Reports from the front lines are not good.
Jacob did, in fact, eat exactly what I put in front of him. Beginning and ending with that lone strawberry. And he was very careful to not so much as touch any of the other food on his plate. Once, a chunk of strawberry had the audacity to roll into a slice of honey ham as he reached to pick it up. He wouldn't touch it again until I moved the ham to the opposite side of the plate.
He's plenty hungry. He screams, pouts and whimpers as he follows me around the kitchen during meal preparations. He can polish off a sippy cup of milk in record time. Oh, and olives or Oreos? He always has room in his tummy for olives or Oreos. If they made a vegetable Oreo, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
We've been to doctors. We've followed all the good advice. What we're left with is a very, very picky eater. A result, I'm afraid, of having existed on a steady diet of fish sticks, chicken nuggets and fruit during those months when he was failing to gain weight and would eat nothing else. When your baby isn't gaining weight, and there's one food they like, you feed it to them all the time. We were desperate, we were worried, and he needed the calories. Never mind if sometimes his caloric intake came entirely in the form of sugar cookies and fruit smoothies. He was eating! We rejoiced!
But when your 15-month-old won't eat, and picks and chooses what he likes from day to day, it's time to put your foot down. And I have. Firmly. No longer will I make a separate meal for this kid. In the long run, the best thing for him will be to learn to eat what is served to him.
So I will deny him dessert, I will offer him his vegetables first, and I will continue to put good foods (foods he's liked in the past!) on his plate until he learns to eat them again. He's not getting a chicken nugget just because he decides not to eat my chicken pot pie one night. He loves my chicken pot pie. Gobbled it up the first three times we served it. And he will learn to like cheese once more. What kid doesn't eat cheese?
And if he doesn't turn a corner soon, I'm going to have to start sneaking vegetables into my smoothies again.
As you know, Kennedy is ambivalent about food. I don't know that I've ever seen her hungry. I refuse to fix her separate meals, she eats what we do (except lunch, I eat after she goes down for her nap, so she gets what she wants mostly). Her snacks are usually fruit, just because I know there are some nutrients there. What does all of this mean? Kennedy doesn't eat. As a rule. She sits at the table with us, participates, but does not eat. Somehow she grows and thrives. Jacob will come around. Maybe.
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