Feeding Frustration & Fortune

Popcorn, poptarts, bacon, chicken nuggets, chips/crackers, fruit snacks, applesauce, and Spaghettios. These are the things that Ethan will eat faithfully. That's it. So, I KNOW that he isn't getting the amount of nutrition that he needs in order to have healthy bones or to help with his muscle development and other things growing boys needs. I have talked about this before, and I did find a few ways to sneak in the healthy stuff. To read about that, click here.

But the NEW issue is that Ethan doesn't WANT to eat.......he wants to play. So now he isn't even eating the 8 things I know he likes! I was telling all of this to my sister while we were cleaning up Ethan's birthday party. He didn't eat much during the party because he wanted to play. And then he was crabby after the party because he was hungry.....but didn't eat when the rest of us were eating. It is so frustrating for me. As I was telling this to my sister, Ethan comes up to me & asks for a poptart. I just wanted to scream! NOW he was ready to eat, and he is gonna eat junk. Great. Here's my mom of the year award down the drain! :0)

My sister, I'm sure sensing my "limit," scooped Ethan up & took him to her fridge. She opened the doors & asked him what he wanted. He immediately spotted a logo that he recognized.....Motts. As in Motts Applesauce. The surprising part is not that he picked applesauce or even the logo.....the surprising part is that he ate is all......and it was PEACH applesauce. I about fell over in my chair. Unbelievable.

So, my new thing that I'm trying out is not feeding Ethan until he ASKS for food.....and then give him choices of good things. I also had him pick out what flavor/brand of items while at the grocery store due to a tip from my sister....the only person that has gotten Ethan to eat a strawberry. (She took a picture otherwise I wouldn't have believed it! And, PS Rachel - he picked out Mott's PEACH Applesauce at the store!)

I've done it all this week, and it seems to be working great! He is getting more fiber, protein & fruit (still no veggies) and less carbs & sugar. I was able to sneak in some yogurt in our grocery cart because it has Cars on it, but he still didn't like it. Oh well. Baby steps. I'm just glad he is eating & getting better nutrition. And of course he is still getting his multivitamins.

It is still a challenge because everyone in my family is eating at different times, so it makes dinner time at the dinner table a little hard, but I guess that will be my next challenge. Or maybe we could "play" dinner table & use that time teach table manners as well as sitting at the table for longer than 5 minutes. But that's for another time. For now, I'm just so thankful that Ethan ate OATMEAL today! WOOHOO!

***Update - I generally write my posts days before they are published. Since writing this post, Ethan has eaten a bigger variety of food than every before! Including TILAPIA fish! This is really working for us!