Hey ladies
Been following along and just not had time to post.
Have any of you ever had a look through this book? (I wouldn't buy it, but its worth a read if you can get it at your library).
Just Take a Bite by L Ernsperger In my other life (before my LO!) I worked on along side a number of feeding teams with LOs who had food issues. With the majority of them it boiled down to pure control. Your LOs are at the age (as you know!) where they know what they want and know how to get it!
And food is one of the easiest things to try gain control over. LOs have plenty of opportunity as meals and snacks happen so many times through the day and mummies just care too much when they don't eat (can you tell we're going through this at the minute too!?? If I hear 'mooooo-gurt' (Maeves attempt at yogurt) while she's swinging on the fridge door one more time, her and the mogurts may just end up in the bin!
You can be as proactive as you want (eating with your child, letting them experiment and play with food, offering different foods etc) but once a child has drawn a line where food is concerned you have to be a bit more reactive where mealtimes are concerned. Liz and Mashi {{{hugs}}} isn't it the most frustrating thing in the world this not eating nonsense? You are doing all the right things...not reacting, offering different foods etc.
Mashi, your strategy of 'first this-then fav food' is one we used successfully with lots of LOs but what we did as the time went on was increased the amount they had to eat before they got their fav food. This works well if LOs are open to trying new things, doesn't work so well if they are very resistant as it can actually draw attention to the battle they are waging more so than if you just ignore it.
Depending on the LO, the other strategy we used was to provide balanced meals and not provide their favourite food or a preferred food at every meal, as some LOs just held out for their preferred food and made it do and then filled up on liquids.
Reading back though your LOs are still quite young but I'd keep an eye and see how it goes over the next weeks/months and see do you see an improvement before you panic too much. Although I really did only mean to come on and recommend the book and I'm rambling away.
At the minute I am providing a meal and/or snack each day of things Maeve will normally refuse and we are slowly but surely getting there. Other meals I just give what I know she'll eat and don't stress myself. Its all things shes ate before and I know she likes them. My LO will NOT touch shop bought meals, never has been impressed by them at all and I really want her to be eating more of what we're eating now so I felt I had to do something. I had also been offering her favourites of bread and cream cheese but had to stop because she was then not eating the 'new' foods! SO hard though to make a meal and it be refused and then not to give them anything to eat! Nightmare for a mummy!
Hope its going well for you all xx
(As an aside, I was just talking to one of my ex-pupils new teacher yesterday. When he was with me he would only eat Bikers crisps and Smiley potato faces. And drink ribena. Talk about limited. Should make us feel better about our LOs!! I got him eating yogurts, pancakes, toast, cereal, fish fingers, chicken nuggets, chips, grapes, raisins, other crisps and am sure some other stuff and the new teacher told me since coming back after summer, hes now only eating the bikers again. What a waste of hard work. So long story short, at least our LOs aren't that bad!!!)
