Frustrated

Lila has entered a new and difficult phase in eating. Just a few weeks ago, I was totally exasperated because she kept throwing her food/bowl/spoon/cup onto the floor. After endless repetitions of, "No no, Lila! That is not appropriate. We do not throw our XXXXX on the floor!", she finally stopped doing it! I was quite pleasantly surprised at how quickly she learned.

Well, now she's doing it again... because she has decided to be very picky about what she'll eat. She did this to us overnight and I totally didn't see it coming! She has gone from devouring anything we put in front of her to refusing to eat most of what we put in front of her. Food is only truly acceptable if it comes from our plates. I understand why she's doing it - she wants to eat what the grownups are eating.

It's still maddening though and even worse is the fact that she is not consistent in her rejection. Yesterday evening, Doug cooked a chicken breast for her and she had a lot of it for dinner. She also had some with lunch today. I, thinking that I had found at least one thing she would consistently eat, gave her some for dinner as well. However, all she did was throw it in the floor and rudely demand that I give her more peaches. Ack!

This is particularly difficult becuase I don't know quite what to do. I can't really punish her. What do you do to keep her from throwing something in the floor? You take it away. But I can't just take all her food away and I am not okay with the idea of only offering her what I know that she will eat (because, if i did that, she would live on nothing but fruit and THAT's not okay because i'm the one who changes her diapers)!

And so I continue to say, "No no, Lila! That is not appropriate. We do not throw our food on the floor." And sometimes, if I can tell that she's getting full, I'll say, "If you throw your food on the floor again, you're going to be all done." And then I follow through. That's not really a consequence though - I think it's more like giving her what she wanted. [sigh] I know that she will get the point eventually. In the meantime, I'm trying to use a stern voice and not an angry voice. And I'm encouraging her whenever she does something appropriate, like hand me the food she does not want or puts her cup on the table rather than throwing it in the floor.

Well, Lila has been watching a Baby Einstein video while I typed this, but I think it's over now. Thank you for letting me unload on you. I think I can go in there and look at my child without developing a twitch now. Plus, Doug's home. And when Daddy is home, Mommy is second rate. Lila only wants to be held by him. Right now, I'm fine with that! :o)~