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I have to share a parenting triumph that just occurred.....
My youngest son, Nathan, who is 3 1/4 exactly, has never been what you would call a good eater, although he is huge.....the size of many 5 year olds. His diet for the past 2 years has consisted of milk, oj, dry cereal, pancakes, pb&js, string cheese, peas, baby carrots, apples, oranges, bananas, yogurt, toast, chips, cookies, and ice cream. That's it.
Do you notice the absence of an entire food group? He has eaten less than an adult serving of any kind of meat in his ENTIRE life. On our trip to KS a few weeks ago, he ate four chicken McNuggets, which was a HUGE breakthrough.
Well, anyway, tonight we were having the gourmet meal of Manwiches, mac-n-cheese, and peas. DH fixed Nathan a small bowl of both peas (tried and true food for him) and macaroni and cheese (uncharted territory, as are all pasta products for him). Usually we just fix him a pb&j or give him a piece of string cheese, but fixing a separate meal is starting to get old, and he (lately) has been CONSTANTLY hungry and asking for snacks. We recently moved him out of a booster seat and the whole "baby meal" thing has just started to feel wrong. So I decided that tonight was the night to draw my line in the sand, something I honestly never had to do with the other two boys because they just started eating what we ate when they were toddlers without much discussion. Nathan just never would (and he was my fussiest baby about EVERYTHING).
So Nathan immediately balked when he saw what was in front of him. DH said it was time for him to eat big boy food, squeezed his cheeks so his mouth opened, and put 4 pieces of macaroni on his tongue. The tears began. And continued. DH had to leave to take the oldest to b-ball practice, so out the door he went. Nathan was barely crying anymore, but he still had mouth full of macaroni and spit. I talked to him and asked if he was afraid it was too hot. He said yes, so I asked him to roll the macaroni around on his tongue to test it. Then he said it wasn't hot, but he still wouldn't eat it. I asked him if he thought it was too hard to chew. He said yes, so I asked him to squeeze it with his teeth. The next thing I knew, he had chewed it up and swallowed it. And then he ate the whole bowl!!!! I almost got tears in my eyes, I was so relieved he had eaten it. The first bite took about 20 minutes, but after that, it was like he had been eating it all his life. He then went on to eat his bowl of peas, and he drank all of his milk. I gave him a chocolate kiss as a reward, and then we called DH to tell him the good news.
Just had to share......
Sally
My youngest son, Nathan, who is 3 1/4 exactly, has never been what you would call a good eater, although he is huge.....the size of many 5 year olds. His diet for the past 2 years has consisted of milk, oj, dry cereal, pancakes, pb&js, string cheese, peas, baby carrots, apples, oranges, bananas, yogurt, toast, chips, cookies, and ice cream. That's it.
Do you notice the absence of an entire food group? He has eaten less than an adult serving of any kind of meat in his ENTIRE life. On our trip to KS a few weeks ago, he ate four chicken McNuggets, which was a HUGE breakthrough.Well, anyway, tonight we were having the gourmet meal of Manwiches, mac-n-cheese, and peas. DH fixed Nathan a small bowl of both peas (tried and true food for him) and macaroni and cheese (uncharted territory, as are all pasta products for him). Usually we just fix him a pb&j or give him a piece of string cheese, but fixing a separate meal is starting to get old, and he (lately) has been CONSTANTLY hungry and asking for snacks. We recently moved him out of a booster seat and the whole "baby meal" thing has just started to feel wrong. So I decided that tonight was the night to draw my line in the sand, something I honestly never had to do with the other two boys because they just started eating what we ate when they were toddlers without much discussion. Nathan just never would (and he was my fussiest baby about EVERYTHING).
So Nathan immediately balked when he saw what was in front of him. DH said it was time for him to eat big boy food, squeezed his cheeks so his mouth opened, and put 4 pieces of macaroni on his tongue. The tears began. And continued. DH had to leave to take the oldest to b-ball practice, so out the door he went. Nathan was barely crying anymore, but he still had mouth full of macaroni and spit. I talked to him and asked if he was afraid it was too hot. He said yes, so I asked him to roll the macaroni around on his tongue to test it. Then he said it wasn't hot, but he still wouldn't eat it. I asked him if he thought it was too hard to chew. He said yes, so I asked him to squeeze it with his teeth. The next thing I knew, he had chewed it up and swallowed it. And then he ate the whole bowl!!!! I almost got tears in my eyes, I was so relieved he had eaten it. The first bite took about 20 minutes, but after that, it was like he had been eating it all his life. He then went on to eat his bowl of peas, and he drank all of his milk. I gave him a chocolate kiss as a reward,
and then we called DH to tell him the good news.Just had to share......
Sally
. Our oldest was a picky eater and whenever I sat her at the table I had to not act very interested in whether she was eating or not because if she picked up on my excitement that she was actually eating she would promptly stop after spitting out whatever she had in her mouth. It used to drive me nuts! Our 3 year old recently started a new habit of taking a mouth full of food and chewing on the same bite for a half hour or more. I think she thought she found a loophole about having to eat her dinner, but after spending a few evenings sitting at the table for over an hour (we told her she couldn't leave the table until she swallowed what was in her mouth) while the rest of us watched TV I think she figured out that was counter productive.
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