Why do I even bother feeding this child?!

[cfred]

I have a 20 month old who won't eat most of the time. If it's a treat, no sweat....he's all over that. But almost everything else, forget it! I used to stress over it and sit with him at each meal and coax in spoonfuls of food. I'm done. I give him his food (small portions). If he eats, awesome, if not, it's no skin off my teeth. I'm just not going to stress over it any more. I will not (WILL NOT) let him out of his chair until the rest of the children are finished though. He can sit there and look at the food he's not eating. It's lunch time, not play time.

I feel your pain....it's a bit of a stress

[playfelt]

Life was so much simpler when kids came to daycare at 4-6 months old and we were the ones that introduced sippy cups, finger foods, etc. and most parents just deferred to our judgement. Now we spend the first 6 months of daycare undoing the damage done by well-meaning but misguided parents. And the child suffers in the process. Makes you wonder if the one year mat leave really is a positive thing for the child or not.

[Momof4]

Playfelt speaks the truth, I have a baby who started at 9 months and he is the best transition I've had in years!

[Sassygirl]

Thank you everyone! I guess I am over stressing about it. I think its the smearing and throwing that makes me crazy. With this age group sometimes I feel like with all the prepping and cleaning up of children and their chairs then naps I am hardly doing anything with them.
Oh and on another note, this is the same mom who encourages... yes encourages dumping out toys from their bins. He is the most destructive little guy. Just goes over to all my bins and dumps all the contents out and is on to the next one. Luckily I keep my playpen and highchair handy and he gets confined. Don't need the other 3 picking that habit up.

[cfred]

Throwing food invokes the wrath of doG around here. It stops very, very quickly.

[Momof4]

Throwing food invokes the wrath of doG around here. It stops very, very quickly.

Funny, that's me too! I pick up the food off the floor, stand there and show the child the food in my hand and tell them, No, no, not on the floor. I take hold of their arm when they start sweeping the food and reinforce the no, no. They learn.

[mickyc]

My problem with my 11 month old (will be 12 months old in approx. 3 weeks) is I know she won't be happy if I suggest that we decrease her daughter's milk intake. I have her older child (who is 4) and when she started with me she was 2.5 and was still on her bottles and a soother. I would just dump her milk in her sippy cup and never gave her a bottle at all. I know this mom is not going to be OK with me wanting to wean her 12 month old off bottles soon. Not sure how to approach it but there is no reason why she can't start weaning now. My other infant (14 months) I have in daycare isn't on a bottle and hasn't been since she started and she is a great eater!

[Lou]

I agree with everything previously stated, and obviously you just can't not offer him food. What I would do is offer him very small portions at a time. If he eats it, give him more. If not it's not a huge mess to clean up.

[playfelt]

So is it wrong to take the 8 oz bottle and dump half of it down the drain and only give the child the 4 oz he needs? I would probably just put the extra in the fridge and if not used within 24 hours toss it out. Sometimes our duty is to the child too.

[cfred]

Yeah, I'm with Playfelt. Sometimes we just have to go ahead and do what we do without asking permission. I think in this case especially as the child needs to be on a stable diet. I have no issues with cutting back the formula and giving more table food. Could the food be offered first, then the bottle....if the times were rearranged some?

Sometimes it drives me crazy with new parents. Bless them all and I know everyone wants to do what's best for their child. HOWEVER, sometimes, after 20 years in the biz of raising children, there's a chance...a minute possibility....that I just might know a bit more about it than a first time parent. I find, sometimes, that they can be a tad micromanaging. Not all, but some...and I've had a few

I have a feeling Momof4, that we might be cut from the same cloth...we do quite a number of things the same. With the exception of socializing with our clients, lol!