Ok, so I know a lot of my postings on facebook and on my blog are about the weird situation of Collin's lack of interest in food. I truly don't understand it. I love food. I love to eat. I'm not even really picky about what I consume. Husband loves food. Husband loves to eat. Again, husband not picky about what he eats either. I've finally had enough so I'm on a mission to change my child's ways...
The Background: Collin mostly eats baby food and he's a little over two years old. He still loves baby food fruit and veggies and rice cereal. He will eat other "normal" cereal and carbs and an occassional chicken nugget or french fry. He will also eat turkey, but only if he's in the cart at the grocery store. Very weird. Can a 2 year old be diagnosed with OCD? Because really I think this whole food debaucle boils down to him HATING change with a passion. (Totally gets that from dad by the way).
The Plan: I've decided to cut out his "baby food" dinner meal and make him eat dinner with us as a family. (I used to feed him about an hour earlier with oatmeal and applesauce...yes, that's all he would eat). Yesterday I put a small portion of tri tip, baked potato, and a strawberry on his plate. He cried. He asked us to "move the food." Yes, this is what he does...he doesn't even want to look at the food. OCD, OCD. Well, he didn't eat anything, but it was a small victory in that he sat at the table with us the whole time while we ate, and finally stopped crying and let us keep the plate of food in front of him. The next day at lunch, I gave him real peas, a strawberry, and a mini turkey sandwich. Again, cried, didn't eat, but pushed around the peas on the plate. It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings.
Moms out there: I'm really open to opinions/ideas on how to help my child find a love for food. I'm at my wits end. Oh yeah, he can't use utensils either. He refuses and says, "mama do it." Grr....
PS. That picture is not our dinner...I googled a tri tip picture. ;)
We had the refusal thing awhile back with Edie. I am afraid I'll sound like an uncaring Mom but ultimately we said if your not going to eat what is in front of you there is nothing else. She would have a main course and a couple of different veges on her plate so we figured there was bound to be something on there that she would like. We also stopped allowing milk an hour before any meal and offered water before and during dinner because she had a tendancy to fill up on milk. Oh, there were moments and tantrums and tears. Now she also knows that she does not get dessert (which is usually yogurt, strawberries ect) if she does not eat her dinner.
ReplyDeleteThere's alot of access to advice over here through professionals like Health visitors and Midwifes. They told us ultimately that a child won't starve. So we stuck to our guns there were a few days in the begining were she didn't eat a masssive amount but she generally got the idea. She is a good eater now and will always give a new thing a try.
Hopefully it helps to know at least that we went through somthing similiar and she eats fine now. Just stay strong he'll get there.
You don't sound uncaring. We are doing the same thing here. We put it in front of him and say that's all there is. He pretty much hasn't eaten anything except breakfast in 5 days. Lots of crying too. I'm starting to worry, but I'm sticking to it at least for another week. ;) We also cut down the milk.
ReplyDeleteI've had my fair share of picky, non-eaters, and each child is different but ultimately I just started giving them what we were having too once they were old enough..also having older siblings eat at the dinner table what mommy made helps with the younger ones wanting to eat the same way.
ReplyDeleteIt's true, kids don't starve and kids don't always get a completely balanced meal everyday and they still grow up smart, capable, awesome people. :) You're doing so great, he sounds like such a neat little kid already and everything with kids is repetition and routine, he's gotten used to you always feeding him and eating baby food, he'll eventually get used to more grown up food and eating on his own. My kids are stubbon/independent little farts and wanted to feed themselves before they were really ready so it was more mess than anything, but each kid is different, he'll get used to it!!
Day 9: Still eating only carbs. Grrr.....I'm sticking with it though.
ReplyDeleteHey today he ate pizza with sauce and cheese...still junk food, but I little veggie in the sauce and protein in the cheese. I was stoked! ;)
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