Meet the pickiest eater I've ever come in contact with: Maggie.
She was pretty open to new flavors of baby food but once we started introducing real foods she started gagging and throwing up. Often. She hated chunks in her food so the higher stages of baby food were out of the question. She did love all the crunchy little finger foods though. So we kept offering her those. Eventually she didn't really want the baby food anymore, which was fine because I didn't want to buy it anymore. That stuff is not cheap. We'll ignore my obvious mistake in not making my own. Out of laziness and/or not thinking we didn't really keep offering her new foods, we just gave her what she liked, because at least she was eating. She was doing ok until about 18 months old she refused to eat anything gooey, mushy, or "gross" in any way. She was eating crackers, chips, dry cereal, popcorn, and milk. For a while it was almost exclusively milk. Any attempted introduction of new food resulted in monumental tantrums. I had to chose my battles, for my own sanity, and that was not one I chose then. I had other things to deal with, like getting her to walk, and interact in any small way with other children, and.... yea, you know, it was a long list.
The tides have changed. This is my recent battle of choice. We've progressed slowly over the last 2 years, adding juice and smoothies, apples and carrots, because there were some really awful constipation problems. Now, Maggie is reeeeeeeeally good at compromising and bargaining. She'll do almost anything to get what she wants. If I can get what I want out of the situation too, I figure it's a win-win. She's also big into making Mommy and Daddy proud. Which makes me so happy! So now she's discovered the benefits of trying new things. Sometimes she hates it, but she still gets what she wants, ie, another cup of milk or a bite of Mommy's candy bar. Sometimes she just gets to brag about trying new things, which is fun too. And sometimes she even finds new favorite foods.
Here she is trying watermelon at Grandma Ralph's house. She ended up eating probably a quarter of that watermelon over the next few days.
She now loves peanuts and fresh peas, discovered she does not like tomatoes, and is willing to try any type of drink, chip, or candy. She'd have quesadillas every day if I let her. I was seriously so happy when she wanted to eat a normal kid food. There is now enough variety in her food choice that I don't have to bring food to a restaurant. We can usually find her something off the menu. YAY!! I'm seriously so happy. Making sure your kid eats right and gets enough X nutrients is stressful, and almost impossible when they are so picky. I am so glad this phase is coming to a close. On to the next one...
Preschool. A wonderful 3 hour break for my day, and often during Brooks' morning nap. I get to do dishes and laundry, blogging and sewing, and my favorite - I usually get a shower! That didn't happen very often during the summer. :$
Brandon is wondering if maybe we should hold her back a year because she'll be one of the youngest in her grade. Opinions? He said he had a hard time sometimes being a young one as well. I don't want to make school unnecessarily difficult for her. Luckily I've still got a year before that decision needs to be made. I know she definitely won't need the help academically, but maybe socially...
We had that same discussion about Elena. Her birthday is August 30 and her dad;s is the 29th so he knows what its like to be the youngest. She is also advanced academically but lacking social skills. That's basically why we decided not to hold her back. While in preschool she already knew half the stuff they do in kindergarten. Her social skills have grown a lot since she's been in kindergarten.
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