Andrina is so not a baby anymore. When she was a baby, she would eat for me without any problems. She would feed herself only a few bites during any meal but she would eat everything I offered her. And I always offered her healthy and balanced meals. I made sure that she had fruits and vegetables with every meal, including breakfast, along with protein and with lunch, baby yogurt so she had protein and calcium. And Andrina would eat everything, even her vegetables which she seemed to love. Now most meals she eats about half the amount she used to or even less than that. Today at lunch, she would only eat about 4 bites of cereal with fruit and none of her green beans. And that was it. I knew she was still hungry but she would not feed herself and she would not let me feed her anymore either. So I gave up and an hour later, I put her back in her high chair (and she cried as soon as I did that) to offer her a toddler banana cookie and a sippy cup of milk. She would not eat any of the cookie and would not even take one sip of her milk. Then it was time for her nap and she was MAD! It took her over an hour to fall asleep. She would be quiet for 5 to 10 minutes then she make some angry crying noises, over and over for more than an hour. When she finally fell asleep, she slept for only 40 minutes but she did eat about half of what she usually would for dinner when she got up. And this time she ate about 2 ounces of the cereal with fruit and about 2 ounces of green beans. After she finished that, I offered her the same banana cookie that she rejected at lunch. She was in better spirits, waving the cookie around and smiling and babbling and then she finally took a bite of it. A real bite in wich part of it broke off in her mouth and she chewed it and swallowed it. After that she accepted one sip of milk, but that was it for her meal.
Aside from the huge change in her eating habits, Andrina is much more negative now (yes, totally normal and age-appropriate, I know). She is more forceful in displaying what she wants and does not want and will throw mini temper tantrums too where she will lay on her back and whine. And she is much more moody. One second she is withdrawing away from others, the next she is engaging me, smiling, and even clapping. Actually, she cries more now than she did as a newborn but the crying is much shorter lived, it just occurs with greater frequency. The two pictures below were taken no more than 30 seconds apart. In the first, she is withdrawing. I called her name, smiled, and talked excitedly to her and she then wanted to play and was back to her usual self, exploring and being happy, which is what I captured in the second picture.
Withdrawn and soothing herself. Something made Andrina upset.
Engaged, exploring and happy again!
Engaged, exploring and happy again!
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1 comment:
Time to...break out the toddler food! Ahh all the work we put into them feeding them healthy from months 0-12 are washed down the drain from months 12-24. Out come mac and cheese, PB&J, spaghetti O's, whatever will make them happy. My experience and my friends' experience (who have a bit older kids) has been that once they turn 2 you can start introducing healthier foods.
Have you read Touch Points on this? Brazelton's book? He write a really good article on eating at 12 months. He says she could survive on a cup of juice, a serving of calcium and like a piece of toast, all day every day for 2 years and not suffer at all nutritionally. Once I knew that it took away a lot of anxiety and what I felt I needed to control and I was able to let Anne eat what she wanted. This is why babies are fat when they turn one, because nature knows they will become picky eaters and use up their stored fats and nutrients to get them through this picky eater time. Try not to fret too much...you can lead her to water...any battles you start will probably end with her winning. But I will admit, the food battle was one I struggled with very intensely, finding it very difficult to give up control, but I did my best.
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