Laura - Does your DD nibble on the cheerios while sitting or walking around? I really like your idea (I was kind of thinking along those lines) because our current system is obviously not working that great. Preparing breakfast in the morning is such a huge hassle that I would love to stop that altogether! And I'm not a big breakfast eater either so I don't know why I'm so OCD about her eating breakfast, LOL. I think I'll increase milk in the morning after she wakes up and let her continue eating the dry cereal and in lieu of snack, pack up her breakfast and let her eat it right when she gets to daycare or when the grandparents get to my house (8:45/9:00 ish).
If I were you I would probably try to just relax the full schedule in general and let her start to guide you to when she is hungry. I would reduce the milk offerings but increase the quantity. Water with meals. And see what happens.
She eats the cheerios while walking around, or watching TV*. Honestly weekday morning breakfast these days is whatever gets the food in her mouth. A lot of times she eats her waffle in the car on the way to daycare; I realize that is not for everyone. Also, my husband makes smoothies every morning [for all of us, we started that when I was pregnant and it has just continued] and DD will drink that in the car, too, and finish it up at daycare. It used to give me a complex b/c a lot of people say that breakfast is their kids biggest meal of the day. It just isn't for my DD, usually. I have accepted that now. Although there are days where she will surprise us and say "I'm hungry" when we get her out of the crib, and then she will eat 3 pancakes and a whole banana. But those are definitely the exceptions rather than the rule!
* It is very clear though for DD that she is watching TV and also eating - she's not eating b/c she's watching TV, and she doesn't need the TV to eat, ykwim? I need the TV so I can get ready for work!
Laura, I can totally relate. I'm in survival mode in the mornings trying to get myself out the door and DD ready for daycare or grandparents to take over or whatever. I'm excited to implement something new - letting DD take the lead and offering water with meals and milk at other times
Guess I'm the lone dissenter...but I have a DS who is a horrible eater. We have a TV in the kitchen and...yep, we do put on Elmo or something while he's having a meal. It actually helped us to get him to try new things because he was enjoying watching his show and wouldn't protest as much. Now...he will eat whether the TV is on or off. So it's not a "dependency on the TV to eat" issue. It's that it made him far more willing (maybe because his favorite videos put him in a better mood?). I dunno...but whatever. It worked for us although we now turn it off far more during meal time because the speech program teacher has us using that time to encourage more talking and new words with him (which we can't obviously do with the TV on). But he is 26 months now and has become a slightly better eater (i.e. I am not worrying about him losing weight or starving because he is refusing stuff). So my motto is always, "Sometimes you have to do what you have to do."
At 24w 4d my little boy...became an angel 11/7/07 Rainbow baby arrived 12/6/09! Added a dash of PINK 4/9/11
I just saw this -on the milk, I agree -offer if at different times. My DCP gives them water with their lunch and then when they finish lunch they get a cup of milk before they nap. Otherwise they fill up on milk and eat no lunch! I looked at your schedule again -I would only offer milk a couple times a day and give water other times. Milk after eating meals then water for in between or with snacks.
My boys are given a cup of milk and a piece of toast when they get up in the morning that they eat in front of the TV while we get ready for work. They get up around 6 and breakfast isn't til they get to DC around 8. Mine have actually been horrible about eating dinner lately and out of desperation I got a book from the library -How to Cope with a Picky eater. The book points out that growth slows and so does the number of calories needed. It said that most children eat much better earlier in the day and usually satisfy their calorie requirements before dinner so it's perfectly normal for them to eat well for breakfast and lunch and not dinner. It also says that most toddlers only eat 1 1/2 to 2 meals a day.
I noticed that you give raisins at 5:00 and dinner at 6 or 6:30 (I can't remember). I would cut out the raisins, the snack at 2:30 maybe could be moved to 3:00 to tide her over til dinner better.
As far as the TV question -I'd make a firm rule of no TV at dinner time -heck-last night in my house there was no TV because they didn't want to eat dinner -I only turned it on after my most problematic child had eaten. Mine watch TV in the morning when they get up but when we're home I've been calling them out to the kitchen table for all meals and giving them snacks in front of the tv.
ETA:
letting DD take the lead and offering water with meals and milk at other times
I would not offer milk within 2 hours of mealtime if you do it that way since she could still fill up on it. You'll have to try it both ways and see what works best for your DD though!
Milk after eating meals then water for in between or with snacks.
I noticed that you give raisins at 5:00 and dinner at 6 or 6:30 (I can't remember). I would cut out the raisins, the snack at 2:30 maybe could be moved to 3:00 to tide her over til dinner better.
SO HELPFUL - Thank you! I think the sample menu in the AAP book traumatized me and I was really stuck on their schedule, but I think modifying it as a lot of suggested will be better.
When my kids were really little, breakfast was always something that could be eaten on the go - like i said earlier, we now have a cheap IKEA table in our bedroom that the kids sit at to eat cheerios and yogurt and drink milk. But when they were younger they ate breakfast in bed with Daddy.
I would definitely cut out the milk only "meal" in the afternoon and increase the amount of milk at other times. Around 18 months we told our daycare to only give them milk at lunch, not snacks, because they were drinking way too much milk. DS is almost 3 and we've had to stop having a sippy of milk always available in the fridge because now he can open it and was drinking milk all the time and wasn't eating and was starting to get too skinny.
Even now at 5.5 and almost 3, my kids barely eat anything for dinner. I make them sit at the table for 10-15 minutes, but then they can go play because then me and DH can actually talk to each other!
As I've talked about in other threads DD had serious 'failure to thrive' low weight issues around that age. So we had regular meetings with a pediatric dietician, had to submit food diaries etc... What we learned about our DD at that age was that she just wasn't hungry at dinner. It was REALLY hard for us to accept because we were trying to get as many calories in her as possible, but a lot of kids just aren't hungry at that time, even though adults are usually starving. What we did with the advice of the dietician:
- always ate meals at the table with no distractions like tv
- put a variety of food on DD's plate from what we cooked for all of us (no special food)
- she could eat or not eat, but once she left the the table she was done dinner and we put her plate away
- if we gave her a snack between lunch and dinner it was very small, and we offered a small snack before bed. This seemed to help her eat at least a few bites at dinner, and she was often hungry for a small snack by 7:30
DD hates milk, so I have nothing to add to that topic!
I think this really helped us to establish good food habits, at a time when we were literally FREAKING OUT over everything that went into her mouth.
Reply With QuoteOriginally Posted by laura
Honestly weekday morning breakfast these days is whatever gets the food in her mouth. A lot of times she eats her waffle in the car on the way to daycare; I realize that is not for everyone. Also, my husband makes smoothies every morning [for all of us, we started that when I was pregnant and it has just continued] and DD will drink that in the car, too, and finish it up at daycare. It used to give me a complex b/c a lot of people say that breakfast is their kids biggest meal of the day. It just isn't for my DD, usually. I have accepted that now. Although there are days where she will surprise us and say "I'm hungry" when we get her out of the crib, and then she will eat 3 pancakes and a whole banana. But those are definitely the exceptions rather than the rule!
Rainbow baby arrived 12/6/09!
