All posts by Nichole

Family matters

Dinnertime, and the living is contentious

5 Comments

It’s almost time for dinner. Little Petey is strapped into his booster seat, crying. Not an “I’m hurt” or “I need help” cry. Just an “I’m irritated and have had enough and don’t know what to do with all these feelings” sort of cry.

“Pete won’t stop crying!” Poppy calls out. As if it weren’t obvious from my macaroni-stirring vantage point. “Petey, stop crying right now!”

“No,” he wails, multi-syllabically. Unconsoling meets inconsolable.

Continue reading Dinnertime, and the living is contentious →

Eating

Fixing a hole where no nutrients get in, or How the Beatles helped my daughter eat fruit

12 Comments
Works-for-Me Wednesday

It is a well–documented fact that we’ve had a hard time getting Poppy to eat fruits and vegetables. Here are a few things we’ve tried:

  • Putting a veggie on her place 15 times in a row. She refused to eat it 15 times in a row.
  • Sneaking in the veggies. She detected the pureed cauliflower in her mac ‘n’ cheese immediately.
  • Making her sit at the table until she’s taken a bite. She put herself to sleep. On several occasions.
  • Throwing a pea at her in frustration. (Yes, really. I did that. I am not proud, and surprisingly enough, it didn’t work.)
  • Smearing peanut butter on an apple. She licked off the peanut butter, took one tiny bite of the apple, gagged and spit it out.

    • That last one was yesterday, the day after we’d come to a Bad Place, digestively speaking. So now I’m trying to appeal to her intellectual side rather than to her taste buds. I printed off the Level One lesson plans and a large, colorful copy of the food pyramid from the USDA’s no-defunct food pyramid site. (The new food site is Choose My Plate.”) We talked about the food groups yesterday, and we started filling out what’s basically a little food journal for kids, so she can see that she’s eating nothing but peanut butter.

    I think part of Poppy’s problem — aside from stubbornness — is sensory. She’s always had a problem dealing with loud noises, and I’ve wondered whether it’s the textures that she can’t get past. With that in mind, last night I bought a few jars of baby food. This morning I made her an apple-blueberry smoothie with it. We called it the “Blue Meanie” milkshake; tomorrow, we’ll try a peach “Yellow Submarine.” (I’m sure she’d reject the tiny seeds in the “Strawberry Fields,” and she doesn’t know the song anyway.)

    And here’s the thing: She drank it with zero fuss.

    Obviously, I still haven’t figured out just works for us in this department. But my 4-year-old is ingesting fruit this morning. I’ll take it.

    Visit We are That Family for more Works for Me Wednesday tips!