The list of things that K eats now is getting shorter and shorter. For this season it has been only
– chicken marcaroni
– spaghetti
– lasagne
– fishball noodles (he will eat this everyday if I allowed it!)
– prawn noodles (without the prawn, only with the fishcake)
– fried rice (only when it is home-cooked)
– ban mian
– yong tau foo (with all the fish balls/cake, without the tau foo)
– rice (only when he gets to eat it with fish ball)
– Japanese ramen
– cake and cupcakes
– an occasional piece of vegetable
I got this book, “Why should I eat well?”, to teach K the importance of eating well. He can now tell me when I ask “Why must you eat well?” His reply will be “So that no pimples…no tooth decay.”
He is rather disturbed by the visuals of the pimply kid in the book and have refused to look at the book now, after reading it a couple of times. This evening while I was washing my face, K came into the bathroom and we had this conversation –
K : “Why mummy washing face?”
Me : “I need to keep my face clean so that I will not get pimples.”
K : “Why mummy got pimple?” (referring to the hormonal zit that I have been nursing)
Me : “Because mommy has not been eating well. So did you eat well tonight?”
K : “No.” (He refused to eat his rice this evening and ended up picking on a piece of ham in a sandwich)
Me : “So tomorrow you might get pimples then.”
K : “NOoooooo!!!” (he then scrambled out of the bathroom)
I felt quite guilty after hearing that distraught tone in his “No”. I try not to use fear to manage him, but sometimes, I just can’t help it. Plus, I hate to admit that it works quite well most of the time.
I have decided that once he turns 4, he will need to eat whatever he is given or he can choose to go hungry. Then be made to watch videos and images of starving Ethopian/Somalian children. And listen to a lengthy discourse about how fortunate he is compared to these children who have nothing to eat.
So I have it all carefully thought out for when he is 4, and still wants to play ‘hardball’ with me during meal times. Although, I am well aware that theory always sounds much easier than practical experience.
hi there.. i'm a friend of chrystal's. i've got the same problem with my tod too.. at least your list seem longer than mine! LOL!
"eat WHATEVER that he is given?"
hmmm…. that's not my parenting style, simply because, even adults don't eat WHATEVER that is served.
You and I have the power to choose, so why do we deprive the child from this power? Just because he is a kid? We are human afterall…. we have likes and dislikes….Put yourself in his shoes…
Hi Ann,
Thanks for dropping by this blog. Fussiness in toddlers is quite a common thing!
Angeline,
When u whip up a full meal of lots of choices and non of them is his choice…K needs to learn not to take this for granted. There are millions of children out there who are starving to death and this is just a way to learn that he needs to be appreciative of his more priviledge life. I would rather give him the opportunity now to learn that there will be many times in life when u do not always get what you want.