Feeding Time

Jack doesn't eat too well. It is another one of those typical complaints about toddlers. With Jack, we have never been through one stage that people talk about being problematic and then just got of easy there. Like, it isn't like potty training him wasn't that bad, or like he was always calm, or he slept well as a baby, or wasn't an aggressive two year old. Every stage with him is a battle, and that is just his personality. So, the eating thing has been long standing around here. He won't eat any meat of any kind or any vegetables. He has a specific set of things he eats in rotation and eats most of the same things day in and day out. While this isn't necessarily unheard of for his age, it drives us nuts and we keep saying we are going to do something about it.

We have tried before. A few weeks after Keith came home from Afghanistan, so like last year about this time, we decided he'd eat with us or he wouldn't eat. For three nights in Okinawa we made him eat what we ate. All three nights he threw up. We made all the mistakes then that I don't plan on making now, like almost physically forcing things into his mouth. By that point he was so worked up that puking was almost inevitable.

Lately, Jack has chilled out a little. It was bound to happen eventually, we only had to wait 53 short months for it. When we moved to Charleston we decided that we had to also nip in the bud the whole sleeping outside our door thing. We spent about a week making him sleep in his room and now it is pretty much solved (OK FINE he does still come sleep on our floor almost nightly but not til almost 4 am, and who cares at that hour anyway??). We put him to sleep, he goes to sleep, we can do what we need to do in the evening. Light years better than tiptoeing around him. We had already said that we wanted to get him to try to eat a little more normally too, so we decided it was about that time.

This morning we made up a chart with stickers and a rule chart for dinner and went over all of it with him. Right before dinner we went over it again. You aren't getting separate food from us. We are all eating the same thing for dinner. You can't call anything yucky. You don't have to like any of it but you have to taste it all. The sticker system is that he gets one for not whining or having a fit and another one if he tastes everything. He is REALLY into the sticker thing right now from school anyhow so I knew he'd like that. Rewards have always been motivating for that little tyke.

Alright, Dinner. I was almost sweating. We cooked some Korean rice dish, so we didn't even start of with something cheating like sandwiches or chicken nuggets. He eats rice, so I thought that was at least a small provision. We gave him rice, a tiny bit of the pork and onion in sauce mixture, and a piece of blueberry banana bread. Even sitting down he is in a remarkably good mood even though he seems to understand he has to eat this food that would have elicited a fit any other time I can think of.

He eats the bread and loves it (easy peasy). He eats the rice and makes a mess (no shock). He asks for regular chocolate (chocolate milk). We give it too him holding our breaths and determined not to pressure him about it. I say nothing. Keith cuts him a piece of onion and encourages him to eat it. He frowns and puts it in his mouth and swallows it, drinks the milk. Umm, WHAT?

Next, the pork. He thinks it is chicken, we don't correct him. He isn't happy about eating it at all, is hemming and hawing. I ask to be excused as incentive and leave for a minute then come back. We try to just hang out without making it obvious what we are waiting for as we know that will make it worse. He still isn't really complaining more than a general "I'm not hungry anymore. Really mommy. I don't want dessert."

We stick to our guns. Taste everything.

Maybe 5 minutes pass. Possibly 10.

He eats a (small) piece of pork. He doesn't gag. He drinks the milk.

"We are so proud of you buddy."

"Can I have my stickers please?"

Alright. Who is this kid and where is ours? Maybe I just love four.