What I Actually Fed My Kids on Vacation (and how you can do it too)

Navigating food during the summer can feel like a whole lot of stress. Vacations, eating out, swim parties, sweets galore, lack of structure... I get it!

I just got back from a two-week baseball trip with my family - managing tons of restaurants, games ending at odd times, italian ice at by the pool. It's a lot!

We had an eight hour drive to kick off the trip followed by four flights and two hotels in between. 

In this episode, we talk about:

• How to help your kid eat in a balanced way even when eating out all the time
• What to keep in your hotel room at the bare minimum (and the hotel tip I wish someone had told me sooner)
• How to think about your role at restaurants - and what to let them order or not
• Meal and snack ideas for on the go (especially when it's long periods)
• How to have a rhythm and hold boundaries around things like ice cream and soda
• What I packed that sent people into a frenzy on Instagram and what actually ended up happening

If you're in the middle of summer and wondering how to navigate the lack of structure and countless sweets, or if you're anticipating your next week away - listen in!

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- Instagram: @nicolecruzRD

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Thank you for tuning in and see you next week!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Intentional Table Podcast. This is where we go beyond nutrition to not only talk about how to help your child eat well and get the nutrients they need, but how to also support them in having a healthy relationship with food. If you want your child to eat a variety, listen to their body cues, eat the amount they need, and not be obsessed with sweets, or you just don't want to fight about food, you're in the right place. Here you'll find practical tips and compassionate guidance to support your family in navigating food with more joy and less stress. I'm Nicole Cruz, registered dietitian and mom of three, and I can't wait to dive into today's episode with you. Welcome back to the intentional table. And I am so excited to be back because I was gone for two weeks on a two-week vacation back-to-back. Week one, we were out of state in Reno, Nevada, and week two, we were out of state in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, for both of our boys to play baseball. So we drove up to Reno, took a rental car there, left it at the airport, and then myself and my oldest and my youngest, we flew out to Myrtle Beach a day early. And then my husband and my middle one flew out the following day so that we were able to be timely for championship games, for opening day in South Carolina, for all the things. And so as you can imagine, there was a lot of traveling, there was a lot of hotel eating, there was a lot of eating out at restaurants, there was team stuff. You know, food is woven into everything that we do because we have to eat multiple times a day, right? And it's also such a social thing that it goes along with vacations, whether we're with family or friends or teams. So I want to share a little bit about what that looked like with you in terms of how we helped our kids still eat in an overall balanced way while having much different, you know, structure and food available with having busy schedules, and while also still not getting into power struggles or doing things that potentially could interfere with their relationship with food. And I know a lot of us are going on vacations right now, and this is relevant for the summer or any time of year. And so I think it'll be really useful for you to hear some tips and strategies and just how we navigate things uh in general. So we started our trip with an eight-hour road trip the first day to get to Reno. And what I like to do, whether it's being in the car or being on a flight, is to pack snacks. And then if it's that lengthy to also find time to maybe stop and get a meal or pick up something in the airport. It really depends on what the duration is and what the options are. But what I planned for us was that we would pack a bunch of snacks and then we would make one stop to get out of the car for a few, stretch our legs, and grab an actual meal and then keep going. And so how I like to do that is I go and I buy a bunch of different snacks and I put them all out and let my kids pack from them. So everybody gets out their backpack or a specific bag that I have, depending on the scenario. And they can pick whatever snacks they want from what I put out. Now, in making that selection, I always try to find some things that are maybe a little bit more novel because a lot of times they're bored on the road or they're trying to figure out what to do with themselves on a plane. And so if food can make that a little bit more enjoyable or they can have something different, that is a plus in my book. So I try to find maybe some different types of chips that we don't always get, or different granola bars, or crackers, or maybe it's fruit snacks they don't normally buy, that sort of thing. So I try to find some things that are maybe a little bit different. And then I also keep staples and I try to get a variety so that we're also incorporating some sort of protein or fat options, as well as some fruit, because we all know that most snacks are usually just carbohydrates, which is absolutely fine. But when we have lengthy time, we often want to try to mix in some other nutrients. So I'll get things like meat sticks or jerky, nuts or trail mix. If we have a cooler or something, maybe some cheese or string cheese. Sometimes we'll pack a sandwich like a peanut butter and jelly. I love buying this mixed snack pack of corn nuts, but it has barbecue, ranch, plain, I think a Chipotle one. And one thing I also always get is a box of candy for each kid. At the Target near us, they have these boxes. They're pretty cheap. And we can get things like Sour Patch Kids or Swedish, Swedish fish or uh Reese's pieces, MMs. There's a whole variety. And so everybody usually gets one box of candy as well. Sometimes there's a drink included. This time I got a certain like ice drink. I don't know if you've seen those drinks. ICE is the brand of them. I'd never buy those. And so again, a novel thing. So they've had them before, they like them. So that was something fun to get like a lemonade ice drink, right? Something different. So we pack up those bags and then I just let them have them and eat them however they want throughout that trip. Now, I also pack an additional bag that's going to include some more things. So if they don't put an orange or cutie in their bag or an apple, because I always put out some sort of whole fruit like that that we could peel in the car or they could just bite into. Or maybe they don't pick the meat sticks or string cheese. I still have a little bag that has extra snacks. And that way I can offer them something different, or I can always replenish a little bit if needed, if they don't pack enough for themselves. So that's the first thing is to give them the control to let them pack what they want. You could even ask them ahead of time, are there any specific snacks that you want me to pick up? And then let them put it in and you just kind of fill in the blanks and let them have control over it and eat it however they want on that trip. Now, the caveat could be if you know that you're stopping, you might want to let them know. Give them the countdown kind of in an hour. Maybe we want to start thinking about putting snacks away so that we can be ready to eat when we get to the restaurant or wherever you're going. So I don't know if you saw, but I actually posted a reel of myself prepping these snacks and getting ready to let my kids come choose them. And the funny part was, or maybe it's not so funny, is I got a bunch of backlash from it. A lot of people saying how like this isn't food and kids shouldn't even be eating that and it's not real. And of, you know, how could you give your kids all of that processed junk and crap and on and on? And here's the funny thing that I want to share with you is that my kids did not even finish what they packed for that road trip. There were still candy uneaten, granola bars uneaten, chips uneaten. And then we're at the hotel and we're packing up to go to the field the next day. And I'm like, here are some snacks because I packed the rest so that we could have them for that week in the hotel. And they were like, oh, I don't want any more chips. So they didn't even want that food anymore that I had packed, which is annoying to me because I spent money on it. But it wasn't novel. It's not that big of a deal that they ate a bag of chips or a granola bar on one day. And this is also what happens when we have that food neutrality and we have exposure to lots of different foods. They don't just eat the food because it's there, because it feels scarce, because they're never allowed to have it, even with these, you know, highly quote unquote processed foods, the convenience foods, the things that everybody says are bad and have chemicals and we shouldn't be eating them. Well, kids can self-regulate quite well when they have a healthy relationship with them. And they can also recognize in their own bodies that they want something different when we give them the opportunity to do that. Okay, now let's jump into actually being there, being on vacation for some extended period of time. For me, this was two weeks, which was quite a long time. I don't know that we've actually ever been away from the house for two weeks with all the kids. And so when it comes to vacation, what often comes up is that we are having less structure. We're having meals, maybe even at different times. You know, it could be that we're planning to meet with people, or for us, it was sometimes we might have a game at noon, and then the whole team is going out to eat at 3 p.m., which is not our normal schedule. We often have more convenience and snack foods. A lot of times nutrition looks different, like there's fewer fruits and vegetables, fewer whole grains, sometimes fewer proteins, and often more fried foods, more, you know, snacks and convenience foods, more sweets, even. And on vacation, you might be around friends or family who eat different than you. And that can play a role as well into what you're feeding your kid or what other people are eating around them, or just their schedules or potentially comments that they make, which is for another episode. Um, but all of this is normal. And we aren't necessarily going to replicate the way that we eat at home, but what we want to do is try to support our families, to support our kids to still get a variety of foods, to still be able to listen to their body and eat the amount they need, even when our schedule and structure is different. Now, before we dive in, I want to do a quick reminder on what our role in the feeding relationship is. Because even though vacation is different, even though structure and schedules are different, that doesn't mean that our overall approach to how we're navigating food with our kids changes. So when it comes to food, as parents, we are in charge of that basic what, when, and where of food. What food is available, when it's available, and where or what the environment is like. And our kids get to decide within that if and how much they want to eat. And what that means even more is that we are not getting into negotiations. We're not forcing them to eat certain things. We're not bribing them. Like if you want to order the chicken tenders again, or if you want to order the mac and cheese again, then you have to get broccoli as a side. We're not getting into all of these battles or negotiations or forcing them to eat a certain way. We are still creating some structure. And I want us to think about it as support. So if we know that this is what food is mostly going to look like, eating out at restaurants or having access to a lot more, let's say, fried foods and sweets than we normally would, how are we supporting them still around that? And I'm gonna give you some more clear examples in a minute, but I just want us to really understand that essentially things aren't actually changing. We're just figuring out how we need to support them in this different environment. Now, week one, we were in a standard hotel room with two queen beds for five of us and a mini fridge. That's what the setup was. And again, we were with a baseball team. So we were at the field with their snack bar available with whatever snacks I could bring to the field. We were eating out as part of like team bonding. We were eating at odd times when games maybe ended. And then we were also doing other activities in the midst of all of this. And eating out with five people adds up really, really fast. So I'm taking all of that into account the finances, the schedules, being with other people, when I'm figuring out how we're navigating this first leg of the trip. Okay, so let's start with the bare minimum. So even when we just go away for, let's say, a short weekend trip or something and we're staying in a hotel, the bare minimum for me is that I always get fruit because I feel like we hardly ever get any fruits or vegetables eating out. That's not usually what my kids are picking as a side. And so I like to fill that in. If we have a mini fridge, my bare minimum is that I get some sort of fruit. I've gotten bags of cherries when they were in season. I often get oranges because my kids love oranges and we have access to them here year round and they're easy to take on the go. And I can just peel them whole and then, you know, separate them into slices. So that feels pretty easy. Sometimes we get apples or blueberries, but at the bare minimum, I get one or two fruits so that at least we have some form of produce. Now, I don't want any of this to be a rule book. Like if you're not able to get to the store and get fruit, okay, it's a few days. No one is going to be hurt by that. But this is just what my intention typically is. Now, something that I didn't even consider, to be honest, until this trip. And so this might be helpful for you too, is that we found out after like two days into our trip that we could ask for a microwave to have in our room. And that ended up helping us a lot with just being able to reheat leftovers that my kids wouldn't have otherwise eaten from a restaurant or something. So I want to share that because if you're going to another hotel, you might be able to ask if they happen to have a microwave that they could let you put into your room in case that would be useful. So once we got the microwave, we got some more mac and cheese cups, we got ramen and pre-cooked chicken. So when some of our schedules were a little bit wonky, like maybe we did have the 12 p.m. game, we didn't eat lunch until three. We go back to the hotel, we're swimming, and now it's really late and the kids are getting hungry, but we're not necessarily going to go out to a restaurant or have a whole huge meal. I'm able to heat up ramen, put some chicken slices in it, mix it together, and put out some fruit or some mini cucumbers. So that was really useful to not have to go and buy a whole nother meal, or even when people weren't like that hungry, let's say, to eat a burger or something. They could just have an easy mac and cheese cup or something like the ramen with chicken. And then some other things that I got to just have in the room that we could either have for a really early breakfast. Sometimes we had to be at the field at 7 a.m., that we could take to the field, uh, that we could have just while we were coming back to the hotel for a little bit of downtime, were things like protein bars, string cheese, bananas, lemon loaf. So they could just grab a quick slice of that before a game, meat sticks, right? We could also do things like some lunch meat, some mini cucumbers, fruit like I had mentioned. So these are all things that you could potentially put in your room or have available. And I didn't let my kids eat that lemon loaf whenever they wanted. I said, no, this is for a breakfast so that you can grab a quick slice and then I'll bring additional fruit, string cheese, meat sticks, et cetera, to the field. So just because you have it doesn't mean that it has to be a free-for-all, just like we're talking about how we do at home. We can still create some structure. So it's okay to still have boundaries around that and to use these foods in a way that's going to work for you. Okay, and I don't want to list off a million and 22 things, but some other things to consider also are getting a hard-boiled egg, some peanut butter packets or peanut butter and bread. You could get those individual packets of chips with guacamole or pretzels with hummus. So there's lots of options to think about snacks for your family that are going to be maybe a little bit more filling to hold them over a bit, more than just say, some plain chips or a granola bar here and there. Now, we made it through week one. And then, like I said, we had to hop on a plane and fly across the country. And we had to leave the hotel at 4 a.m. to do that. So the night before, I got everything ready and I packaged up a few snacks for us to take. And I had a plan. I had a plan that we were going to jump on the plane. It was going to be super early. We probably wouldn't be very hungry. Maybe we would just eat a bar or something. We'd get to our layover destination. We would grab food like a sandwich or grab something really quick to go at the airport, hop on our next plane. Well, we ended up with nearly zero time to catch our next flight. So myself and the two kids and our carry-ons were racing through the Dallas airport to try to get to our next flight. And let me tell you, we were out of breath. I was so anxious that we weren't going to make it. We didn't have time to go to the bathroom. We didn't have time to grab a single thing to eat. So I was very grateful that we had packed up some of these snacks to have on the plane because we didn't have any substantial food for the next flight. We just had to get by with some meat sticks, some chips and crackers, uh, you know, the basics. I'd put like an apple, an orange in there to just get us all the way through until we could get there and get a full meal. So sometimes with travel, especially, unexpected things happen. So at least having something to eat. I know it's not always the favorite, but I always say like fed is best. And if we aren't getting something in our kids, they can be hangry, they can be falling apart and melting down, and maybe they don't even want to eat what you have, but hopefully you have at least some crackers or something to get into their system. So we got to week two. And luckily, we had a full kitchen at the next place, which was so much nicer. We had more space to have food to actually make some things so that we didn't have to eat out every single meal. We also had a freezer, we had an oven, a stovetop, a microwave. So it helped us be able to expand our variety a little bit with what we could prepare. Because again, eating out every meal for two weeks is a heck of a lot of money. For us, that is something that I'm taking into consideration. So we did a lot of simple meals so that we weren't eating out every single time. Now, another thing here that we normally try to do, and we have done for almost every hotel that we've stayed at, especially for baseball, the team usually makes it a priority. But for whatever reason, this time it didn't work out, is we try to get breakfast included. And if that's an option, that can be a huge benefit. So I was bummed we didn't have that as an option this time, but we made it work. So we went and we got some staples to be able to have for meals. We got pasta, frozen pizza, breakfast sandwiches, bagged salad, again, precooked chicken. Here, because I had a freezer, I was able to get some frozen mango because my kids love the frozen mango, just letting it slightly defrost and then they can eat it. You could get things like, you know, chicken nuggets, frozen meatballs, lots of quick and easy things. So the things that I got specifically for breakfast were the frozen breakfast sandwiches and waffles. I also got individual cups of avocado, how they sell like a little pack of them so that a whole big one didn't go bad quickly. But my kids love sourdough bread with avocado, like avocado toast. And sometimes we put an egg on it, sometimes not. But I got a loaf of sourdough and avocado so we could make avocado toast in the room. I got peanut butter and Nutella and wheat bread so that we were able to do that. And we just got eggs, cereal, and milk and some yogurts. And I don't usually buy the flip cup yogurts at home. I usually get like a big tub of it and then we put granola on it, we make it our own. But here I bought the flip cups because that was something that, again, was a little bit novel. It might encourage them to eat some yogurt or make that a little bit more fun because my kids are not the biggest yogurt eaters. So that's what we did for breakfast. Then we had some other things that we could just figure out, like whether it was a late night, whether it was an afternoon when we came back, peanut butter and banana sandwiches. We got hummus and pretzels, we got mini cucumbers and carrots and other types of fruit as well. Okay, I don't want to bore you with tons of lists, but I do want you to have some ideas of things that you could pack yourself. So hopefully you take out a pen, paper, and you make a few notes. But in terms of how we actually do it, another thing that I like to do is when we're packing up to go out for the day, I always try to bring some sort of fruit with us. And then when we come back to the hotel, if we have any downtime in the room, I will almost always cut up some fruit and mini cucumbers or carrots and maybe put out some pretzels and hummus with it and just put that out for people to eat. Because again, my job is to fill in the gaps. It's to make it more accessible when maybe they're not thinking about it. And oftentimes when we go out to eat, like I said, that's not something that they're going to get or it's not what they're gonna get at the pool bar. You know, when they go and want to order there, they're gonna get chicken tenders and fries or a burger and fries. They're not getting the fruit, the vegetable. So anytime I can, I'm gonna put that out and make it more accessible for them in the room. Now, what about eating out all the time? Do you just let them eat whatever they want or order whatever they want off the menu? My short answer is typically yes. This is a time to give them more permission, more power, more control, the things that kids need to feel safe in the feeding relationship. And again, we can support around that by providing some fruits and vegetables at other times if they're not naturally choosing it. Now, that doesn't mean that we can't point something out and say, oh, look, they have broccoli here. Do you want to order that? Or look, you could choose carrots as a side, or that you couldn't order if your kid, let's say, likes salad. Maybe you order a salad to share with them and see if they want any of it. Or maybe you order that extra side of broccoli for everybody to share. That could look different at different times. But I would not get into negotiations or telling them that they can't have the mac and cheese again or that they can't order the mac and cheese unless they order the broccoli with it. I would let them just choose and order what they want. Now, that doesn't mean that you also can't make a suggestion. Maybe your kid is getting mac and cheese for the fourth time in a row and you want to say, Oh, hey, did you notice that they also have Have cheeseburgers, or they also have chicken tenders, or they also have a quesadilla. Do you want to try something different? All of that is okay. But at the end of the day, I would ultimately let them choose what they want to eat. Now, another thing that I found myself saying on this trip, especially because we were gone for two weeks, is I mentioned to my kids, you know, when we eat out a lot, we tend to not get as many fruits and vegetables. And so you might want to look for times on the menu that it sounds good. Or let's just double check if we're eating a variety today and make sure our tummies are gonna feel good. And so I said that a couple times. This is not something to harp on. We don't want it to be shaming or to make them feel bad or to feel like we're trying to pressure or force them to eat something. We're just planting seeds for them, helping them potentially check in. But we're not making food moral, we're not labeling it as good or bad or doing anything like that. Now, what about drinks when eating out? What about soda or lemonade? You know, can they get different things? So my general rule, and you can decide what this looks like for your family, is that typically if it comes with their meal, I let them have it. Like if they're gonna get the kids' meal and it comes with a drink, then they can choose what that drink is. And again, you have to decide what you're doing with caffeine, how that fits for their age, what time of day it is, if you're okay with that. Or you could say you can choose lemonade milk or water. You can get Sprite or lemonade if you want to drink. Or you can also say we're just getting water at this meal. And I often tell my kids that as well, especially if we're eating out multiple times a day, especially because we were in South Carolina and Reno, where it was so hot, say our bodies really need hydration right now. And so at this meal, we're all just getting water. Plus, I'm not paying $4 for a soda or whatever it might be. And my kids often know that that's a big reason why we're not gonna get drinks at a meal. So everybody is just getting water for this lunch. Or, you know, the choice is to get water or sparkling water. My kids love sparkling water. So sometimes they'll get a sparkling water with lemon or lime in it, and that's fine. Do they sometimes say, but I want a soda? Yeah, and we can just hold the boundary and say, that's okay. We can get a soda again tomorrow, but today everybody's just getting water at this meal. Now, what about sweets? I think a lot of times on vacation, it feels like there's a lot more sweets, whether that's because there's a candy store on the main road that we walk down, or because there's an ice cream or frozen yogurt shop, or for us on week two, there was an Italian ice place by the pool every single day. So, how are you navigating that when it's right there? First thing I want to say is that dessert every day is perfectly fine. And I think we have to go into it just feeling relaxed about that and knowing that that is okay. Is that really the thing that we want to stress over? Is it really going to matter if they have an ice cream every single day for seven days, or in my case, 14 days? And if you feel really anxious about dessert in general or it's been really limited, this might feel hard. So I recognize that too. But dessert every day for a period of time is not a big deal. Or dessert every day always doesn't have to be a big deal either. And with that said, you can have a rhythm around sweets or how you want to navigate them. I was not about to buy an $8 Italian ice by the pool for each one of my kids every single day. So we got it a few times while we were there. And it's okay to say, not today, we can get one tomorrow, or we'll probably get one about three times on this trip. And then maybe you're also getting ice cream out one time. Maybe you buy popsicles or ice cream bars or something to have in the freezer at your hotel if you have that option. And there could be times when maybe there's two things. Like, yeah, we have an Italian ice earlier, and then we are with friends, and they bring out ice cream sandwiches and they have an ice cream sandwich later. That's okay. This is not the thing that we want to be stressing about. And it's also okay to not have it be a free-for-all. And every time you see dessert to feel like you need to buy it. It's absolutely okay to say no or to fill in with more substantial and filling foods. We could say, no, we're not gonna get ice cream right now. We're about to go to lunch. Maybe we can get ice cream later today, or we're gonna get ice cream again tomorrow. And if you're feeling anxious or uncomfortable about it, look at the bigger picture. Look at are they eating other foods? Are they getting the chicken tender sometimes? The burger? Are you providing fruits? Are they getting other foods other than just sweets, even if sweets seem to be a bit more prominent on this trip? So your eating, your family's eating might look a bit different on vacation. And that's absolutely okay. And it's okay when you get back to get back to normal routine, to get back to a more regular structure and rhythm with food. You don't need to make up for it. You don't need to feel like you were bad and you have to make sure that we're eating so healthfully once we get back. It's all going to be okay. There's no reason to feel like you need to detox or go on some healthy eating plan. There's nothing to make up for. We just want to get back to a little bit more structure and feel like we are best supporting our kids. And remember, the way that we eat on vacation is often temporary and it's not that big of a deal. And if it doesn't feel great, that's also our bodies intuitively telling us, yes, maybe we do need some different foods, some different varieties, some different nutrients. What happens over one week or two weeks doesn't determine anything. As soon as you get home, you can get back to normal programming, back to your normal structure and the way that you navigate food. And if this is something that you feel like, I don't know what the heck I'm doing with food. I keep questioning myself. I don't have any sort of normal structure or routine. It does feel chaotic, then I want to encourage you to go watch my free training. Go to Instagram, DM me the word training, or I'll also link it here in the show notes. Check it out because it's going to show you exactly how to create that structure, help your child eat in a more balanced way while also protecting their relationship with food. All right. On that note, let's remind ourselves, as we always do, that nourishing a healthy relationship with food is just as important, if not more, than the food itself. Thank you for joining me at the Intentional Table, and I'll see you next time.