Monday, August 25, 2008

Battle of Wills

I have posted before about my darling picky eater, who hardly eats anything, and the things that she will eat are few and far between. Her picky/lack of eating is worse some weeks, better on others. This week has been one of those bad weeks for Emmy's appetite. She has hardly eaten anything the past few days, and it makes meals so stressful for me - every other sentence out of my mouth is "Emmy, eat your (insert food here)" or "Emmy, sit back down, you only ate 2 bites". It is SO frustrating.
Tonight, I made beef stroganoff (from a box, of course), which we all like. Emmy started to eat, said it was yummy, then 3 noodles later said she was full. Which then began the battle. The only way I could get her to eat was if I fed her - which I am not going to do, she is definitely big enough to feed herself.
After a while, she kept getting up from her chair, I kept hollering at her to sit and eat, and eventually I put her in the highchair to keep her sitting. She looked ridiculous sitting in the high chair. I told her she was not getting down until the food was gone - she only had about 4 bites left.
She refused to eat. She cried. She fussed. She whined. She said I was hurting her feelings. She said she was too full to eat.
I ignored her, other than occasionally reminding her that she was not getting down until the plate was empty.

An hour and a half later, she was still sitting there. Despite my better judgment, I fed her the last 4 bites and got her down, since was now 7:00 and she still needed a bath.
How did she get so stubborn?? It must be from her Dad...
She is driving me bananas.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man. We have been down that road. Many times. I am at a loss as to how to help 'cause I need it, too!!

Andrea said...

We have this problem a bit already too with our 2 yr. old. He will eat if you give him the food, but otherwise he'll just shove the plate away. Sigh. Well hopefully someone comments who has some good advice for you yet!

Anonymous said...

Oh momma I feel for you. But being so dang picky I understand both angles. She won't starve herself just stick to your guns and don't give in on the "yummy" food unless she eats the real food. But I remember my parents video taping me with the peas and I never did eat them. I fell asleep at the table. I detest peas to this day. I was maybe 4 or 5 at that incident. I totally blame my parents. ;) I was a fun child....and I'm totally getting my pay back. hahaha

CJ Sweet said...

That is tough. This situation reminded me of a friend who had the same kind of battle of wills with her son. 2 hours later he was still sitting at the table and it was bedtime. So she put plastic over the plate and made him eat it for breakfast. I'm not suggesting you do that, and I'm not suggesting you don't, just thought you'd like to hear about others who have been there! My kids don't eat much dinner either, but I'm too worn out by then to argue. I probably should be more firm about it. I end up just letting them go after the two bites.

Anonymous said...

That is one strong will!

I have no useful advice because I have the opposite problem- my 4 year old wants to eat everything in site and needs to eat less. I guess it is always something.

Kmommy said...

Oh man. I can't hardly get D to eat more than a bite a meal. It is soooo frustrating!

Beth said...

Stop worrying. Children will not starve themselves. Provide good healthy food choices. Relax. They will get hungry and eat.