[blparent] finger food suggestions for an almost toddler

Wed Feb 25 14:23:48 UTC 2009

No, they don't have to be heated until they are steaming. 
And, trust Sarah's body to know what it needs. 
If you think she is eating too much of one thing at the exclution of
something else (wheat comes to mindd because I've known people who will
eat wheat all the time until they get it sorted out) see a doctor you
trust. 
What I'm getting at is that a healthy person will let you know what he
or she needs and that diet will be balanced. All you need to do is
offer, her job is to figure out what she will eat, how much and when. 

-----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 3:52 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blparent] finger food suggestions for an almost toddler

I hadn't heard that about cheese.  I don't like the stuff myself, but
Sarah loves all kinds of cheese--Swiss, cheddar, Mozzarela.  I could try
deli meats as well, though I thought I had heard they had to be heated
till they were steaming.  I can't remember why now.  Thanks for the
ideas.

Jo Elizabeth

"Don't throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one
holds water."--Swedish proverb
----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Baldwin" <mbaldwin at gpcom.net>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 24, 2009 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] finger food suggestions for an almost toddler

> Jo Elizabeth,
> Sounds very familiar.  My daughter that is now 33 months, after she 
> learned she could feed herself, wanted nothing to do with being fed.  
> She was going to do it herself, and that was all there was to it.  
> This started when she was about 9-10 months old, and to this day she 
> is a very independent little girl.  But, we came up with different 
> things she could feed herself, like cheese, ham, different kinds of 
> fruits, bananas, grapes, boiled vegetables of about any kind, like 
> corn, peas, karat, green beans.
> I guess it comes down to what you want her to eat, what your 
> comfortable with her eating, and what kind of mess you want to have to

> clean up.  An old rug under the high chair can help from getting some 
> of the mess on the carpet, or other flooring.
>
> I am sure some will disagree with my suggestions, cause like cheese, I

> read your not suppose to give until they are a year old or so, but it 
> worked for us, and my daughter is alive and happy and healthy.  Just 
> make sure to cut the food in to small bits for her, and like ham, we 
> cut off the skin, cause that was harder to chew.
>
> Good luck,
> Michael
>
>
>
> Michael Baldwin
> Got print, need Braille?
> http://www.ReadWithDots.com
>
> -----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 1:27 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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