For some reason, meal time in our house is always a battle. Regardless of what is being served.
I could bring out a damn lobster and get the same damn reaction. Most likely because my son has never eaten lobster before, but I digress.
In the past several months, I’ve noticed a pattern has emerged. We go through the same shit from start to finish. Every.Damn.Time. If any of you have some insight into what we are doing wrong, I would love to hear it.
Negotiations
Even before I present food to Ethan, he’s already decided he doesn’t like it, won’t try it, wants nothing to do with it. He starts flailing his arms and mooshing his face into the highchair as if he pressed hard enough, it ould swallow him up thus preventing the meal from occurring.
I then have to pretend to eat the food and determine it’s the best damn thing I’ve ever eaten before in my life. If I’m lucky, after repeating “mmmmmm this is soooo goooooood!” over and over, he might turn his head to peek at me before stuffing his screaming face back into the cushion.
Threaten sanctions
If he won’t stop producing enriched uranium acting like a crazed wildebeest hopped up on crack, I’m gonna make my husband keep feeding him.
Not that it would result in a change in behavior. I just figure it’s a better alternative than screaming back in his face.
Mount an attack
Assuming that I can position the spoon where I think he will swing his head, and he hasn’t already knocked it out of my hands (or the food off the spoon), I can usually manage to get the tiniest of morsels on his lip.
Once he recognizes something foreign has landed in his mouth, he usually stops thrashing and tastes it to see if it’s poison.
He ALWAYS makes a face like I just slathered dog shit on his tongue. Followed by a look that says, “Hey, this ain’t half bad.”
You would think having only fed him so many things at this point, that he would recognize what I was trying to feed him before acting like a jackass.
Resolutions
After we’ve established the food hasn’t been debased, he happily eats it.
But don’t confuse him by putting something new on his highchair.
Make sure his pacifier is well hidden.
Put the dog in a bedroom to remove the temptation of dropping the food on the floor for him.
And without warning, he will once again decide eating is a horrible idea and get me outta this damn thing!
So either his daycare provider is completely lying to us about how mealtime occurs at her place or he is reserving his tantrums for Mommy and Daddy.
Either way, it’s really starting to get on my fucking nerves.
Joylene says
OMG what a fun age! Let me start my saying I have 3 littles, they are 20, 13 and 6! I can’t believe how fast they have grown! Your little guy is 1? Put the food on his tray and then walk away! Let him eat with fingers, spoons, etc, whatever. I know, I know, scary, what if he doesn’t eat enough? If you feed him several times a day and he chooses not to eat dinner it’s not a big deal. I know you are freaking out but stay with me here. He is learning how to train you! Seriously! He is doing an awesome job 😉 No judgement here, really, all mine trained me well especially the baby of the family. It’s hard to let them start doing for themselves. If he’s eating at daycare he is doing great! Give him easier to eat familiar foods, put a vinyl tablecloth on the floor under his high chair for easy clean up, and let him at it! He will mush the food, throw it, smear it and some will even get in his mouth but he is exploring and this is his way of learning if he likes something. I know a bit wordy but I remember these food battles. My first 2 littles ate everything and anything you put in front of them, my youngest, well we still have some issues! Hang in there, it gets easier at meal time!