{food challenge} Day 1

Two days ago I had a meltdown.  This melt down included crying, sobbing, fighting, and couple of glasses of wine, a long hot shower and an early bed time. Feeding Aiden is a challenge. A hard challenge. I come home from work at about five at night and play with him for about an hour. I put Sesame Street on and start to cook dinner while he's watching his all-time favorite furry animal, Elmo.  I make plain pasta, rice pudding, almond butter jelly sandwich, and heat up leftovers from the night before hoping he will like something from the list.  I turn the TV off and try to put him in the high chair which is a fight on its own. The highchair didn’t go as well so i put him in the buster chair and he draws while i put the pasta in front of him which ends up on the floor. Then i put rice pudding in front of him and he wipes the counter with it.  My husband and i decide to put him back in his high chair and pretend like we are eating the food also but he doesn't budge. He wants nothing to do with anything i put in front of him. We take him out of the chair and he throws a fit, probably because he's hungry. We feed him cheerios and he eats them like it's going out of style. Last attempt to feed him, I make oatmeal. He is super clingy to me and I have to pretty much do everything with him in my arms.  By the end of dinner there is pasta, rice, cheerios on the floor and I'm in tears.  This boy doesn't want to eat anything!  

I post a message on an Allergy-Friendly-Yahoo-Group i belong to and i get an ear full.  I have been doing so many things wrong. I received such amazing tips! First of all, there might be an issue with food and its texture for him because he really doesn’t want to eat anything that is too thick or hard.  If it doesn’t melt in his mouth he doesn’t want it.  I took as many tips as I could and this is how dinner went last night. 

-No TV before dinner

-I cooked pasta (over cooked it until it is mooshy) and added some agave nectar

-I made veggies. A mix of broccoli, carrots, squash and steamed it until it's falling apart and added agave nectar 

-Only those two were offered. 

-Put an Elmo sticker placemat on his highchair 

-Once he tasted it once he wanted more.  The agave nectar made it taste so much yummier. 

-Reward for eating his food.

He sat there and ate the carrots like they were going out of style! He ate all the pasta and barely anything ended up on the floor. 

I was making so many mistakes. I offered too much. I didn't make it fun. I was constantly frustrated. I got him too excited over Elmo before dinner that he just wanted to go back and watch his show.  It was hard for him to trust me with the first bite, but once he did (I had to trick him), he was all game. Once he was finished with dinner he was a different boy. He was super happy and playing and not attached to my hip like he usually is.  I guess every night he was super clingy to me because he was hungry and tired but as soon as he got food in his belly he was all play.  He even got rewarded with a cookie once he was done. For a long time I would just give him a cookie to quite him down but from now on, he will only get a cookie for eating enough food and for potty time (whenever that will happen.)

So i am creating a "food challenge" on this blog where I document what he eats and what works and what doesn’t.

Since Valentines day just passed, here is a special message from a special boy