Dear Friends,
I know I've been an absentee blogger of late, but I could use some advice lest I lose any more of my mind than has already gone missing.
Here's the deal: Molly seems to have reached a plateau regarding her eating habits. Despite a failed initial attempt to introduce solids at 5 months, Molly has been a steady eater since we tried again at 6 months. In the past 5 or 6 weeks, she has come to increasingly prefer feeding herself (by hand, her spoon skills are a bit lacking at the moment - you know, because she's not even a year yet). Foods that I feed to her (largely purees, of the chunkier varieties these days) that she used to love (and still seems to when I can get her to eat them) instigate screaming fits when she sees them coming.
The fix seems easy, right? Feed her more table food. So that's why I spent a couple of hours last weekend chopping and steaming various fruits and vegetables for her to feed herself.
But she won't do it. She won't touch the fruit at all (which I've read is not uncommon because of the fruit's slipperiness). The veggies she'll eat and seems to enjoy, but she'll only eat two or three bites. Then she ignores them. She doesn't get mad about them, she doesn't want me to feed them to her, but she won't eat them either.
So there are currently very few foods she will eat, and a substantial number of them are snack foods or foods I don't want to give her too much of (for fear she'll become, you know, stopped up). We've got cheese (her #1 favorite), puffs, cheerios, bananas, raisins (which she adores), any bread product (pancakes, muffins, etc.), rice cakes, cookies (the baby version), and that's about it. [She also loves yogurt, though I feed that to her of course.] She won't even eat blueberries anymore, though she used to eat them like candy.
Obviously she can't live off of cheese, raisins, bananas, and starch products alone, particularly because she's already so low on the weight/age ratio. So mealtimes, with the exception of breakfast - during which she happily gobbles yogurt and a muffin or pancake or some other bread product - have become a match of wills which I almost always lose.
At just shy of 11 months, I have resorted to tricking my daughter into eating more appropriate foods. At lunch today, I would give her a piece of cheese, hold the next piece up, and tell her she had to take a bite of the chunky fruit mix on the spoon before she could have the cheese. She would do it almost every time.
Eat a piece of cheese. Begrudgingly eat a spoonful of chunky fruit mix. Eat a piece of cheese. Try to avoid having to eat a spoonful of chunky fruit mix. Give in and eat the fruit mix then gobble the piece of cheese. Fuss and flail to avoid more chunky fruit. Give in. Eat the cheese. Try to sneak another piece of cheese. Allow Mom to barely force some chunky fruit mix off the spoon into my mouth. Eat cheese.
Repeat as long as I can stand it. And then repeat again at dinner (but substitute bananas for cheese and chicken & sweet potatoes for chunky fruit mix).
I want to beat my head against the wall after each meal. It's such a test and, while I could normally handle her strong will (where do you think she gets it from?), it eventually becomes emotionally draining as I worry that I'm not getting enough nutrients to her. This, more than any other part of motherhood thus far, feels the least intuitive to me and it is infuriating.
So before I start literally banging my head against the wall, I ask for your advice. What helped you transition from purees to table food? Any tricks up your sleeve? I'll take any and all advice you've got.
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5 comments:
While Seth prefers fruit over just about anything, he tends to not eat most meats and vegetables so I feel your frustration. We have had luck with some sandwiches (peanut butter and jelly (I waited until a year for that one) or grilled cheese), quesadillas (shredded apple, cheese, and honey), and cheeseburgers (flattened out). Seth will also eat some casseroles that we eat. Once Seth wanted to feed himself, we just let him. It makes a mess, but he does eat and the mess only lasted a couple of weeks(unless it is something like yogurt). I offer two veggies and two fruits with each meal and I just lay it all out for him on his tray. Most of the time he will eat one or two bites of the veggies and that's it, but he usually eats the majority of whatever else is offered. If I try to feed him with a spoon he will refuse instantly (unless it is pudding or ice cream). I never liked the idea of restricting milk because I tend to get really thirsty when I eat, but I have heard of people not providing milk until some food has been eaten. That's what has worked some for us. Maybe it can help.
This probably isn't much help but here's what Elliot was typically eating: http://tinyurl.com/234hvlf
At Molly's age he was feeding himself yogurt a lot but those turkey sticks he loved. For a while, it was only fruit and cheese; I called him my little Frenchman. :)
What we did was just continued to put food out on his tray and he eventually picked it up. We started with puffs and he went from there. This may not have been that helpful but it's what worked for Ell.
Thanks, all!
Stephanie, I think you're right. I just have to give her the food and let her eat what she'll eat. She's always come around to everything on her own time, and I suppose the same will be true with this. By the way, have you considered just giving Seth water with his meal and think milk when he's done? That way he won't get thirsty but he won't fill up either.
Claire - Molly loves those turkey sticks, too, but I try to only give them to her occasionally. They just feel so...processed to me (even though I wouldn't question it if I were the one eating them). But they are a good go-to, and cheese is always a winner.
If we are eating something that Seth might not be too fond of, I do only offer water. If I know he will eat at least all the fruit and most of the main dish (like spaghetti or beef stew, two big hits) I usually just let him have milk. The veggie and meat avoidance has just started in the last two months. I think it might be more of a texture thing or hopefully just a phase because he was such a great eater when it came to purees.
Cat - just read both blog posts about eating. You did exactly what we finally did with Mikayla. We have actually found now that she eats better if we offer her four smaller meals instead of the three big ones. More of a snacker than a meal eat. We also just let her roll with the food and put it all out for her. We figure she will eat when she is hungry and not eat if she is full. We typically get one "good" meal a day out of her! Best of luck.
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