I'll start with the cute story. The ladies in the infant nursery told me this story when we picked up Zachariah after the church service on Sunday. There was a little girl about Zachariah's age who was in the nursery for the first time. They couldn't get her to play, and she just laid on the floor with a teddy bear. Zachariah went over next to her and sat there patting her head to comfort her. He is such a sweet kid. Usually he's kissing the little babies in the nursery too. I wish I could have seen that. It gives me warm fuzzies just thinking about it. Too cute!
Now the question. What do I feed my child? He is starting to become a picky eater, just in these last few weeks. He always tells me when he wants to eat...which seems like constantly. At meals I try veggies, fruits, bread, meat, cheese, and other stuff. I try to make sure he gets a fruit and/or veggie at every meal. Lately the problem has been that he'll take about two bites of something, then refuse any more. Or if I set it on his tray, he throws it on the floor. Then he wants something else. I move to the next thing, same story, two bites, then done with that too. I try to prepare a good meal, and when he's refused everything I have there to offer meal's over. Problem with that is in 10 minutes he's telling me he wants to eat again. He would eat fruit puffs (Gerber), freeze-dried fruit (Gerber), and Teddy Grahams all day if I let him. He just wants to snack. I only let him have snacks between meals (and then only once). But if he starts telling me he wants to eat again, I have a hard time making him wait. I feel like I'm starving him if I don't give him something. He drinks milk in the morning and just before bedtime, but only takes a little during the day. And he really doesn't drink anything else. Maybe if I could get him to drink more, it would help fill him up.
What do you think? Should I keep doing what I'm doing and not worry that I'm starving my child? I just don't want to give in and let him snack all day long. If he ate more fruits and veggies, I don't think the snacking would bug me as much. I also offer a mix between jarred baby food and table food. Sometimes he'll only eat one, but other times he wants the other. It still doesn't mean he'll eat more than 2 bites. There are 2 things that he'll always eat, so I try to offer one or the other at each meal - oatmeal and baby yogurt (well, any kind, but baby yogurt is probably best for him right now).
I KNOW that I'm not the only parent of a toddler who deals with this. ALL parents of toddlers go through this. It's inevitable. I just worry that he says he wants to eat so often. How can I not feed him when he's standing there signing eat to me? And how can I get him to fill up more when I do feed him meals?
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2 comments:
Addy was so picky about food for so long, I totally know how you feel. My only suggestion is macaroni and cheese. For a few weeks, it was the only thing she would eat besides crackers. Now she's expanded her menu a little, but macaroni is still her favorite. You can buy organic kinds (Aunt Annie's I think is the one I get) that aren't too terribly bad.
Their appetites usually fall into the toilet right around their first birthday, so don't worry if he's eating less than he used to. You wouldn't want him to keep it up at the same rate, considering they triple their birth weight during the first year. :)
I usually offer things from at least two different food groups for snacks, and if she doesn't eat it, oh well, she wasn't that hungry.
Just try to keep it balanced, and measure his food intake by the week rather than by the day to see if you think he's getting enough.
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