Alternatives

[lillibet]

I'm curious what other parents think of this post. Our solution has been that Alice doesn't have to eat what she doesn't like at dinner and then she has a before-bed snack of yogurt mixed with oatmeal and fruit, so she won't go to bed hungry, which drastically affects the ease of bedtime. And, mostly Alice will find something on her dinner plate to eat if she's hungry and if it's not a hungry day, very little is acceptable. And she does eat so many things that it hasn't been a big deal. But forewarned is half the octopus, so I think about strategies.

I understand the theory behind what these folks are trying, but in the family I know who did this, the alternative was for the kids to nuke themselves a hot dog and the outcome was two teenagers who really didn't eat anything but hotdogs.

Comments

[bkdelong.livejournal.com]

Hard to say. Our hardest thing is that W has no interest in food per se. He seeks anything possible to distract him from eating whether it be toys or magazines or something belonging something else. He stands in his chair, goes to the bathroom multiple times etc.

Eventually we get him to eat 2/3 of what's on his plate but sometimes it involves spooning things into his mouth while he's distracted. It's embarrassing. It's not so much he doesn't like it.

Though things he thinks he doesn't like we can get a handful of bites into him. Sometimes we propose alternatives but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

And other days he'll plow right through his meal. Haven't quite found the sweet spot yet.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

I'm curious: Have you tried just letting him get hungry?

[bkdelong.livejournal.com]

Yup...he gets hyper and even more distracted culminating in belligerence and defiance. So we're doing more mood management in some respects.

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

Wow. I guess then the thing to do is make sure there are as few distractions around mealtime as possible.