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Thread: Finger foods

  1. #1
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    Finger foods

    Hi ladies:

    If you remember a few months a go I posted about a new little one who’s transitioning was brutal to say the least. She started in January and is 3 days a week. She cried all the time and took like a month to settle. She’s still not 100% as she is very tender around the other 1.5 year old in my care and cries if she touches her or comes near.

    She has been ok with me vacuuming but last week for whatever reason she looked extremely traumatized as soon as I got out the vacuum. She screamed her head off while I did a quick vacuum then clapped when I put it away! LOL God bless her, as she is really cute.

    She won’t sit in a high chair and refuses to eat most of the time. The only time she eats is after nap and she will only eat finger foods. Her favorite things are oven fries, chicken fingers, ham, crackers, bananas (only sometimes) & cheerios. She won’t eat fruit or vegetables or yogurt? Oh and she loves pasta but it depends on her mood. She’s 19 months old and I have never had a child so head strong or picky and it is making me feel so inadequate. Her parents don’t think it’s a big deal but I spend a lot of time trying to get her to eat.

    Any suggestions would be great.

  2. #2
    Euphoric !
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    I email daily with the mother of my 14 month old girl who won't eat any veggies for me or for her Mom. We're trying tricks like puree the veggies and put them into the meatloaf and pasta sauce and breads. She will eat breads and proteins and loves fruit at least. It is so difficult when you have a picky eater, I feel your pain! I always serve 2 veggies for lunch with a bread & a protein item, then fruit after.

    So I just put about a tablespoon of the veggies on her plate and hope that someday she will eat a little and find out they are not so bad. But children at my daycare are definitely going to sit at the table together for the entire meal and I am definitely going to keep giving them the things I cook daily. If they want to be fussy and get really hungry then I figure they will eat when their stomachs start growling.

    Just my opinions, but you should make her sit in the high chair for every meal whether she eats or not (I use all boosters on my chairs) and you should be working with the parents to see how she does at daycare and home.

  3. #3
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    Agree with momof4, here. I think that, whether she "wants" to or not, she should be sitting at the table with others for meal and snack time. What does she do now, just wander around and come back for nibbles?
    And truthfully, I have (somewhat) stopped worrying about "making" kids eat certain things. I make it, I serve it, YOU choose whether or not you eat it. You WILL stay at the table for a reasonable amount of time. I will put a little bit of everything on your plate, and with the littlest ones (under 2-ish) I will not make you eat all of one thing before you can have more of something else. That rule starts at toddler age.
    Having said that, I always provide at least two things at meal/snack, so they do feel like there is some choice. And if I make something that is a consistent thumbs down from ALL the kids, I take it out of the rotation for a while. We can always try that food again in a few months, but in the meantime, why throw food away??
    Keep in mind that it can take exposing a child to a certain food up to 10 times before they will eat it. Just keep giving it to her! One day, she is going to pick it up and eat it.
    I used to have a little guy who hated the vaccuum. I would pick him up and he would "help" with it. He grew to love it! Admittedly, I didn't usually get the job done perfectly that way, but he stopped screaming and shaking when he saw the thing!

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    Euphoric ! Inspired by Reggio's Avatar
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    It sounds like she is a 'highly sensitive' temperament with a very big personal space bubble for sure - hopefully as time passes and trust is built in her friends and environment she will be able to be more resilient to people moving about around her while not having the need to let out a war cry!

    As for eating I so agree with the others ... everyone comes for meal time and stays until meal time is over .... this has dual purpose cause it is the 'safest' way to supervise multiple children cause if some are playing and some are eating it means 'some' are being unsupervised while eating or vise versa and that could lead to inappropriate behaviour and choking

    So you come to the table and you are offered the food that everyone else is being served and no you do not have to 'eat' but you have to come keep everyone company ... I generally find that eventually the 'picky eaters' sitting there seeing everyone else eat TRY things because often picky eating is a combination of 'control' and 'fear' ... they have to see food several times in order to work up the courage to 'taste' it.

    I attended a Nutrition workshop at an OEYC a couple years ago and the best advice they gave about meal time is that as the 'adult' it is our role to ensure that we provide a wide range of nutritionally balanced option at consistent regular times each day and to set consistent safety expectations for behaviour around 'meal time' (aka we sit at the table, we do not throw food, we are not 'silly' at the table and so forth or the food is removed) ... it is the child's job to decide if and how much they will eat during those periods and if they decide 'not to' the food is removed at the end of meal time and nothing is served again until the next 'scheduled' meal time .... no GRAZING in between meal times because this is what leads to 'picky control eating behaviours' because they know if they refuse the healthy stuff served they can get a 'less healthy' snack option in between meals like a cookie or cracker or other 'easy to serve' item!

    As for refusing to sit in the highchair - I get that could be a safety issue if she is climbing out or throwing a fit ... I would offer two options to her you sit at the table in your chair and NICELY keep us company OR you go to bed for a nap if you are too 'tired' to join us ... eventually she will choose to sit at the table or she will nap and hopefully wake up more charming!
    Children construct their own intelligence. The adult must provide activities and context, but most of all must be able to listen. Children need proof that adults believe in them. Their three great desires are to be listened to, to understand, and to demonstrate that they are exactly what we expect."
    Loris Malaguzzi

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    Yeah, Reggio... that's exactly the adage I live by when it comes to meal time.
    Public health did a campaign a while ago that said; "It is the parent/caregivers job to decide WHAT to serve and WHEN to serve it. It is the child's job to decide IF they will eat it, and HOW MUCH they will eat."
    Sometimes picky eating is just that, picky-ness. Other times it becomes a big power struggle. Like anything; consistent expectations and guidelines are the best in that case!

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    LOL - they must have shared that public healthy campaign across Canada cause the workshop I attended was offered by Public Health as well through one of our Ontario Early Years centres and was basically word for word on addressing 'healthy eating in a picky eater society' where more and more parents are claiming 'my kid will only drink chocolate milk and eat McDonalds chicken nuggets and if I do not feed them that they would starve themselves'
    Children construct their own intelligence. The adult must provide activities and context, but most of all must be able to listen. Children need proof that adults believe in them. Their three great desires are to be listened to, to understand, and to demonstrate that they are exactly what we expect."
    Loris Malaguzzi

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