuddled and read a few stories.

On the second night of weaning, he asked for “milkies” again, but fussed only briefly before quickly settling into my lap for some stories. On the third night, he didn’t even ask, and skipped straight to the stories!

I knew enough not to expect this to be the end of the ordeal, but I must say that I was caught off guard on the fourth night, with Oliver’s very sad and ernest request for, “Only one more milkies, Mommy?” This kid really knows how to pull at my heartstrings.

On the whole, as difficult and emotionally wrought as the process was, there were many things that went well. Obviously I have some deep regret about not having been able to allow Oliver to nurse to satiety on his final night, but I am proud that I set a limit and lovingly enforced it, while being entirely present to support Oliver through his emotional processing.

Compared with weaning the morning feed, Oliver’s reaction has been night and day. I haven’t seen any clinginess or unusual behaviour during the daytime  – he has been 100 percent his usual self — so I feel that we have managed to help him deal with the stress in a healthy way.

It is done. Oliver is weaned.

And as we close the book on that particular chapter of Oliver’s babyhood, I feel a mix of sadness and satisfaction. I think 21 months was the right amount of time for us.

Our inaugural summer hike, last Friday, at Lynn Headwaters Regional Park.

I remember hiking The Chief about 10 years ago — long before the notion of having a family had crossed my mind — and running into two parents hiking the 1.5 kilometre “First Peak” trail with their young daughter. Not only was the little girl hiking this steep and technical trail on her own two feet, she was doing so with great enthusiasm, excitedly discussing her favourite parts still yet to come. I remember being struck by her skill and stamina at such a young age (she was four!), and how much her parents trusted her to behave safely on this difficult and potentially dangerous mountain terrain.

Fast forward a few years later: I was labouring my way up the infamous Grouse Grind, when I was (rather humiliatingly) passed by a young boy with a backpack, who appeared to be alone. My curiosity got the better of me and I asked him his age. He was 10, it turned out, and he’d been hiking The Grind since he was little, but this was his first time being allowed to do it on his own.

These two children (and their parents) left such an impression on me, that all these years later, they are my inspiration for introducing my own child to hiking at an early age.

With Oliver weighing in at 30 pounds and counting — and our Deuter kid carrier adding anywhere from 10 to 20 pounds, depending on what I’ve packed for our adventures — it seems about the right time for Oliver to start moving some of his own body weight on the trails.

In the city, Oliver walks at least a kilometre — sometimes as much as 2.5 kilometres — each day, and his stamina is increasing all the time. I am more and more often making a point of leaving the stroller at home, and of encouraging Oliver to continue walking a little longer when he tires and asks to be carried.

So, can you teach a toddler to hike? To walk moderate distances on varied terrain? To follow instructions and behave safely on a mountain trail?

I don’t know, but I’m going to try!

For the next four months I’m going to take Oliver for a hike every week, with the aim of gradually increasing his endurance and cooperation. At this point I’m not going to set any specific goals (e.g. completion of a certain distance or a particular trail), as I want to keep this endeavour fun and free of pressure, but that may change depending on how he progresses over the coming weeks.

We started last Friday with a hike at Lynn Headwaters Regional Park. Oliver hiked just shy of a kilometre on his own, and I carried him in the pack whenever he was too tired to continue, or if we needed to make quicker progress.

Here are some photos from our little adventure:

Oliver exclaimed, “A big, big tree!”

Just one of many sticks (and rocks) he collected along the way.

Checking out some of the ancient logging industry artifacts along the trail.

Gaining the confidence to venture off independently.

Stopping for a well-deserved rest and snack after hiking the first half kilometre.

Enjoying the beautiful view.

Have you ever tried to teach a toddler or preschooler to hike? 

Out for a family stroll in the neighbourhood. Photo by Jinny.

It’s no secret that I love where we live. After my rant about Earls, I thought it would be nice to balance things off with a tribute to some of the wonderful people and places in my neighbourhood that make it a whole lot of fun to raise a kid around here. In no particular order:

The two guys who work the morning shift at Blenz Coffee on Robson and Cardero. The way their eyes light up when I walk in with Oliver is absolutely heartwarming. They always know how to cheer him up when he’s cranky — doing silly things like putting macaroons over their eyes and popping up from behind the counter, or making funny faces. They know about Oliver’s penchant for bananas, and if it’s a day that we’re not buying a banana, they’ll actually remove them from Oliver’s sight so he doesn’t get upset (I’ve never asked them to do this, by the way). One particularly trying day, when I was absolutely at my wits’ end dealing with temper tantrums, one of them told me, “He’s sooo good. He’s, like, my favourite kid that ever comes in here.” I don’t think he had any idea how much I really needed to hear those words at that particular moment.

The firefighters at Hall 6 and Hall 7. Besides the obvious reasons — like watching them have water fights while washing their trucks in the summer — they always, always take the time to smile and wave at us when they drive by. Now that Oliver is finally old enough to really appreciate the firetrucks, we will be sure to take them up on their offers to visit the stations.

Theresa, who works at the cheese counter at Whole Foods Robson. She has known Oliver since he was only 18 hours old! Every time we see her she greets us with a big smile. She has even been known to sneak free cheese samples to my hungry little guy on occasion — with my permission, of course . Actually, pretty much everyone who works at that store is awesome and knows Oliver by name. It almost makes us feel better about dropping half a day’s pay on groceries.

Patrick, the random guy we run into several times a week. Ever since Ollie was an infant, Patrick has stopped to chat with me and tell me how cool he thinks Oliver is. What parent wouldn’t want to hear that? Now that Oliver is older, Patrick and Ollie chat, too. Oliver recognizes Patrick and knows him by name.

Joseph, the FedEx driver. To be fair, Joseph is also one of the part-time staff in our building, so he’s known Oliver since birth, but it’s fun to run into him making his delivery rounds when we are out and about for a walk.

Random grandmotherly women who want to hug, kiss, hold hands with or otherwise dote on Oliver. Some parents might find this intrusive, but mostly I find it really sweet. A few weeks ago, Ollie and I were walking to the bank when a woman approached me and asked if it would be okay to hold Oliver’s hand and walk with us for a bit. As Oliver seemed perfectly comfortable taking her hand, I said, “Sure, why not,” and the three of us walked together hand-in-hand for about a block. She then thanked us profusely, said her goodbyes, and headed off on her way. Ollie called after her longingly, “Hand…?”

Any dog owner who has ever stopped to let Oliver pet their dog. Oliver just adores dogs, and I always appreciate the kindness and patience of dog owners who are willing to take a few minutes out of their day to brighten Oliver’s.

The people at Miko Sushi. We ate here a lot while I was pregnant (yes, I ate sushi). Once Oliver was born, it became easier for us to order takeout most of the time, but they continued to encourage us to dine in, whenever we were ready to do so. Each time J or I went to pick up our takeout order, they would ask after Oliver and remind us that babies are always welcome there. They even went as far as to reassure me that nobody minds if a small baby cries in a restaurant, and that I should feel completely free to breastfeed there (they said that, for real!).

Visiting language students from Asia who “flirt” with Oliver and want to take his picture. It’s really not as weird as it sounds and it happens more often than you’d think, as we have several large ESL schools nearby. I’m not particularly paranoid when it comes to people photographing my child (they always ask first, and really, if we’re in public anybody could be photographing him without my knowledge). Sometimes we even get these photos emailed to us later, as in the case of the photo above, which was one of several taken by a Korean visitor we met in January.

Other mommies and their babies. Our neighbourhood is densely populated but geographically quite small, so we pretty much can’t even walk a block and a half to the grocery store without running into at least one other mom and baby pair that we know. It’s so nice to see the same familiar faces day after day, and it really makes this place feel like somewhere we belong.

Who are the people in your neighbourhood?

Oliver enjoys a cup of miso soup at our favourite local sushi joint. The tiny restaurant, which is a popular destination among celebrities and NHL hockey players, seats fewer than 40 people, yet has two high chairs and a booster seat!

We were in the mood for steaks and were headed to The Keg, but passed by Earls on our way, and decided to dine there instead.

Earls is not a family restaurant per se. Its target demographic is young, childless professionals in their late 20s. I know this because I was their target market a mere four years ago. That said, a restaurant does not have to explicitly brand itself as a family establishment in order to be suitable for families. Nothing in my previous experiences at Earls suggested to me that it was anything but a perfectly appropriate place to bring our toddler for supper on a quiet, early, mid-week evening.

We go out of our way to avoid designated “family” restaurants such as White Spot, Red Robin and Denny’s, as the food is often horrible (and never Paleo-friendly), and the constant refrains of screaming, whining children unbearable. So instead we take Oliver to real restaurants and insist that he behaves like a civilized human being. He nearly always lives up to our expectations, but if he’s having a rough day, we simply take him outside so that he does not disturb the other diners — or we ask for our food “to-go.”

But I digress. Back to Earls…

If you’re not familiar with Earls, it is a popular “premium casual” chain that started in Alberta more than 30 years ago. They have close to six dozen locations across five Canadian provinces and three U.S. states.  The particular Earls we visited is located on Vancouver’s busiest tourist street.

We arrived and were greeted warmly, then shown to our table. As we approached our table, I requested a high chair or booster for Oliver and was told that they didn’t have any.

Wait — what?!

I gave the hostess a look of confusion, whereupon she confirmed that no, they did not have any seating for Oliver, but would be happy to provide us with a stack of cushions and blankets to boost him up to table height. Yes folks, a wobbly stack of patio cushions and blankets is Earls’ idea of safe and appropriate seating for a baby or toddler.

During the hour we spent at the restaurant, I noticed two other families with small children — one with a toddler about Oliver’s age, and another with a baby of approximately six months. This confirmed my intuition that we were not totally off-base in choosing Earls as a place to bring our child.

When we arrived back home, I submitted the following feedback via a comment form on Earls’ corporate website:

We were very surprised to find that this location, being right in the middle of a busy tourist destination, does not have a single highchair or booster seat on hand. Indeed, during what was a very quiet (not busy) weekday dinner hour, there were two other couples dining with small children, so it seems we are not the only ones who were under the impression this would be a relatively family-friendly destination for an early weekday supper. Stacked blankets and cushions are not a safe booster option for babies and toddlers.

The next morning, I received this response via email:

Dear Carli,

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback with us. 

We do forward all comments to the restaurant location to take into consideration for future planning. 

At Earls we don’t operate as a chain, our restaurants are not all the same – they are designed for our established guests as well as the location of the restaurant. Every Earls restaurant has to make a choice as to what they offer based on their market; from the menu to the decor to the music they play and the volume they play it – even the lighting and the space between tables is a conscious choice. 

Simply put, requests for highchairs are rare. Where we see the need, some of our restaurants do have highchairs, approximately a quarter of our locations, and just over half our restaurants have booster chairs. Most of those are located in more suburban locations. 

Again, we thank you for your feedback and we hope to see you and your family in Earls again sometime soon. 

Sincerely, 
Miko Bryson 
Earls Restaurants Ltd.

I thought the response was dismissive and not at all helpful, so I continued the conversation:

Dear Miko,

Flip diaper cover in “Albert” pattern, with a Flip disposable insert.

After our disappointing experience with gDiapers, I did some online searching and came across the Flip hybrid diapering system. Maybe came across isn’t really the best description, as I’d actually heard of these before. They are made by the same manufacturer as our beloved BumGenius diapers, and as soon as I saw them, I was kicking myself for not remembering about them before I went ahead and spent all that money on gDiapers.

Flip diapers are essentially just the waterproof breathable shell of the BumGenius diaper, with no suedecloth liner/pocket. They come in the same colours and prints, and once on the baby, are virtually indistinguishable from BumGenius diapers.

We have been using Flips for naps and overnight for about two months. They are awesome for so many reasons:

They are amazingly versatile. Flips can be used with natural cotton, bamboo), synthetic (e.g. microfibre) or disposable inserts. They can be used with the manufacturer’s own inserts, or with almost any other style of cloth diaper insert by any other manufacturer. They can be used as a cover over top of a traditional prefold or fitted diaper. You can customize the absorbency by using one insert or several.

One size fits all, from birth to potty training. Yes, they’ll be a little bit bulky on a newborn, but they are designed to fit babies from eight to 35 lbs.

They are available with snap closures. I personally prefer snaps, as they are much more durable, they don’t stick to other fabrics, they don’t pick up lint and hair in the washing machine, and you don’t need to remember to fold down the laundry tabs. Snap closures also have the benefit of being toddler-proof, if you happen to have a “diaper Houdini” on your hands.

They can be machine or hand-washed, and they dry quickly. In my experience, hand-washing isn’t the best for getting the stink out, but it’s a good option if you need a quick turnaround time and don’t have an entire load of laundry to wash. When machine washed, the diapers dry very quickly — even indoors in our humid West Coast climate.

They are economical. Not cheap, mind you, but economical, in that you do not need to have a large number of these to make them work. One shell can be reused several times, providing it hasn’t been soiled with poop. We have three Flip shells, which is an ideal number for nap and overnight diapering. We reuse the nap diaper for overnight, then toss it in the laundry the next morning. Three diapers allows me to throw these in with Oliver’s laundry every second day.

The Flip disposable inserts are made from renewable and non-harmful (to baby or Earth) materials, and are free of scents and dyes. They are also very affordable, when compared with the expensive gDiapers inserts (that cost more than $0.50 each in Canada). It would be great if Flip inserts were also compostable like the gDiapers inserts, but given that we are only using two or three per day, and that we cloth diapered full-time until daytime potty training, I’m not going to let myself feel too guilty about this. [Edit: See the comments section below. Cotton Babies Inc. confirms that these inserts are in fact compostable!]

They are cute. Come on, what cloth diaper review would be complete without mention of the diaper’s cuteness? I am especially fond of the “Albert” (as in Einstein) pattern, as shown in the photo above.

I loved everything about our BumGenius diapers, but if I were going to purchase a stash of cloth diapers all over again, I would probably do a 50/50 split of BumGenius and Flips. I would also highly recommend these diapers as a viable option for families who only wish to cloth diaper part-time.

(No disclosure statement needed here. We purchased these diapers ourselves, and I was not compensated by anyone for writing this post.)

Before: Three scrambled eggs, a navel orange and half an apple.

After.

*

Before: Ground beef with fried onions and mushrooms, in tomato sauce. Steamed broccoli, cauliflower and carrots on the side.

After (the broccoli was a little al dente for his liking).

*

Before: Chicken stew with mushrooms, onions, carrots, snow peas and kale.

After.

*

Before: Half a rack of ribs (with Paleo BBQ sauce!), green beans, and rainbow carrots.

During: He finished his serving and asked for more. This is the rest of the rack of ribs, plus more carrots (not shown).

After.

Last Tuesday evening, we had a Category 5 meltdown at the dinner table. Over sweet potatoes.

We sat down for a supper of rib eye steak, mashed sweet potatoes, and green beans. Within a minute, Oliver had scarfed down his entire portion of sweet potato and was asking for more. “Finish your steak and green beans,” I told him. “If you’re still hungry afterwards, you can have another serving of sweet potato.”

Normally, such a statement would be met with a half-hearted protest, followed by Oliver happily gobbling up the rest of the food on his plate. But with the sweet potato, that was not the case. Oliver lost it. He began to wail, “More pato, more pato.” He clenched his jaw and turned his head at any offers of steak (which he loves) and green beans. He began to thrash around. He got so upset and cried with such intensity that we actually thought he was going to vomit.

We removed him from the table until he calmed down, and brought him back to try again. Four times.

Finally, he finished his steak and green beans, and then ate all the rest of the sweet potato in the serving bowl. And even when the sweet potato was obviously all gone, he continued to beg for more.

This sort of drama never happens with mashed cauliflower, which has a similar appearance and texture to mashed potato.

There is only one other food that has the power to make Oliver lose it so completely: bananas.

I first became aware of Oliver’s issues with bananas when he was around 11 months old. We were about to queue up for the check-out at Safeway, when Oliver had one of his classic grocery store meltdowns. Except this time, instead of the usual unintelligible screaming, he was actually crying, “nana,” and pointing to a display of bananas, so I finally understood what the tantrum was about.

In the eight months that have followed, we have had many, many a tantrum about bananas. It’s a bit of a running joke around here, and also one of the main reasons we limit Oliver’s banana consumption.

All of this is to say that if these starchy but otherwise quite healthy foods cause Oliver to have such massive emotional outbursts, I can only imagine the magnitude and frequency of the temper tantrums we might have over bread, cookies and crackers.

Have you noticed any patterns with your child’s food-related temper tantrums? Are there foods you avoid or restrict due to their apparent power to cause behavioural issues?

Our “meal plan”: simple, but effective.

J and I have never been particularly good at meal planning. There were a few occasions where we sat down and tried to draft a two-week meal plan, but I’m not sure that we ever managed to completely finish the task.

We also never managed to follow whatever bit of planning we had completed. In retrospect, we made our plans too detailed and our meals too ambitious for our lifestyle, so we kept finding ourselves in a position where we were lacking either the time or the inclination to cook whatever was detailed in the plan. Or we somehow couldn’t find one of the meal’s main ingredients in the shops that day, and were stuck having to improvise something else at the last minute.

For a while, we completely gave up on meal planning. Every morning, just before leaving for work, J would say to me, “Give some thought to what you’d like for dinner tonight,” and of course, neither of us would. Then at 5:00 PM, my phone would ring and inevitably J would be on the other end, asking the dreaded question, “What are we doing for dinner?” We’d both be at a loss for ideas and usually end up eating one of our five easy standbys. Which became incredibly boring. And caused us to order way too much non-Paleo takeout.

In the fall I had a flash of brilliance, and we created a meal outline. Whereas a traditional meal plan specifies the exact dish to be served, our outline gives only the basis of the meal (the main protein and/or the broad category of dish), leaving us the flexibility to adapt it to our needs on any given day. Our meal outline is as follows:

Mondays – chicken
Tuesdays – beef
Wednesdays – fish
Thursdays – pork
Fridays – ground meat
Saturdays – wildcard
Sundays – soup/stew/curry/chilli/etc.

You’ll note that there is some overlap, for example, ground beef could be used on Tuesday (beef night) and/or on Friday (ground meat night).

Underneath is a list of quick and easy dishes we can choose from, for example, on chicken night: roasted legs/thighs, chicken breast with mushroom sauce, fajita chicken, chicken stir-fry. Obviously we do not limit ourselves to those options, but it provides some basic inspiration for the uninspired. If we’re feeling more ambitious, we’ll look for an innovative recipe in one of our Paleo cookbooks.

Under the list of main dishes we have a list of vegetable side dishes. We serve one, or sometimes two, vegetable options at each supper.

Saturday night’s “wildcard” allows us the flexibility to eat something special (e.g. lamb or wild game), to order take-out, or to dine out. We aren’t doctrinaire about which day of the week is our “wildcard” night, so if we have an opportunity to deviate from the plan on a different day, we’ll just eat that day’s designated meal on Saturday.

Why this works for us:

1. It gives us a framework. At the very least, I know that when I go to the grocery store on Monday, I am to leave with chicken. While I’m there, I can figure out the rest of the details, according to whatever else is fresh and available.

2. Because of our proximity to groceries (we are lucky to have three major grocery stores, an indoor public market, and more than a dozen smaller food shops within 10 minutes’ walk of our apartment!), we really don’t have to plan our meals down to the finest detail. We do our grocery shopping daily, and we have access to a lot of food options.

3. We don’t have to plan for breakfasts and lunches. Breakfast almost always consists of a large number of eggs, some produce and some meat, in whatever form we feel like cooking (scrambled eggs, frittata, omelette, etc.). This carries J and me through until dinner, while Oliver simply eats leftovers from the previous evening’s meal as his lunch.

I have seen some truly amazing 30-day meal plans out in the Paleo Blogosphere (check out Whole Family Strong if you’re looking for inspiration), but such things seem to be far beyond J’s and my level of planning and ambition. The strategy we are using has served us very well over the course of the last six or seven months, and I believe we have found our sweet spot between rigid planning and total chaos.

Does your family follow a meal plan, or do you just go with the flow? How do you prepare fresh, healthy and affordable meals for your family, given the constraints of a modern, busy life?

1. Leftovers of the main course from the previous night’s supper. We follow a meal schedule at home, so this usually means that he gets some form of chicken on Tuesday and fish on Thursday. What can I say? We are big fans of routine and predictability .

Chicken stew with mushrooms and asparagus.

2. Avocado. He adores it, and I know that if he eats nothing else (which, well… basically never happens), he will still get a good 250 to 300 calories in him.

Oliver eats an entire avocado almost every day. It’s an easy source of healthy calories and essential fats.

3. Vegetables. Sometimes I pack leftover vegetables from the previous night’s supper (e.g. steamed carrots and broccoli), or sometimes he gets fresh, raw veggies.

Orange pepper pieces and yellow tomatoes.

4. Fruit. Oliver loves his fruit. I usually include two kinds of fruit, preferably — but not always — of two different colours.

Grapes (halved, as per daycare rules) and strawberry pieces.

Before daycare, Oliver eats a breakfast of two eggs plus fruit and/or avocado. He skips the daycare’s morning snack time, per my request, since we like to keep his schedule and routine relatively the same at daycare as it is at home (he is not normally accustomed to having a snack in the morning).

The food I send for him covers both lunch and afternoon snack, and I have specifically asked the daycare to reserve some of his main dish or avocado to be served at afternoon snack. They used to only serve him fruit in the afternoon, and by the time I’d pick him up at 5:30, he was ravenous and cranky!

The whole kit and caboodle.

Ingredients:

2 x 600g bags of unsweetened, frozen fruit (berries or bite-sized pieces work best)

“Bite Sized Blend” works perfectly for this recipe.

1 large egg
2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp honey (use up to 3 tbsp if you like your crumble topping sweeter)
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
2-3  cups almond flour*
2 cups unsweetened dried coconut (I use one cup of ribbon cut and one cup of shredded)
1 cup crushed walnut pieces
cinnamon to taste

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350˚F.
2. Dump both bags of frozen fruit into a 9 x 15″ baking dish.
3. In a large mixing bowl, stir together egg, coconut oil, honey, vanilla and salt.
4. Add 2 cups almond flour, dried coconut, walnut pieces and cinnamon.
5. With your hands, mix the ingredients together until you have a relatively dry, crumbly dough.
*Add more almond flour, as necessary.
6. Using your hands, crumble the dough over the top of the frozen fruit, in a shallow, even layer.
7. Bake for 40 minutes, or until the crumble topping is dry and slightly browned.

Serve plain, or drizzled with coconut milk.

Serves 8-12.

Before going into the oven.

Forty minutes later… Paleo fruit crumble!

Closeup view of the toasty, crumbly goodness.