I have a question about eating with family. I'm married and have three small children. It's been really weird while I've been eating my Soups and watching them eat all sorts of things I can't eat. I start on mushies next week, but even afterwards, I wonder how I'll handle some of our normal dishes.

We eat a LOT of chicken, hamburger and shrimp at our house. While we don't eat a lot of Pasta, we do occasionally have spaghetti (whole wheat pasta) and we eat a lot of sandwiches and wraps. We don't eat mac and cheese or hamburger helper (I mostly cook from scratch), but I've found my interest in food is so low right now that I barely remember that dinner is still my responsibility. I do use my crock pot often, especially now that it's winter and that will help with softening the meat.

I guess I'm just wondering what people have found to work for them when cooking for a family with small kids, especially.

I'm also wondering how people with small kids handle the needing to chew a zillion times and eating slowly. Even before my band, I was always the last one at the table because I'm such a slow eater, but I found that I ate more than I wanted to because I was so busy talking to (and correcting!) my children that I barely noticed what I was eating. I would hardly even taste anything until the second serving. But it's hard when I'm in the middle of chewing and someone's about to spill his milk or has fallen out of her chair. Ideas?

Thanks!

I can sympathise with all your concerns.

My DH doesnt often get home till about 7, 7.30 so many nights, I do feed the kids first so my need to eat slowly isnt a big deal.

I do sometimes lack motivation to cook, but that's just the general chore of cooking for a family, nothing really to do with my band. I cook from scratch like you do and stick with meals we'll all eat, cooking something fancy I do on the weekends where the kids might get some baked Beans on toast or something easy for them and Doug and I enjoy a nice meal. We eat Pasta, barbecues (chops, steak, chicken, whatever), home made pizzas, soups, casseroles, roast dinners, lots of variety really. I always include plenty of vegetables and I just take as long as I need to eat, the kids are allowed to go off and do their own thing and leave me sitting there.

I did find back when I was first banded, the crap that tends to go on when you first sit down - the sudden needing the toilet, the need for a drink, spilling drinks, the "I hate this" etc would stress me out and have me so tight I couldnt eat but my kids have kind of passed this stage now 2 years down the track.

I just suffered through it, like I have most of parenthood, lol.

Yeah, I usually eat seperately from my kids during the day for sure.

I think one thing I'm having a hard time with right now is that I'm both trying to think up interesting things I can eat (I'm still on full liquids) and thinking up meals for the family. I'm so bored with liquids and it's hard for me to find enthusiasm for two sets of meals every day. I know this will get better with time, but it is an issue right now. Fortunately, we were given a lot of food by friends, so I haven't had to think too much, but we've been doing a lot of sandwiches and pizza lately. That's not normal for use and it will change, but... ugh.

I'm glad to know this isn't such a burden later on.