Fussy DS new approach Day 1. Followers welcome.x.

[Truly Blessed]

Hiya Everyone,

For those of you who have read my previous posts about my suddenly fussy 16 month old Darling Boy, this is Day 1 of my new approach.

I'm going to stick to the food I know he likes (used to wolf down) and at meal times if it goes on the floor I plan not to give him it back but put it where he can see it. Yesterday when I did this he defiantly asked for it back   Roll Eyes. I won't be giving him the conveyor belt of choice from now on. But I have decided to give him small nutritional snack every 2 hours (the emphasis being on small) because he is newly walking/running and I want to keep his energy levels steady. I've noticed when they are depleted he gets tired and grumpy which I want to avoid, but plan not to allow him enough snack food to fill him up.

We started off well today with a good breakfast which is always his best meal of the day.

6.45  6 oz milk.

7.15  Ready Break with Honey
        Half a Banana.

9.45  Snack  4 small rice apple cakes.

10.45 4 oz milk before nap.

Wish us luck!  Wink.

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

Hi Vicki,

Thanks for starting this thread! Our Sams are VERY similar!! Breakfast is his best day of the meal too and I have noticed that since he has started walking he gets very fussy and grouchy during the day.  I was thinking it could be the same thing as you -- he needs more snacks.  I've always tried to give very very light snacks or none at all in hopes of getting him to eat a good meal at mealtime, but I am going to try the same approach as you. 

Great luck for the rest of the day.  Sounds like it started off very well! I'll let you know how things go here!

xx
Nicole

[Shiv52]

Good luck. 

[Truly Blessed]

Hiya  

So just to start with this morning we went out and I bought Sam some new things for our fresh start.

A stick on bowl  

New very brightly coloured spoons and his first baby forks.

A new sippy cup.


The approach I decided to take was to put the food down and to leave him to it. I didn't sit with him, just slyly glanced every now and then to see what was happening.
Not to try and feed him myself.
No ooh and aah's and yum yums.
If the food went on the floor to leave it there instead of giving his bad behaviour attention by jumping up and picking it up immediately and telling him it's naughty.
Not to give him any thrown food back.
Also to keep his mid morning and mid afternoon snacks but cut the quantity down in order for him to feel hungrier at mealtimes.

I have been ASTOUNDED by the progress we've already made today  .

Lunchtime offering.

Carrot and potato waffles
Carrots and peas
chicken nuggets.

He immediately picked up his fork and investigated, he LOVED it. And ate all of his waffles using it  
Carrots and peas left on the highchair and ultimately the bowl thrown on the floor. Furrowed brow at my total lack of interest  .
Chicken nuggets tried when no waffles left but only one bite eaten, then thrown on the floor.
Blueberries and a satsuma for dessert (as he always has had one in the past, I didn't want to stop that, but I did worry that he may see it as as offering 2, so I left it for 5 minutes after he had finished eating.)

This might not sound like a great start but it was. I honestly think that it is a battle of wills, and alongside less snacking to fill him up we've already seen improvement.

Mid afternoon snack: A Date and Banana bar.

Dinner offering.

Baked beans and mini sausages.
Toast with butter cut into sticks.
A fish finger (new to him, so extra to try)

Sam has always refused beans in the past but today he proceeded to eat then one at a time with his fingers. Then I did intervene by showing him how to stab them with his fork which he loved. I also (to help him get more in  ) used the spoon to feed him and he let me willingly  . He ate the whole lot. He tried the sausage but left it in the bowl (a miracle in itself) and went back to it a few times. Ate a little bit of toast. A VERY MESSY but fun dinner time.

Refused his favourite yoghurt as he was obviously full. I took it straight away at the first head shake, no trying again.

6 oz milk before BT.

I give Sam a multivitamin and mineral daily which lets my mind rest while we're having this tricky time. But I'm thrilled with the progress today. Tomorrow could very well be totally different, we'll see. He does tend to alternate a hungry day with a not so hungry day. But so far I think the key is to LEAVE HIM TO IT. Especially since he's very strong willed, I think even encouragement was winding him up. And I also think he was probably picking up on my stressed attitude  .

Oh and VERY IMPORTANTLY BIG praise for him after meal time  .

Here's hoping for another good day tomorrow. TTFN.x.
        

[Jimbob]

That sounds great . I hope today goes well to.

Kelly

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

Great progress!

We did not have such a good day yesterday.  He refused his pancake at breakfast, but ate all of his scrambled egg.  He then had the pancake for a snack (I cut it up into small bits and handed it to him piece by piece while we were in the supermarket).  Lunchtime he ate his yogurt, but threw his meatball and pasta on the floor.  Dinner he refused his veggie puree and threw EVERYTHING on his tray off.  He would only eat a cut up cheese stick .  I do think the bowl is a great idea because he seemed very interested in it yesterday, so I need to get a good stick on one.  We have two - one works the other one doesn't (as I found out last night!). 

I am going to follow along very closely to your approach since it seems like you are making progress.  Good luck for a great day! The smallest things feel like accomplishments, don't they? Sometimes if he just picks something up and licks it and I consider it a victory!
xx

[Truly Blessed]

Hi Ladies,

Nicole: You made me laugh  .  Today has been pretty much the same as yesterday, without boring you to death about every morsal he ate  . The biggest change is that without being looked upon he is trying everything, whereas he would immediately chuck things on the floor before. So...tomorrow more of the same.  Good Luck Nicole, I hope you have some success with Sam.x.

[Truly Blessed]

Hiya 

Another good day with DS. Tonight I took a leap of faith and attempted to feed him his favourite chicken with mushrooms and noodles and he took half the bowl from me then very cheerily fed himself the rest..pleased as punch  . I have come to a definete conclusion that 'I created the monster' A. By fussing too much and B. (and most importantly) By allowing him way too many snacks...all be it healthy snacks, but as Sam spends most of the day saying 'MMMMM' and pointing to food cupboards and even pictures of food in magazines etc  I have let things roll too far and I've only just realised how far. He just wasn't hungry enough for his meals  . So any amount of coaxing was never going to do any good. No wonder he was chucking it on the floor. So I have to remain the boss and keep on track by limiting his snacks and hopefully we'll do just great. I feel a fool  but at least I've realised my mistake and managed to put things right. Hey, non of us are perfect eh  LOL.

Tata.x.

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

Hey Vicki,

Will write more later, but just wanted to drop in and say that it seems like you've made a lot of progress! That is great!

We are not doing quite as well over here, but today is a new day .  I'll be back later and write more.

xxxx

[Sam-n-Max's Mommy]

Hey Vicki,

How's it going by you? We are ok over here.  Eating has been slightly better, although Sam hasn't really tried too much else that is new.  I have found, though, that it is much easier to get him to eat on the go.  For example, he refused a blueberry pancake at breakfast (but then proceeded to eat an entire scrambled egg (it may have been more than that - we were out to breakfast and I asked for one, but it looked like more than that)).  Anyway, he was fussy in his stroller when we were out and about later on and I had brought a squash pancake that I had made with me and he ate the whole thing! I find that he will eat more things in the stroller.  The other thing that has happened in the past few days is that after refusing/throwing food from his high chair, if I take him out and let him toddle around and hand him pieces of food while he is walking around, he will eat it.  Literally the same exact food that he was throwing seconds before.  I feel like it's a bad habit to get into, but he can be really difficult in his high chair.  I don't know if I'm just being too soft and need to be more of a parent in this situation.  Don't know if I'm teaching him that he can do what he wants when he wants and that I'll always let him. 

I have a question for you -- did you ever use Stage 3 baby foods with Sam (like the lumpier ones)?  My Sam only likes the Stage 2 because he doesn't like the texture and I never pushed Stage 3 because i figured if he was eating finger foods, he would pick up other textures that way.  However, I am afraid now that because I didn't try harder with Stage 3 that he is not comfortable with certain textures and that is why he won't pick up pieces of fruit etc.  I think I might try again and see if it helps at all.  It's a process, I guess!

xxxx,
Nicole

[Truly Blessed]

Hi Hon,

To a certain extent I think these things can be developmental  . Maybe Sam is just big on being on the move right now  I know our Sam just doesn't want to stay still at the moment  Going out for a meal is a definete no no, it's just too much hard work and we end up eating in shifts. Is your Sam walking or crawling  Sam got much worse when he started to walk! I would probably do the same as you if it gets the food downn him. Is it possible that he's just not hungry when you first offer the food but is later  Also I think when they get srong minded it can be a case of 'Don't you tell me what to do and when!' so they know the pressure's on to eat in their highchair and not when they're in their pushchair etc.

Our Sam preffered the stage 2 food for a long time and only started to eat the lumpier ones around 14 months, before that he would sieve it and spit the lumpier bits out, so your Sam will probably get there in his won time, I'm sure.

Sorry for the late reply  Keep up the good work 

Hugs () Vicki.x.

[weaver]

I'm really learning a lot from your experience so thanks so much for sharing. 

My LO is a great lover of food but I'm getting worried that his minder lets him snack too much. He's also started going into the cupboards and pulling things out for himself, which combined with his new words (toast, apple, pasta), means he's in a position to ask for food non-stop!  I'm trying to stick with what I want him to eat and when and not get him into a pattern of grazing all the time but it's tricky.  I pick him up at 4pm and have told the minder that he gets his tea at home between 5 and 5.30 yet everytime I arrive, he's eating something and there have been evenings when he hasn't eaten much of his tea. (Equally, he has a good breakfast at home but she always gives him something to eat when we arrive at her place.)

Oops, sorry if that was a bit of a rant.  Just so you can see what I mean when I say it's useful to hear your story!

[Truly Blessed]

Hi Anne,

Thanks for sharing, I'm glad my experience is helping. Sam is still eating his proper meals after cutting down his snacks and he is also feeding himself with cutlery a lot more which is also helping as he really enjoys making such a mess  , much more than I enjoy cleaning it up LOL. I still allow him his snacks but I'm more aware of what he is having and when. It seems as long as there is at least 2 hours before his meals after the last (small..ish  ) snack then he does okay.

It's so funny your little man has learned the words for his favourite foods  . He's a clever chap. Sam just waves at the food he wants and say 'yeeeah!' or shakes his head furiously if he sees me even heading towards him with an undesirable. When did he get so opinionated?  LOL. It must be really tricky to keep a handle on things when he's entrusted to the minder. I think sometimes they will do anything for an easy life, even the good ones. I guess I know where they're coming from, but they don;t suffer the consequences.

With regards to the morning, Sam has a big appetite and eats more, but I'm not worried about him having a large lunch as I know he has plenty of fuel to keep him going along with his 2 hoursly fruit etc untill tea time. And I think if he did eat a large lunch he wouldn't have as large a tea, and that is more important as they have to go through the night.

Good Luck.x.