I had a lengthy conversation about Mason and his eating habits with my Mom today. I have to pick up my Cousin at the Ferry this evening, so I wanted to pick up ‘faster’ food than coming home and cooking. I was so tired last night that I ignored the remainder of my dishes, the food particles on the floor and my laundry pile to ‘put away’ and went to bed at 9:30am. Again, I don’t normally live in a sty but I’m in my second week of work and after not working for two months I remembered how hard it is to work 40+hrs a week and be a single Mum. (plus, I don’t have a dishwasher and hate doing dishes.)
So anyhow, the conversation went like something like this:
Mason has always eating like a picky little birdie. He is more visual than um ‘tastory’ and refuses food unless he’s seen it before (on a good day) and likes it. Even my Mom has attempted to make him these wonderful healthy meals (with lots of color and variety) and after all that hard work of cutting and displaying, he looks at it like it's poison and out comes 'no!' . The safe food is: pizza, quesadilla and pasta along with fruits, yogurt, crackers, tortilla chips, pancakes, waffles, toast, cheerios, cheese, pickles, and hummus. Not too worried about fat content as he’s just borderline under/normal weight and no chance this kid is going to be obese.
Feeding him has been a concern from day one as I struggled with breastfeeding (who didn’t?). God gave me giant, beautiful boobs…that were defective. So I guess it was only inevitable that he eats the minimum, on his schedule. I’ve tried hiding veggies in his food (spinach in the quesadilla) and giving him ‘dip’ for raw/cooked veggies. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
When I give him a new food, I ‘casually’ stalk him to see if he actually eats it and feel like a Super star mom if he does and feel rejected if he doesn’t. Then I usually end up giving him 5 more foods so he eats ‘something’.
Assured by many studies and articles I’ve read (as this isn’t a rare occurrence for Toddlers) that most can survive off mini meals and milk. I found a guide a while back that actually showed proper portions for the 2+ age group (wish I had kept it) and I think our view of what Toddler’s should be eating is a bit skewed. There is obviously no risk of him starving as he does eat breakfast and his very large lunch his Dad and I both pack him and doesn’t come back with much left.
So today’s meal choice was Taco Time. I don’t usually eat fast food and I’ve only taken Mason there on another occasion. With him being a vegetarian, I’d rather ensure his meals are up to code than guess. I ordered a cheese quesadilla, mexi fries and yam fries. $8.00 later. Sigh.
He ate half of a yam fry, a quarter of the quesadilla….and that was it. I coaxed, plead and bribed him to sit and have the rest but it ended in him yelling and whining to get out of his toddler seat (which was locked). Finally I gave up, having him in tears isn’t worth forcing him to nibble. I guess if he’s really not hungry, he’s not hungry and it’s not like I can’t heat it up for later.
About a half hour after this lovely parenting moment, Mason comes running over and is enjoying a pot of pretend soup which he is so dramatically feeding himself.
Ironic, isn’t it?