[blparent] finger food suggestions for an almost toddler

Tue Feb 24 21:23:49 UTC 2009

Green beans are another veggie that is easy for the little ones to eat.  Oh 
yeah carrots also.
Eva
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Melissa Ann Riccobono" <melissa at riccobono.us>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 2:02 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] finger food suggestions for an almost toddler


> Oh, can I ever sympathize with this one!  First of all, just take a couple
> of deep breaths and know this too shall pass...  I promise!
> Here are a few things that come to mind.  First, is Sarah teething?
> I noticed Austin was always particularly fussy about the spoon when he was
> teething.  ?Then all of a sudden he wouldn't mind being fed again.  This 
> was
> up until he was about 14 to 16 months old when he just didn't want baby 
> food
> anymore period.  I did find a plastic spoon worked much better for Austin 
> in
> general; I think it was maybe a little warmer and more gentle on his mouth
> or something.  So, you may want to try a different type of spoon.  This
> unfortunately might not solve the problem.  You might need to try more
> finger foods.  Cheese is a great source of calcium and she should be able 
> to
> pick up and eat small bites with her fingers.  Yogourt is great, but maybe
> it will have to be put on hold for a little while until she'll let you 
> feed
> her, or until she can feed herself with a spoon.  There are yogourt drinks
> which seem pretty healthy, though I admit I've never looked too closely at
> the nutrishinal facts; Austin sometimes gets them for a treat.  They might
> be something to try.
> Dole makes great fruit bowls with all types of mixed and individual fruits
> that are easy to pick up for little fingers.  Austin loves almost all of
> these, especially the manderine oranges.  Of course your other option is 
> to
> just dice fresh fruits and veggies very small and let her have at it.  The
> same goes for any type of meat.  This all depends on how many teeth she 
> has;
> if I remember right she doesn't have many at this point which could limit
> the choices somewhat.  Finally, try not to stress out too much about what
> she's eating and what she's not right now.  Toddlers go through all kinds 
> of
> phases with food from hardly eating anything to wolfing down everything in
> sight in everything in between.  As long as she's getting her basic food
> groups in during a week period of time, everything will balance out.  Of
> course I'm not saying to just give her junk food or just peas, but I am
> saying there is a bit of wiggle room.  So, maybe put the spoon away for a
> couple of days and give her finger food, then give it a try again.
> I hope this rambling has helped you a little.
> Melissa
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
> Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 2:27 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
> Subject: [blparent] finger food suggestions for an almost toddler
>
> Hi, all.  Sarah and I just got finished with the lunch from hell.  Or at
> least that's the way I perceive it--she seems pretty satisfied with the
> world now that it's over--she's babbling happily and playing with the pots
> and pans in my kitchen cupboards like nothing happened, like her clothes 
> and
> mine, and our hair, and the high chair aren't covered with Gerber 
> spaghetti
> and meat sauce, like we weren't both near tears five minutes ago.  I feel
> like I got hit by a train and dragged for a little while.  A slight
> exaggeration maybe, but only a slight one.
>
> Sarah and I have been having battles lately over the spoon, most of which 
> I
> lose.  It isn't that she doesn't want food, she's fortunately not a picky
> eater.  She'll try anything.  The deal is, she wants to feed herself. 
> Fair
> enough, that's the end goal, right?  But the spoon is too cumbersome for
> her, so she resorts to her hands.  That's fine, as long as she's eating
> diced banana or sweet potato or bits of meat or hard-boiled egg yolk, or
> whole round peas, or Cheerios.  But those foods alone hardly make up a
> balanced diet.  She needs other things that are too soft and runny to pick
> up, like yogurt and such, and she absolutely won't allow me to feed her 
> with
> a spoon.  If I can manage to hold down her two wildly waving fists with 
> one
> hand, she flops her head madly from side to side so I can't get the 
> dreaded
> spoon anywhere near her mouth with the other, and she ends up with food
> behind her ears, across her eyebrows, down her neck--you get the picture.
> And you can imagine the screeching sound track that goes with it.  I'm
> finding it hard to be calm and patient.  This time, after many tries, I 
> gave
> up on the spoon altogether because I don't want the high chair to become a
> power struggle or a source of traumatic memories, and I sure don't want to
> cross the line into force feeding.  I had that done to me as a child and
> still suffer the effects.  I thickened the Gerber spaghetti and meat sauce
> with cereal so it would hold together and just let her shovel it into her
> mouth with both hands from the high chair tray, and then cleaned up the 
> big
> mess afterward.  Gerald can feed Sarah with a spoon, but she certainly 
> isn't
> willing, it's just that he can see the flailing hands and the dodging 
> mouth
> and sneak bites in on her.  But he isn't here most of the time, and I have 
> a
> responsibility to figure this out.
>
> Anyway, besides the catharsis of writing this all out when I feel I have 
> to
> tell most people most of the time that things are utterly perfect, 
> otherwise
> I'm afraid they'll be doubting me as a parent and, in the case of my 
> family,
> wondering if they should intervene--I guess my question is how do I 
> resolve
> this stalemate?  I know I should give Sarah more finger foods, and I'll be
> looking for every new idea I can get on that front.  But till she can feed
> herself with a spoon, how can I help her and the mealtime skirmishes that
> nobody really wins?  It's so odd because she has no wish to hold her own
> bottle or learn to drink from a cup, but she wants to feed herself no 
> matter
> what.
>
> Thanks,
> Jo Elizabeth
>
> "Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds
> water."--Swedish proverb
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