Week in Review...

It was a challenging week. Aren't they all? (well my week wasn't as bad as Suzie's!) For starters D was really on an eating strike this week. Wouldn't take more than a bite or two of anything - if even...

Every day for lunch and dinner I made things he usually eats... wouldn't touch them. He usually eats mashed potatoes the best, but last night he took about two bites. He was asking for chicken nuggets, so I made a special trip to the store... made them for lunch today and he managed to eat almost two whole nuggets... It's been so frustrating.

I tried negotiating with him. He was yelling for cookies at dinner last night and I told him he could have some cookies if he ate some more mashed potatoes... after about a half an hour of his yelling for cookies (1, 2, 3 cookies! 1, 2, 3 cookies!) I finally broke down and gave him some. He took one bite of each cookie and that was it. I shouldn't have caved. And of course I felt less guilty after he didn't even eat the cookies. But then again, I felt more guilty because he hardly ate anything! I was surprised that he didn't eat them.

Kids and dogs know when something is up. Things have been extra stressful this week. Mostly with trying to get everything ready to move...

Needless to say we've been busy packing.

Which has probably caused a little disruption to the little ones. Naps this week were really hard to come by! 2 or 3 days D wouldn't go to sleep until late in the afternoon, thus woke up late and didn't want to go to bed at a decent hour... and the other days he refused sleep altogether, but then went to sleep quite early in the evening (which I almost prefer). B's 2 naps a day have been getting shorter and shorter, and of course not coinciding with D's at all. It's been really difficult to get anything done.

I may not have too many posts for the next couple of weeks with moving and all... so bear with me and stick around. I'm sure things will get pretty fun! ;)

What do toddler boys like to eat??

I mean really?? I cannot get D to eat anything!
OK, he will still only eat a handful of foods. The only things he will eat every time are: yogurt (but it has to be the kids kind with all the sugar and bright colors that do wonderful things to his poo), the marshmallows from Lucky Charms (do they make a cereal that has only marshmallows? 'Cause 90% of the box goes to the dogs.), and mashed potatoes (as long as they aren't real ones).

It's so frustrating! I don't know how he is even gaining any weight. Seriously, for about two days all he ate was breakfast. He may have taken a few bites of mac & cheese or a chicken nugget... but really he was just playing with his food: organizing it, throwing it, spitting it out...

I tried mixing B's baby food into his mashed potatoes. It worked the first time. But the second time he turned his nose up at it... but did eat all my mashed potatoes...

The night before last I made him 3 different things for dinner. I always give him whatever we're having and then have a back up plan for when he won't eat that. He wouldn't eat what we were having, so I made him some of those ramen noodles (which he will usually eat). Wouldn't touch them. After everyone else was done eating I started feeling awful guilty - thinking that he had to eat something... I had a kids spaghetti frozen dinner in the freezer, so I made that for him. Well, he transferred all the noodles from one compartment to the next and maybe took two bites...

I feel like I've tried to get him to eat just about everything. I'm all out of ideas. The foods he will eat sometimes are chicken nuggets, mac & cheese, stuffing, hot dogs (rarely), spaghetti-o's (rarely), rice, lasagna, cheese and refried beans.

I actually went and hunted down liquid vitamins. He wouldn't eat the few kinds of chewables I tried.

Does anyone have any ideas? What are your toddlers favorite foods?

Doggy Days

I never should have laughed at my son when he started eating like a dog. But is was so darn cute and funny. And it was getting him to eat something.

I don't know how many times, out of frustration with D's not eating anything, that I thought of Judy Blume's Fudge books - how the mother said "Eat it or wear it" (if I'm remembering that correctly) and Fudge ended up wearing his food... of course I would never do such a thing, but boy have I thought about it ;) maybe even muttered it to myself while trying to get him to eat something.

I have been reminded again of the Fudge books by my son's behavior. For the past couple of months he has been mimicking the behaviors of the dogs. Sally, the weiner dog, shakes her ears, D shakes his head. Sally eats a piece of cereal off the floor, D throws a piece of cereal on the floor and eats it. He shares his chips (on the floor) with Sally. Sally wags her tail, D wags his little booty. Sally runs into the kitchen, D gets on all fours and runs to the kitchen. Sally gets under foot, two minutes later I step on D who is now under foot.

I have tried not to promote this kind of behavior. It can be quite frustrating and embarassing. A couple of weeks ago, in a room full of family - they said hi to him, and what did he do? Got down from his chair, got on all fours and started wagging his booty. Last week I was running late to pick up M from school, and I could not get D to stand up and walk to the car. He refuses to walk up the stairs for naps and bedtime. He crawls through the hall to the bedroom.

Last night I couldn't get him to pick up his toys. Out of frustration I told him that good little puppies pick up their toys. It did the trick, he immediately started picking up his toys---with his mouth!! It was awful and funny at the same time - it was so hard not to laugh, but I didn't want to laugh because I really want him to quit behaving as such. But it seems that he's taken it to a new level.

That was when I was reminded again of the Fudge books. In the first one, "Tales of a 4th Grade Nothing," Fudge went around acting like a dog for a while. For some reason I was thinking that Fudge was older than my D (yes, I do know it's a work of fiction) - so I was thinking that D was just too young to be going through this as a phase - but in reading through some reviews of the book Fudge was also a 2 year old. I guess he's right on track ;)

I'm wondering if I should be worried about his behavior. I keep telling him he's a big boy, and big boys walk - but it hasn't seemed to make a difference. I suppose, as in Fudge's case he will eventually outgrow this behavior?

More on Eating Issues

My 10 year old daughter is not the only member of this household to have eating issues. Many of you with toddlers will know exactly what I'm talking about... ugh!
My toddler, D, will eat maybe a handful of foods. I talk to everyone I know with a toddler and hear similar issues (and it seems to be mainly boys). I vaguely remember my sister, T, talking about her Dr telling her to quit giving my nephew hot dogs all the time. Apparently that was all he wanted to eat. 2 of the ladies at the butcher shop also have similar eating issues with their toddler sons. Can't get them to eat squat.

It is so completely frustrating!! I remember thinking my sister was stupid for giving my nephew hot dogs all the time, but now I can totally understand. Once you find something they will eat, it becomes the back up, always on hand food. I always give him whatever we are having for dinner, but have one of his staples on hand for if (when) he refuses to eat what we're having. I try to plan meals around what I think he will eat. But then he will eat something one time, but not the other! The kid eats so very little it's amazing he's still gaining weight! I talked to the dr about it and she didn't seem to be concerned. And it seems pretty much the norm with others I've talked to. I don't know how many times I have made him 3 or 4 different things for lunch or dinner... only to have him refuse everything.

He spends more time playing with his food and throwing it. All I can say is thank God I have dogs!! Otherwise I would be sweeping and mopping the kitchen floor three times a day! For a while I thought the dogs were part of the problem, so I kenneled them while he was eating. That didn't work either. I just had 2 dogs whining their butts off because of all the food on the floor.

He loves to toss food to the dogs. He loves to see how fast they run to catch his droppings. His new thing is chewing up his food and then spitting it to the dogs. So disgusting, but I can't get him to stop. There's no way I would go eat in a restaurant with this kid! I can just imagine - he would throw his chicken over his head, it would hit somebody and we'd be asked to leave.

A guy I talked to has a toddler boy who has problems with seizures. They have him on a special diet to try to control the seizures - he has to eat what they give him and he has to eat all of it. I can't imagine. You just can't *make* a toddler eat anything. Believe me, I've tried. I don't know how they do it.

I'm all out of ideas on what to offer D to eat. His staples used to be mac & cheese and spaghetti o's. But now he only eats mac & cheese half the time and refuses to eat spaghetti o's. He will only surely eat mashed potatoes, garlic bread and stuffing. Sometimes he will eat chicken nuggets (very rarely any other form of chicken), refried beans (sometimes he will even eat taco meat), rice, lasagna, spaghetti, other pastas (as long as it doesn't have too many veggies in it). I can't get him to eat any veggies or fruit (except bananas). He does pretty good with breakfast though. He will always eat yogurt and most of the time bananas and fruit bars. He will always eat his marshmallow cereal (but only the marshmallows). Of course I can't get him to eat any of the chewable vitamins... I need to get some liquid vitamins.

Well, he'll be eating his mashed potatoes tonight...