Food Fight!

[MrsK]

I wondered about that too. He has two bottom teeth and I expect that the top center two will be coming in soon. I hear that those are tough. I figured that's why cucumber slices worked because they feel good on his gums. I've felt his gums and nothing new has broken through.

Oh, and the nursing. Last night while nursing he was pinching me with his thumb and forefinger. Then wailing when I yelped in pain or moved his hand away. So. Much. Fun. Seriously, it was WWIII here last night. He wouldn't eat and wouldn't nurse nicely. Wouldn't play or bathe or sleep. Wouldn't let me put him down. Then daddy brought out the Cheerios and he was all smiles.

[PrincessFiona]

Well...I say break out the cheerios then. He won't be eating cheerios exclusively forever and it will help him feel more in control and give you some peace. Also, if he is teething, they may be just the right amount of hardness/softness/scratchiness to soothe his gums. Our pedi is a mom of 4 and she would hug you and tell you to give him cheerios!

Hugs,

Kris

[MrsK]

So, I made some babyfood pancakes tonight. He ate every bite and giggled through the whole meal as though he was getting away with something. Didn't even try to feed him anything else. I'm going to try some Tylonol at bedtime too.

[L.Jane]

Sounds like the sneaky chef for babies. I am glad he ate them all up!

[peggyfromwastate]

I would cut out all snacks, only give food in the high chair, and not worry about vitamins or vegetables or anything. Sounds normal what your baby is doing- my kids lived on crackers for 2 yrs or so. But I can't stand the snacking all day routine do I gave it only at meals and the afternoon snack. I do let toddlers wander around the house with a sippy until they spill milk out. Then it goes away too.

The cries of hunger may be cries of defiance too. Nursing all night long is ok if u ate ok with it. I never could stand that routine past 4 months or so.

This is what I get for posting on the iphone. It makes no sense to me! At 9 months of age we had snacks in mid morning and mid afternoon, so there were about 5-6 meals a day. I only nursed with the *big meals* and at bedtime night except for comfort nursing sometimes when baby was sick, etc.. I found that if they snacked a lot during the day (like while they were playing) they didn't *eat* as much during *eating time*. Their appetite was always curbed, but not quite satiated. That's what I meant by cutting out snacks.

I also gave snacks in the high chair only just so that they associated *high chair* with all food.

I did let them have crackers, vegetable-puff crackers were a big hit. They ate a lot of crackers. I thought after having developed a good palate during the baby food age that some of the tastes would carry over, but I never really worried (and still don't) about the nutritional variety. When they get to a certain age, for each kid it's different, then you'll know when you can "force" them to eat vegetables and what not.

Anyway, I didn't mean to say that they have to eat on an adult time frame, because babies need food more frequently than adults of course. I just meant you can get them to eat more food in total if they aren't eating one goldfish every 15 minutes throughout the day.

Sorry, I won't post on the iPhone anymore...

[houseelf]

You've received great advice here, so I won't offer anymore on the specific topic but just give you a little nugget that I have learned.

Not that I think you are taking any guilt on about this, but in case you are, please know that most food and sleep issues are the KIDS' issues. Seriously, my oldest was such a poor eater and ridicolously, not-on-the-charts skinny. It was maddening. Come to find out, he's a big texture guy. At ten he still prefers bland and junky stuff, but has come so far that he actually tries stuff with little coaxing and tends to eat me out of house and home. In contrast, my youngest two try everything. My middle child eats tomatoes like an apple and regularly orders crab legs. She doesn't have a big sweet tooth. At the end of the day, I offered them the same food at the family table. It had nothing to do with me and everything to do with them. Fight the good fight but let it go. As Pollyanna says, they do all eventually (sometimes years later) come around.

[peggyfromwastate]

OK, I've read through it all. I think that it sounds like he's eating every 2 hours or so. He may be too full. You may want to try to nurse him (or bottle) before a "meal". This is what I did with all my kids and it worked well. The nursing (or bottle) takes the edge off the hunger and makes them less frantic while waiting for food. If I was nursing, I would sometimes do a half-feeding, then give the dinner, then top off with nursing. Or likewise with a bottle. Between "meal" snacks, I would give water in a sippy with all the crackers they want.

For me it was easier to put nursing with the main feeding because that naturally led to weaning a lot easier-- as they got more interested in *people food* the boob became less interesting. When they lost even the slightest interest and were able to get some formula through a sippy or a bottle, I took away that feeding. And I didn't have to feel guilty, because it was dinner time, and so I'd give them extra goldfish or whatever. I knew they were still full enough, and they had the formula too. It was a convenient way to approach meals and weaning...

And I'm sorry that I keep saying *they*. I remember most of this stuff with the twins- so when I say *they* I'm just referring to the twins... With my last baby, she carries her goldfish with her. She's a snacking queen, but still in the house I only let her eat in the high chair because I live in mortal dread of the ants... I'm still a stikler about eating at the table for all the kids... but it's not about nutritional value or anything. It's about crumbs!

[Urowife]

I would keep doing what you are doing - I read your schedule and it seems fine to me. He is probably just going through a non-veggie phase. Offer the food but don't get too worried if he doesn't eat it (I know, it's easier said than done!) I find that my DD goes through phases like this often. For a week, she loved bananas and would eat almost a whole one each day! Then, the next week, she refused them and would even spit them out like they were poison. It's so frustrating sometimes, but I've just tried to go with what she wants at the moment and keep offering healthy foods as much as possible. The sneaky chef stuff is a great idea to get some more nutrients into foods he'll readily eat. Also, it sounds like he's still nursing quite a bit, and that's totally fine at this age. He's getting plenty of nutrition from that and solids are just extra for now. Also, as far as the night waking goes, it could be due to hunger, but it could be so many other things as well. My DD still wakes twice a night and I know it's not from hunger but a host of other reasons - teething, too hot, too cold (it's really hard to regulate the temperature in her room), thirst, lonely, who knows what else. Good luck!

[Deebs]

While I was working, DD woke a ton at night. Someone told me that she thinks babies will get their fill of Mama when they can, and if it's not during the day, it's at night. I think there may be something to that. Kids change eating habits constantly - it doesn't change in later years in our house. I find the best thing to do is not let yourself go crazy.

[PrincessFiona]

Yay, babyK and MrsK

Kids change eating habits constantly - it doesn't change in later years in our house. I find the best thing to do is not let yourself go crazy.

Sooo true. Fortunately, as they get older, their tastes seem to get a little more refined. My 16 year old will actually eat Saurkraut and wants seconds on his veggies. Phew!

Kris

[L.Jane]

Kinda going off on a tangent here... I obviously don't have kids, but when I was one, I wouldn't eat red meat and my little sister wouldn't eat poultry. My mom got fed up with having to make meals that appeased everyone, so eventually her rule became, if you don't like what I put on the table, theres pb&J or anything else you can make for yourself. My sister's fiance sucks at eating veggies so she has been using the sneaky chef. For some of us, the food fight never ends.

[JC76]

I can totally relate to what Urowife wrote. Zoe is a few months ahead of BabyK and she's gone through random weeks here and there where her eating habits totally change. One week she loves stir fry tofu, the next week won't touch it. Bananas are in, then they're out. One week its all fruit, the next it's all vegetables. My point, this may really be a phase, so just do the best you can and keep offering some alternatives. Eventually he'll get interested in other things.

[MrsK]

Thanks for talking me down, everybody. I do think it is a phase. He started crawling about 2 weeks ago and I'm noticing that he is asserting himself a lot lately. He's been much more willful and less cooperative in general. Yes, my baby. My happy baby who smiles all the time and is never any trouble!

He's having trouble getting to sleep for the first time since he was 6 weeks old. He's never been much of a napper but his caregivers told me that he has been very difficult at nap time lately. He wants to explore all the time and will not sleep if any other babies are awake (and, of course, his complaints keep the babies that want to nap awake). Yesterday, he refused to nap at all and came home so over-tired and crabby. Can you imagine? A 9mo old without ANY nap at all? He ate dinner quickly and quietly without a fight but it was sort of like he was sleepwalking, then he fussed during a quick mini-bath, and then cried and complained furiously when I tried to nurse him before bed as is our usual routine. We had to CIO. Since he's always had such a good bedtime routine, we've only done CIO a handful of times when nothing else will work. I went in to comfort him (kiss, pat, reassure, but don't pick him up) every 5 minutes for 45 minutes until he finally fell asleep sitting up and slumped over his teddy bear. Poor baby.

I talked to his caregivers again today and told them that he really needs even 20-minute disco naps in the mornings and afternoons. If that's all they can get it would be enough for him (that's all he'll do on weekends). They said that they've been trying and he's obviously exhausted but he's been fighting them. Then, as we were talking, he crawled over to one of the other babies and took her paci out of her mouth and she burst into tears. They redirected him right away and returned the paci. They say that he does that all the time now. I think it's probably because he's never used a paci and he's curious. But he also seems to have trouble getting along with that particular little girl. She's new in his class and just a few days younger than he is. They fought over a book a couple weeks ago too. (At the time, his caregivers were pleased to see him finally assert himself because he always gives in if the other babies take his toys.) They said that even if he is playing on the other side of the room, he'll make a beeline to her and takes her paci.

Sheesh, and just a couple weeks ago they were telling me that all the teachers fight over him because he's so happy and easy and gets along with all the other babies so weel. Now he's a cranky bully who won't eat or sleep. I hope this passes quickly.

[ides]

Like others have said I wouldn't worry too much about his nutrition right now since he's getting most nutrients or most of what he needs from your breast milk. Mixing in the veggies into pancakes and other bready things he likes is a great idea. I wish I had more to offer but O doesn't really like carbs at all. Weird. I love them. I do find a snack before dinner helps him eat better at dinner but if we have any any other time of the day it kills his appetite for meals.

Oscar started his "terrible two's" around 10 months. We literally had to put him in the naughty zone to get him to cooperate with bedtime and I am one patient momma. He also has trouble at night sleeping if he misses his nap or is overtired. It's such a catch22! This phase will pass but there are many ahead. Sheesh! Maybe you can bribe the daycare persons to give him more help for nap time - more rocking, more attention or something?

[BonBon]

Have you thought about just feeding him what you eat? I always fed my kids scrambled eggs, cheese, olives, grapes, peppers, meat...basically anything that wasn't super hard like carrots and I would just cut it into wee pieces. (they didn't have teeth when I started) That said, I wouldn't stress about what he eats. My kids have periods where I swear they live on crackers, then a few weeks later it seems they've moved onto all fruit.