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| Maybe we should have just stuck with purees forever.... |
I said I’ve never do it..
But it happened anyway.
I fell into the trap of feeding my kid special “toddler”
food and became a short-order cook.
Anyone who has kids,
or any parenting website out there (if you dare actually read those things)
regarding toddler nutrituion will tell you the same thing: your kid should eat
what you eat. Don’t give them food just for them or you will create a picky
eater.
Yeah.. well… whoops.
Here’s how it happened…
First off, I work 40+ hours a week, and have a 30 min
commute each way to work. So I’m gone from the house for about 11 hours a day. That
leaves little time to prepare anything too complex or fancy.
Second off, the first half of the year Neal is coaching
baseball which means I come home to an empty house and a hungry kid to
entertain and feed at the same time.
Third off, my kid is already picky. The second we introduced
anything beyond purees back when he was about 8 months old, he started refusing
food, spitting it out, turning away and gagging. Broccoli pureed into oblivion?
Loved it! Broccoli with some chunks. GAG GAG GAG.
It was a battle from the beginning of “real” food with him.
We had to coax him to eat real food so it was easy to fall
into the trap of “feed him what we know he will eat”…. Which meant he ate
different food than us, because we just wanted
him to eat period.
I’d come home from work, set him up with his dinner of Toddler
Food:
-hummus/crackers
-string cheese
-chicken nuggets
-griller meatless patty
-applesauce
-PB & J
-mac n cheese
And that was about all the variety he got for months.
I just didn’t have the time or energy to create diverse foods for him and the
few times I tried, he refused a single bite and I melted down into tears and an
anxiety attack over my “kid who won’t eat a f***ing thing” and all the time I
wasted trying to make meals for him.
In an effort to save my sanity I gave into the Toddler Food
trap.
I knew it wasn’t good or the way I wanted to parent but I
didn’t know what else to do. He’d come home from school and be STARVING (at
least he’d act that way) and make such a fuss I HAD TO FEED HIM IMMEDIATELY.
So while he ate his Toddler Food, I’d pick up the house, do
dishes, or start me and Neal’s dinner which we would eat much later, or even
after Austin went to bed.
It bothered me. A lot.
I’d see friends’ kids eat awesome, eat everything offered, have
this diverse palette and here I was…. Struggling to get my kid to even TOUCH
fruit or veggies (literarlly… he barely touches them and recoils his hand as
offended) and going nuts worrying about how I was raising “that” kid who would
be in 5th grade and only eat cheese.
I snapped and told Neal one night that a new rule was
starting in our house.
No more Toddler Food.
Austin was going to eat what we ate for dinner, when we ate
dinner, and that was it. If he didn’t eat, then he’d spend some days hungry and
get the picture. At least I’d hoped this is what would happen.
We started this 2 weeks ago and how is it going?
Meh.
Out of the last 2 weeks I think he’s had 3 days where he ate
our dinner great and I felt so happy and proud! The rest of the time, he picks
it up, puts it down, says “no” and proceeds to squirm out of his highchair and
fuss.
Sigh.
But I’m sticking to it, and there have been a lot of nights
where he has had no dinner, and well.. he hasn’t starved yet. But he hasn’t
quite gotten the gist of this new situation yet either. I think he is
manipulating us a bit because he’ll scream with hunger the minute we get home,
so he will get a snack to tide him over until dinner. Well sometimes the snack
is bigger than we meant.. and then guess what? Dinner is refused and Austin got
the cheese stick he wanted.
Well played, kid. Well played.
So time to amp up the strictness of this… he has a snack at
3:30pm at school. I KNOW he is not starving to death when we get home at 5:15.
So he is just going to have to wait until dinner.
We’ll see what happens… last night was a big fat mess of
Austin screaming for what seemed like forever, wanting to be in his high chair
and acting hungry, then refusing dinner and screaming louder. It was a lot of
fun. Believe me.
And I hate to see him not eat anything at night.. I have a
feeling it’s going to be a battle since he is so stubborn.
So yeah… I screwed up. Somewhere along the line I didn’t
introduce food the right way, or at the right time or in the right texture or
who the hell knows.. but now I’m digging myself out and sucks.
Who knew it was such an “art” to start kids on solid foods?
Any moms out there have tips?
Oh wait.. that’s right. Every kid but mine eats everything
on the planet. Nevermind. J
3 comments:
"Baby eats what you eat!" It's not quite as simple as it sounds. It takes some preparation ahead of time.
Jett doesn't eat at the same time as us because he goes to bed at 7pm and he doesn't necessarily have the same dinner as we have but he doesn't get special meals.
Most of the time what's easiest is to have a few meals prepared in advance (Sunday is cooking day!) and then I just pick something for the baby, not necessarily what I'm going to eat later after he's in bed but something that is made for everyone not him specifically.
For instance yesterday he had chicken, zucchini and mushrooms, all of which was just stuff I had in the fridge ready to make some other meal that I didn't have time to make yet. I later had chicken with pasta and mushrooms, not the same meal but all the same stuff...so don't get TOO hung up on him having the exact same thing as you just always have SOMETHING in the fridge that can be thrown together as a last resort if you haven't made your own dinner yet.
I also always save something from our meals, like if I make meatballs I save two meatballs to give him on another night when I haven't made anything else!
The idea is the same foods that you would eat not necessarily the same foods you're eating at that time, so just get prepared with a bunch of meals for yourselves and give baby a portion. He doesn't need to have the same dinner at the same time just no pb&j or no mac & cheese prepared special for him!
I like to think of it as feeding him leftovers =)
Oh and half the time I have to force feed him the first few bites! After which he's like hmmm...tasty! and then he'll eat the rest =)
Your post is like I wrote it myself. We are going through the EXACT same thing right now with McKinley. When she ate purees, she was an awesome eater. I think we introduced whole, solid foods too late because she didn't get her first tooth until 11 1/2 months and we were afraid she would choke. So we fell into the convenient "toddler food" trap too because we knew she would eat it, it was convenient, and Chris was working evening shift which meant I didn't cook dinner for just myself anyway. Now that Chris is on day shift and is home for dinner every night, we are really working hard to get McKinley to eat a wider variety of foods and also eat what we are eating. It hasn't been easy and yes, she has also gone to bed without dinner too, but I definitely think the struggle will pay off in the end. You're definitely not in this alone!
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