One Boy and WillPowders Protein Powder!

In the epic battle between parents and the insatiable appetites of their offspring, the quest for a healthy diet can seem like a Herculean task. Armed with broccoli and kale, parents embark on a covert operation to infiltrate the fortress of children’s taste buds every meal time.  Endlessly scouring the internet and strategically planning  meals that will easily disguise the essential vitamins and minerals, you know they need to fuel their growth, often ends up with parents with their heads in their hands, crying over an uneaten batch of pasta sauce filled with ninja veg, wondering where the hell they went wrong. 

Worse still, your friend’s kids willingly opt for avocado on sourdough toast as an after school snack, prefer nuts to crisps and couldn’t bear the thought of eating a meal that wasn’t garnished with a garden salad with homegrown, pickled beetroot to boot. They eat whatever is put in front of them with zero bribery or promises of some sugar ladened, seed oil riddled pudding. Oh the shame, “why is my child broken?” You lament, whilst suppressing the urge to tell your friend to shove her smug where the sun doesn't shine. You cast your mind back to when they were babes and revel in your baby led weaning approach to their diet, allowing them to experiment with a wide variety of rainbow coloured food, convinced you were doing the very best for your little one, and this is the thanks you get for trying your hardest to keep them alive and thriving. 

If this sounds all too familiar, please know you’re not alone.  As I write this, I am battling with an 8 year old who apparently no longer likes spag bol because “it has veggies in it!!!” Not liking cooked carrots anymore is his latest dagger to my back; I mean, FFS! Throw a mum a bone, kid. I unashamedly stand in solidarity with the millions of parents who have tried a whole manner of different ways to sneak the good stuff into their child’s body; trying every recipe and every strategy under the sun, from the threat of “well, there’s nothing else - you’ll go to bed hungry!” to “if you just try it, darling, Mummy will buy you a puppy!” The echoes of friends suggesting that I let him cook with me, or introduce the rule that he tries one new thing a week, maybe try eating as a family etc, etc… often sends me into a spin because I’ve done all that, time and time again and it hasn’t worked, leaving me feeling like a failure.  

You may feel, like me, as you journey through your WillPowder’s adventure, that it has never been more important to tweak your child’s diet as you overhaul your own.  You are now a well-informed eater and the guilt of giving in to the whims of your child’s dodgy palette is just too much to bear.  It’s easy for people who are not living the same struggle to offer you tips and advice, but like most well rounded parents, I know that each little munchkin requires a different approach when it comes to getting them to eat what’s good for them.  Standing firm and watching my child go hungry because he has stubbornly dug his heels into the ‘no nutrient mud’, having a slanging match across the table or attempting to pacify a crying crumpled heap evoked by food fear just isn’t an option for me anymore, so I’ve had to swallow my pride, have faith that one day, dinner time will be a happy family time and that my patience, understanding and creativity in the kitchen will pay off eventually. I’ve opted to be kind to myself because it’s not like I don’t try.  For now, I’m happy to stick with the veggies, fruit and protein that I know he will eat, whilst continuing to introduce new flavours and ingredients but also accepting when he says no. What more can I do? There’s only so much wine I can drink.

Whilst I’ve made my peace with the fact that my child has his father’s affection for baked beans and sausages (it genuinely hurts me), I can’t shake what I now know about food and what I know he needs to fuel his growth; it often haunts me as I serve him homemade chicken nuggets, nuggets I was once so proud of innovating, for the third time in a week.  I’m sick to death of being part of the beige brigade and desperate to sneak nutrient dense food into his little body.  It’s not that easy though, or is it? 

Whilst Davinia and her WillPowders have completely changed my life in more ways than one, her innovation of the cleanest protein powder on the market has also allowed me to sleep at night, giving me the gift of a full amino acid profile that my child will consume by the bucket load.  He may still partake in a Cornflake or Weetabix breakfast occasionally, but at least he now washes in down with a glass of organic, raw milk and a scoop full of Milk Chocolate Keto Protein Powder or Vanilla Keto Protein Powder that I know, is not going to spike his blood sugar, keeping him fully satiated until lunch time. Don’t get me wrong, getting him to swap from his usual Nesquik preference was no easy feat - the child really does have the taste buds of some sort of oracle omnipotent and the nose of a Blood Hound that I cannot seem to trick into anything.  However, whilst I am a lot of things,  I am no quitter.  Refusing to be dictated to by my 8 year old’s third eye, I found myself decanting equal measures of Protein Powder as well as his usual Nesquik into a glass of full fat milk, hoping the sugar laced chocolate horrorshow would mask the goodness of the Protein. To my delight, I beat him with my trickery and machiavellian genius (insert evil laugh!) It took a few glasses to reduce the quantity of Nesquik but now there is none added to his morning elixir of magic.  Who’s your mama now, boy!

The main protein element comes from grass fed bovine bone broth, which provides a host of benefits, particularly for gut health. Now, in our house, we don’t just celebrate trying new food… no, no, no! We also celebrate poo! That’s right…poo! Why? Because like many kids, our kid has spent the last 8 years withholding it, terrified to poop because of that one time when it hurt. He could go days, sometimes sitting on the pot under duress, listening to those God awful poo songs on Youtube in an attempt to encourage him to relax whilst chugging back Movicol like it was going out of fashion.   It may seem utterly shameful, but I simply did not connect the dots, not realising that his gut health needed attention, instead believing that he was just one of those kids that wasn’t in tune with his poo clock. Since scrapping the morning smoothie carton, which I naively believed was a great way to start his day, and introducing his morning protein shake, the boy has joined the ‘poo at least once a day’ club! Hoorah! Not only has the protein powder helped to repair his gut, it’s given him a much needed sense of relief.  His mood is up, he’s more active and he is happier, which is all we really want for our kids, isn’t it.  Knowing that I am giving him a dose of goodness rich in collagen and amino acids, which, in turn, allow him to absorb essential nutrients from those homemade chicken nuggets (wink), supporting his immune system and providing him with a strong foundation for his development honestly makes me feel like I’ve won the parent lottery.