Zachary was a great eater when we were first weaning him and would try almost anything. Then at about 13 months, he suddenly stopped wanting to try new foods and stuck to a pretty tight range of food he would eat. Now this wasn't as bad as it sounds as he has always been a great eater of bread, cereal, yoghurts and fruit, the biggest issue was with main meals and we ended up limited to beans on toast, homemade chicken burgers, homemade fishcakes, peas and sweetcorn. So he was getting all his food groups, but after about a year and a half of this, I was starting to get a bit fed up of constantly making the chicken burgers and fishcakes, and it was difficult eating with him at friends' houses or out at pubs (pubs not so bad as chips and beans were always on the menu!).
As he approached 3, we decided to try a crack down on the eating thing and be more firm in encouraging him to try new foods...just as we decided this, Zachary - on his own - decided he was going to be more open to trying new things. Great! This is going pretty well - we now have pasta, carrots, chicken and chicken nuggets, fish fingers, sometimes rice and cous cous, and pork well in hand. The next issue we've run up against though is that although Zachary will try things more readily, actually getting him to finish a meal proves very difficult some days and he will take an absolute age to eat his dinner. Yes, we've resorted to bribery and the promise of computer time with Leigh, and/or pudding has worked reasonably well in the past. Today however...
Zachary tried green beans for the first time and loved them, they were the first thing eaten from his plate. Then we almost got away with using the promise of more beans as his reward for eating the rest of his dinner! (this worked for a while until he decided he really didn't want to finish the rest) Vegetables as bribery - ace!
No comments:
Post a Comment