I am so frustrated with feeding this child
MelissaSue81
member
I know I have posted a lot about this recently.. but it is just NOT going well..
Eve basically rejects all purees unless she distracted/entertained by something else..She is starting to get the hang of drinking from a sippy but we still have to hold it for her.
So I went out the other day and bought a bunch of stuff to give her for table foods..easy stuff for me to make... frozen waffles and mini pancakes, chicken, both grilled and nuggets, veggies.
She starts out eating them great, but after a couple bites she just gets bored and starts THROWING the stuff on the floor.. She is doing it right now in fact.. I don't care if she drops some while she eats it, but she is intentionally throwing it.. I want to scream (and have!).. If i put the food in her mouth she spits it out.. I really just don't know how to feed her anymore! I know you say they won't let themselves starve, but i think she just might!
Some one please save my sanity.
m/c 1/2/08 and 3/12/08
Eve Amelia- Born 2/24/09. 6lb 9.9oz
Natalie Ruth - Born 6/13/11 7lb 6.6oz
Re: I am so frustrated with feeding this child
Ugh, that is frustrating. Sorry, I don't have any advice because Zoey is not a very picky eater. But, I can definitely relate to the intentionally throwing things on the floor. She throws her cup on the floor multiple times at every meal, and has just started throwing food too. It's really frustrating!
Good luck! I hope it gets better for you soon!
The food dropping is going to happen. For that, you just take the plate away, and tell her no throwing food. After a few minutes, you can offer it to her again, if she's hungry, she'll eat. But if she starts up again, you end mealtime.
I know it's frustrating because you want to make sure she's getting enough to eat, but toddlers will eat as much as they can handle. If you're truly worried about her not getting enough to eat, then give the on-call nurse at your doctor's office a call and see if they have any suggestions.
I know I'm totally a broken record on this, but I love books by Ellyn Satter. That's the last I'll say about that.
The more you push kids about food, the less likely they are to eat it. Even positive encouragement is perceived as manipulation by a child and they will eat less food because of it. (They did a study where they gave children an unfamiliar food. Half of the kids were praised after trying it, and half of the kids were just allowed to eat with no one giving them any reaction- the kids who were praised ate less of the food.)
Just serve the food, have a conversation with her, but don't focus on the food. If she plays with it, it's normal- she wants to experiment with things. Also, kid's portion sizes are really, really small- one tablespoon of veggies or a half an ounce of meat is okay for them to eat.
I know you said that she doesn't like purees...my LO really disliked jarred baby food, but she really loves organic applesauce. On days that she won't eat her veggies, we mix them in the applesauce and she eats them all. Good luck!
Evan chucks his food all over the place - for no reason. Once he gets down...he'll play for a bit and then will come over the his highchair and grab more off it or if I haven't gotten to it - he'll pick up some stuff off the floor and eat it (we try to keep that area really clean)
Once she gets used to grabbing the food and eating it - she'll be fine. It's variety that is the problem. Evan would eat banana pancakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner...so much you don't know where he's putting it...but he can be super picky with other things.