Well I'm actually wondering the last few days if he might be at the very beginning of the 1-0 transition, which would explain the night waking, but still I will try some of these ideas for encouraging him to eat during the day (and esp healthy foods), let's hope they work!
MasynSpencerElliotte...yes I am veggie and despite my best efforts to feed this child meat, he just won't try it. He just spits it out. As for the rest of the food, I know a fair bit about healthy eating and his current diet is obviously not the best, but it's the best I can manage at the moment. He is extremely fussy and there is no way he'll eat something if he doesn't want it, he just spits it out. (as opposed to DS1 who will say he doesn't want to eat something but then he'll go ahead and eat it anyway with a little persuasion!!) I've tried cutting out snack foods but then he'll just happily go hungry and ends up sleeping very badly and demanding more pediasure at night. I've also tried disguising healthy foods but he's too smart and most of the time still refuses. The bombay mix is actually serving a valuable purpose in that it is a valuable source of iron, which he's just not getting when he refuses lentils/beans and all meat. I think if we were living back in the uk then I'd be able to feed him a better diet because there's such a good range of foods there, but here in India there's very little except local produce and I think he gets bored with what's available.
*happy* - I make lentil soup often, but he has little interest. Ice pops are a great idea, though, I used to do them for DS1, I'll give them a try, thanks for reminding me!
creations - as I mentioned already, i've tried cutting out the less healthy stuff and as I say he just sleeps really badly and then the whole family ends up in a state (esp atm when we're all sleeping together in the only ac room). I already offer healthy meals, fruit and veg but he has limited interest. I offer meat, eggs and cheese, once or twice a month he will eat eggs but only a few bites. Meat and cheese he spits out. He also refuses almost all other forms of dairy, including milk, which is why I haven't done the 'withdraw the unhealthy foods' experiment for more than a few days as I'm worried about his calcium intake falling too low without the pediasure (although I have done that experiment several times over the last year to see if he grows out of this fussy eating stage, to no avail, reducing the pediasure did not increase his interest in dairy of any form). Yes he does like some spicy stuff, and I try to use this to my advantage by putting pickle etc on his veggies, and spice in some other foods, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The tofu here does not have calcium added, so it's of little nutritional value esp since the calorie and fat contents are on the low side. (btw bread is not very healthy, it has little nutrition and anyway it can affect iron absorption, which is one of my major concerns seeing as he eats so few foods with high iron content, hence the bombay mix, I choose those made exclusively with chickpea flour for max iron content).
Cutting out the morning pediasure is definitely on the agenda, but not for another couple of months. As I've tried the experiment before and it didn't work (his sleep didn't extend, he just stayed awake from 5am and got OT and even after 5 weeks it still didn't work, but when we reintroduced the pediasure his sleep extended again) I'm not prepared to submit the whole family to deprived sleep, so it will have to wait until the weather cools down and I can take him into a separate room.
I feed him as much in the way of beans as I can, but there's only so much he will eat. We do stick to meal times, the bombay mix and nuts are usually part of a meal, beit lunch or his evening meal in front of the computer. Feeding him the healthy stuff for breakfast is is GREAT idea, I wouldn't have thought of that, I guess we are used to a certain idea of 'breakfast' foods, but here in india they eat curry for breakfast, so why not DS too!! That may also work really well once we cut the pediasure morning feed.
weaver - Thanks for the link, I'll check it out.
As I've mentioned I'm reluctant to drop the bombay mix as it's actually contributing to his iron intake. the crisps / chocolate are only given as a treat once he's eaten a healthy meal. He's not keen on dried fruits, I offer them frequently, sometimes he'll have them, sometimes not. sometimes he'll eat peanut butter, sometimes not. there are no other nut butters available here.
We do sit down for meals together, that's very important for me, and I have also stopped expecting him to sit in his own chair, my lap is fine if it helps him to eat. I only use the TV in the evening (after our official dinner time where we sit at the table) and I also already use closed choices. I have tried on numerous occasions to allow him to exclusively feed himself but it always ends up the same, he doesn't eat enough, sleeps badly then asks for milk in the night.
I had a discussion with DH the other night to make it clear not to feed him in the night any more and we seem to have come through the worst of it for the moment. I'm also wondering if thirst in the night time has also been contributing, it's very difficult for the kids to drink enough during the day atm, it's 40 degrees here, and difficult even for us as adults to keep up our water intake enough to keep us going overnight. So we've been concentrating on offering lots of drinks during the day and evening, so things have improved somewhat. I'm also hoping that altering his nap routine will help the sleep. I will try out the suggestions given and in a couple of months cut that morning feed. Fingers crossed!
