Not Every Meal is a Happy One

Usually Henry is a very cheerful little boy, and for the most part eating together is a pleasant experience. At times, however, Henry is not in the mood to eat.

Some days, he just wants to play with his food or spend mealtime search for a little crumb that fell in his chair. Other times he gets distracted by the ceiling fan or the kitchen drawer handle. I'm not worried if he doesn't eat, since food before one is just for fun.

Where did I drop that raisin?

Most days, however, Henry is ready to eat as soon as I put on his bib. He doesn’t want to wait around for me to fill his water cup or get the silverware on the table. I've learned that it is best to have everything ready when his bib goes on. On a recent evening, dinner was cooked, the table was set and I put Henry’s bib on him. I called to Daddy that dinner was ready, but it took him a few minutes to finish up his project. Since we don’t start eating until everyone is at the table, Henry started to lose patience waiting for Daddy to arrive. Once the tears started, I took off his bib and picked him up for a quick cuddle. When Daddy was ready, we restarted the process and Henry was ready to dig in.

Henry lost patience waiting for dinner to begin.

Occasionally, Henry just has a really bad day. When Henry misses a nap, it doesn’t take much for him to get cranky in the evenings. Arsenic hour strikes quickly, even when his favorite foods are in front of him.


Henry can go from content to complete meltdown in under 2 minutes.


Don't worry -- Daddy scooped Henry up for a snuggle right after I snapped this photo.

On days like this, we resort to one of two possibilities. Sometimes I can placate Henry by letting him sit on my lap for the remainder of the meal. I only use this option if we are nearly done eating and I can maneuver my food with one hand. If not, then Daddy and I will switch off holding Henry while the other parent eats. It isn’t ideal, but luckily we don’t need to use this remedy very often.

Comments

The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook

UPDATE (10/2/12): Unfortunately, I did not hear back from our original winner. Congratulations to our alternate winner for "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook" -- Robin Pfefer. UPDATE (9/29/12): I am happy to announce that Kashia Clopper is the winner of "The Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook". When I was first thinking about using the Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) model for Henry, I was unsure about whether it would really work. I was excited about BLW’s claims of less stressful meals that the whole family could share together. Plus, I was all for encouraging Henry to gain new skills by learning about the shapes, textures, colors, smells and flavors of food. This sounded ideal in theory, but would it work in practice? After some fun but ineffective attempts at letting Henry feed himself, I went in search of resources to learn more about BLW. I needed to learn how to prepare meals for our family in which Henry could participate. That’s when I found “ The Baby-Led

Do Your Kids Eat Everything?

UPDATE (3/15/2013): Congratulations to Kia as the random drawing winner in this giveaway! Thank you to all those who entered this contest. Before we began our food adventure with Henry, Daddy and I had many conversations about how to encourage Henry to become “a good eater.” After watching other parents constantly struggle with their toddlers, we wanted to know if there was anything we could do from the start to prevent picky eating. That’s when we read “ French Kids Eat Everything ” by Karen Le Billon . The book is an easy and enjoyable read about the year that Karen’s family spent in France and how it changed the way her family eats. The heart of the book explores the 10 French Food Rules for raising happy, healthy eaters. “French Kids Eat Everything” sparked numerous discussions at our dinner table about how our family eats. We have become more conscious of our assumptions about food and how that will influence Henry’s understanding of mealtimes. In addition, the

Please Don't Feed My Toddler Cheetos

Our family has started a new chapter -- last week I rejoined the paid workforce! I am very excited about my new part-time job at a local history museum, coordinating field trips and special events. As part of this transition, Henry is now going to daycare three days per week. Henry meets new friends and plays with new toys on his first day at daycare. Searching for quality childcare was a somewhat stressful experience. We visited 8 childcare facilities who had immediate space available for Henry to begin part-time care. I wanted to be confident that Henry would be cared for by experienced, nurturing staff in an environment that would challenge him to learn new skills and form friendships with other children. Of course, the added cost of childcare also had to fit within our family budget. While interviewing daycares, one aspect that I cared about was food. All eight of the facilities participate in the USDA food program , receiving reimbursement at a set rate for the meals they

How to Feed a Henry

Search This Blog