Family Forum / Parenting / Parenting / July 2004

And you second will find ways to thwart THAT effort! I am being a little
tonge in cheek. I was going to do this and that with my second, and darn it
all, she is just not complying. Parents sometimes take too much onto
themselves in terms of what they can affect and what is just their child
being their child. Mine would not eat a BITE of any kind of solid before 6
months. It was really closer to 7. Pretty hard to start her on lumpy when
she would not eat anything. It all works out ok though.

Don't give yourself too much grief. The one thing that was hardest for me
with my first was realizing that if I made a mistake, it was undoable. And
it did not need to be undone Right This Minute. I remember when my sister's
kids could drink out of a cup WAY before I even knew it was appropriate to
start trying with my son. I remember thinking, he is supposed to be drinking
out of a cup. Oh My God Get Him Drinking Out of a Cup Right Now. That kind
of uptightness never helped DS learn anything. Somehow he survived my
neroses!

I am also work. (Ugh. I hate it.) For me there are 3 keys to being able to
provide dinner for the family. One is this cookbook:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764539302/qid=1089299073/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2
_1/102-4621316-4150506

I can get dinner on the table quickly, often in as little as 15 minutes.
They aren't rocket science recipes. One is store bought chicken patties in a
sandwich with salsa and black bean dip, for instance. I could have come up
with that. But I do not want to!  I will begin to look for other cookbooks
like it.

The other absolute necessity is a meal plan. I need to know what to take out
of the freezer the night before. I make a grocery list from the meal plan
plus things we need to have on hand, like juice, snacks, milk, etc.. I only
do meal plans for dinners. We have a rotating same o' same o' for breakfast
and lunch. But you could just as easily do meal plans for those meals to.

I do not try to make my food particularly kid friendly. In our house, dinner
is a take it or leave it proposition, as is every meal. Frank McCourt never
turned down a chicken sandwich! It used to make me crazy to come up with
meals that my son would like that we could tolerate. I do not make spicy or
truely awful things (like liver and onions which my parents loved. ICK) and
I have something kind of boring at every meal, like fruit salad, bread or
applesauce. But once the meal is planned, that's what is for dinner. I also
pick one of DS's favorites at least once per week.

Good luck!

S

I frankly wouldn't worry at all, unless it's an expense issue or
something.

There's enough variety that he'll get his nutritional needs met. The
jars are small and easy to handle, he can start feeding himself. And
one of these days, he'll demand a taste of whatever is on your plate.
I doubt very much he'll want to stay on baby food forever. But if you
let him make the decision -- and treat it as no big deal at all -- you
won't get stressed and neither will he.

OTOH, if he reaches college age and he's still eating baby-food out of
jars, it'll save him from all the junk food floating around...
(I've know teenage girls who eat baby-food because it's convenient
portions that can be eaten on the run at any time of day, and it
usually doesn't need refrigeration.)

Rupa

.  Give him a jar and

Yup, this is what I do...he pokes around at the diced up stuff on the tray,
and in between he feeds himself pureed food with a spoon, and I feed him
some with another spoon.  This way I know that he is getting some nutritious
food and he's still learning about the other stuff and eventually (I hope)
he'll eat that.
Tracey

I tried to get my daughter to eat a wide variety of things.. I am REALLY
picky and I try to at least make an effort to eat things that I dont like in
front of her so she will not get turned off by certain foods.  Hey who ever
died from not liking Jello or Candy bars (on my wont eat list) How do I
encourage her to try new foods?  It is still fairly easy since she just has
to see me eating it, though it still does not work for peaches or pears, and
she will at least lick it. How often do you have a child try something
before you give up?  Am I going to be saying to her "I know you like
peaches, It is all you ate as a baby' like my mom does now and then about me
not like cranberry sauce now;)

Tori

just remember that almost all 'crises' in child rearing sort of go away
with time and reasonable behavior on the parent's part -- lots of things
that you think will just be a giant problem forever just disappear