So far has I mentioned that April is a picky eater? Well, she IS even she appears chubby all along. After failing on finding out the reason why she wouldn't eat this and that, I blame it on her allergic body. Then again, yesterday I just heard a case, a boy whose skin is super allergic to fabric, eats well and not picky.
April was fed well by Candy, the daycare lady. Since the daycare provided dinner, other than giving her milk in the morning we don't need to cook for her unless it's a weekend. Maybe she grew to like the taste of Candy's food, but our cooking is similar to what Candy prepared, I went smell and look at the food she made. April will only swallow about 10% of what we cooked for her. There are only a limited variety of food she will eat, being nutritionally balanced is a far far away tale. We had tried to talk some sense to her, give her toys, scold her, timeout on her during dinner to make her understand she needs to eat. Nothing works! Since her's weight has been steady on 50%, we sort of just let it go at the end.
Preschool doesn't provide lunch. I have to make her lunch then, it's a challenge to guess what she likes to eat. Again variety is not in her dictionary. Also timing is an issue. The school has about >80 kids, but only 1 kitchen, so with rotation, each kid has 20 mins to eat. It usually took us HOURS to feed April a considerate amount of food that we can call a meal. 20 mins is probably for 2 bites. And that's what I got when I collected her lunch box at the end of the day when she started preschool. On top of variety and timing issue, there is the manner issue. She's been fed in both daycare, she knows how to feed herself with spoon but there is always someone to feed her, it was never her responsibility to do the scooping for an entire meal.
Lunch returned last for a FEW months. I was really worried at the beginning. I asked the teacher, if I can come to feed April during lunch, since it's just 5 mins drive for me. The teacher said "No, kids need to learn to do it themselves, and kids eat very little. Don't worry." Well, I think the main reason is not to have bad influence to other kids, if one parent does that, other kid will ask their parent to come. Then the room will be exploded. But she only had 2 snack, 1 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon and 2 bites for lunch, April will have a stomach damage before I know it's too late.
I guess at some point she realized how anxious I am on this lunch disaster. After returning from our Asia trip, she started to eat much better, finishing about half of the lunch, sometimes more, if it's towards her liking. She told her teacher, "My mommy gonna be mad at me, if I don't finish my lunch." That's a surprise to the teacher and me. It's the first complete sentence she said in English since she started preschool. Now, variety is still not on the table, but she will return quantity to me. It's bizarre that a kid barely eat anything can hold up this amount of weight, maybe she's just not active enough.
5 comments:
I am curious, what do you usually cook for her? What does she like to eat?
I sooooo 有同感. Lizzy doesn't eat very much either. I stop worrying about her lunch at daycare a while ago because it is something I can't control. I figured with 2 snacks a day in daycare,she can't starve. Because she will eat 饼干. And she will probably eat lunch when she is hungry. With that said, we tried to feed her as much dinner as possible. Too, we spoon feed (bad). And it takes an hour if not longer,with reheating in the microwave. I so envy those good eater toddlers. But what can you do? That's what parents are, worried if your kids don't eat enough, worried too if they eat too much.
All I can say is that I feel your pain. This comes from the bean pole's mum! If I may say, at least April looks well-fed even tho she doesn't eat much. My bean pole is still wearing 9 months pants and he is 18 months. Sigh.
I know, I feel like I feed April the whole day's food amount at dinner time. Her stomach gonna be stretched. I am looking forward to the day I can just give her a pill, then she's done with whole day of nutrition.
Berenice...Kyle is 4 now, and he can still wear his 2T pants. the waist is just perfect but the length is way too short.
Post a Comment