Kid Food

The Boy had a decent night with Grandma. He woke up upset at 3:00 AM and, upon discovering that everything was okay, elected to stay up to play.

He ate his little cheese omelette for breakfast and as far as I know was fine with it. He was uninterested in the waffle and the cream of wheat. Hopefully it's just a matter of his tastes changing very rapidly and strongly.

Which brings up another issue--keeping up with them! I know that toddlers change food preferences frequently, and a few weeks of eating something many times can easily be followed by a flatout refusal. I am speculating that The Boy's experience is a little more like what some women experience during the first trimester of pregnancy. I have had decent luck in that regard, although the smells of certain foods would, indeed, turn my stomach.

The difference between a very young semi-verbal cancer patient and a pregnant woman is that a pregnant woman knows enough to find something that she will eat and can decide for herself what she likes and what she can handle. There have been days where I have eaten no meat at all simply because I really felt unable to deal with it. However, while The Boy's verbal skills and methods of communication are improving, he does not possess the ability to say "Daddy, I don't feel like eating that pasta even though I used to like it a whole lot--may I have some bread and honey instead please?"

Even though most of the time, parents should avoid playing the role of the short-order cook for their children and, within reason, should expect them to eat their desired portion of what is put in front of them, we are in a position where we sometimes have to provide palatable options for The Boy even if we are eating something else. Right now, dark meat chicken seems to work for him. We were off of chicken for awhile (no reason...just because) and ate a lot of meat sauce instead. Now that we're back on chicken, he likes it. But only dark meat. He used to enjoy either type. Unfortunately, unless they are possibly serving a quarter-dark piece of chicken (which is why our trip to Famous Dave's a few weeks ago was such a success), restaurants primarily serve chicken breast in their dishes. Personally, when eating baked chicken, I prefer the dark meat. It has more flavor. The Boy apparently agrees. He also thoroughly enjoys eggs. When we first introduced eggs, he would have one for breakfast every morning. Then he decided that he was uninterested. We've been bringing them in and out of circulation, and now he is into them again.

In terms of fruits and veggies, he will tolerate having spinach mixed in with his rice, as I mentioned. Currently he LOVES grapes and watermelon, and he also enjoys dipping apples in honey (there's a song about that...).

Gotta go!