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Clodfobble · 06-16-2005, 09:22 AM

5 days into summer vacation, we have won the war. Break out the "Mission Accomplished" banner.

I took him to the grocery store to specifically pick out foods that he might like to eat for his lunches during the day. Two of the things he picked out were baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. (He still rejected many other things, so I assumed he must have had these before and knew he liked them.) That evening at dinner, he refused to even put them in his mouth. We told him that it was his choice not to eat, but it was our choice what to serve. He ate nothing.

So we had carrots and tomatoes for breakfast. He ate nothing. We had them for lunch. Still nothing. By dinnertime, he had gone for 30 hours without eating anything (and drinking only a little water), and was acting somewhat woozy but steadfastly refusing to eat even a single bite of carrot. He kept asking me to spank him or put him in time out, but I just told him we were absolutely NOT going to punish him for not eating because that was his choice, and that we would just wait patiently until he was hungry enough to eat a bite of carrots or tomatoes.

For dinner, we added to his plate of tomatoes and carrots some of what we were having for dinner (chicken and penne pasta in mustard cream sauce with cranberries and mushrooms and almonds,) which he has also always refused. He shoveled it into his mouth, and announced that he DID like it after all, surprise surprise! We abandoned the carrots and tomatoes at that point, but for breakfast the next day we gave him something new (strawberry-banana smoothie) and he ate it. That night for dinner he ate both macaroni and cheese and baked beans, which he had ALSO refused on every occasion before.

Last night, though, we had real proof that we had won. He had dug in and refused to eat his peas (unlike the other new foods, which he had just decided to eat in the first place), and I was calmly explaining that that was fine, but we would have to have peas for breakfast then, and he sighed and said, "Alright..." and ate a bite of peas. Just like that.

I. WIN.

PH34R my l33t D1sciplin4ry 5KillZ.

Later, my husband and the kids were watching an old Robotech episode, and he declared that the main character ate HIS peas too. We agreed--I mean, after all, he's got to be strong to fight all the bad robots, right?

I am somewhat worried that carrots and tomatoes have been permanently demonized in his mind, but I can live with that.

06-16-2005, 09:22 AM	#52
Clodfobble UNDER CONDITIONAL MITIGATION Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Austin, TX Posts: 20,012	A winner is me!! 5 days into summer vacation, we have won the war. Break out the "Mission Accomplished" banner. I took him to the grocery store to specifically pick out foods that he might like to eat for his lunches during the day. Two of the things he picked out were baby carrots and cherry tomatoes. (He still rejected many other things, so I assumed he must have had these before and knew he liked them.) That evening at dinner, he refused to even put them in his mouth. We told him that it was his choice not to eat, but it was our choice what to serve. He ate nothing. So we had carrots and tomatoes for breakfast. He ate nothing. We had them for lunch. Still nothing. By dinnertime, he had gone for 30 hours without eating anything (and drinking only a little water), and was acting somewhat woozy but steadfastly refusing to eat even a single bite of carrot. He kept asking me to spank him or put him in time out, but I just told him we were absolutely NOT going to punish him for not eating because that was his choice, and that we would just wait patiently until he was hungry enough to eat a bite of carrots or tomatoes. For dinner, we added to his plate of tomatoes and carrots some of what we were having for dinner (chicken and penne pasta in mustard cream sauce with cranberries and mushrooms and almonds,) which he has also always refused. He shoveled it into his mouth, and announced that he DID like it after all, surprise surprise! We abandoned the carrots and tomatoes at that point, but for breakfast the next day we gave him something new (strawberry-banana smoothie) and he ate it. That night for dinner he ate both macaroni and cheese and baked beans, which he had ALSO refused on every occasion before. Last night, though, we had real proof that we had won. He had dug in and refused to eat his peas (unlike the other new foods, which he had just decided to eat in the first place), and I was calmly explaining that that was fine, but we would have to have peas for breakfast then, and he sighed and said, "Alright..." and ate a bite of peas. Just like that. I. WIN. PH34R my l33t D1sciplin4ry 5KillZ. Later, my husband and the kids were watching an old Robotech episode, and he declared that the main character ate HIS peas too. We agreed--I mean, after all, he's got to be strong to fight all the bad robots, right? I am somewhat worried that carrots and tomatoes have been permanently demonized in his mind, but I can live with that.