Eating Issues

Sofia tries hard to not look too excited over my lunch offering.

Although Sofia started off as a voracious eater, so much so, that she would often take in a little more than she could handle and end up vomiting milk out her nose, she now exhibits the typical toddler eating behaviour that is randomly picky and I can only say, yes she does have some gene remnants of mine after all.

As a baby, Sofia would make her Avent bottle squeal from the sucking power and would down those things like nothing. At the time, they didn't even make them big enough to quench her appetite so we would fill those 9oz bottles to the brim. When she started baby foods, she didn't skip a beat. After the first spoon of rice cereal, that girl's eyes lit up like firecrackers. It was the most important discovery of her short life. She ate enthusiastically and would immediately open her mouth for more after taking in each spoonful. She loved food so much, baby cereal (yuck), veggies, fruits, everything, that her first baby sign language was the sign for "more". And she used it often and adamantly.

People's eyes often have a look of alarm as she puts gigantic size spoonfuls of things in her tiny mouth and manages to eat them without the need of the heimlich maneuver. I just tell them she gets that from her dad (although he does manage to choke himself on his own saliva quite frequently).

But now, she decides she doesn't like certain foods by using senses other than taste. She may not like their general appearance, color, texture, the way they lie there on the plate or who knows, maybe their poor attitude towards her. Once she decides she doesn't like something, she will usually ban it from her plate onto someone else's plate which is always lovely or the table.

She generally likes all manner of things I do not: ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, salad dressing, gooey stuff with artificial flavorings, cake, sugar, frosting and sweets of course go without saying. Anything you can dip other things in is usually good. More like me, she loves bread and butter; unlike me, she would be just a happy to eat bread with ketchup. She loves, loves, loves juices of all kinds and will drink them probably into a comma if not monitored and regulated.

On this fine day, that we were at home, I tried to fix her a healthy, appealing lunch in hopes that she would not dissect the sandwich and throw the offensive turkey meat at my face. It worked! She ate "the boys" all gone and waited until the end for the prized strawberry. I won't have to throw an entire plate of food in the garbage. Thank you Sofia for your gesture of kindness today. Believe me, I'm probably the only person on the planet that understands how you feel when you don't want to eat something and I promise I'll never force you .... too much.