Meal Time Madness

OK. Let me share with you our latest toddler battle.

She doesn't want to eat. Wait, scratch that...she will eat...but only peanut butter and jelly or raisins. Anything else...done, nope, nada...*tantrum ensues*. As a baby, she was always a fairly decent eater, she liked her veggies, ate a big variety, ate good foods. Now she is spitting out food and wanting snacks instead of meals. I just didn't understand why, all of a sudden, she is staging this all out war on dinner.

So I went online today for a little advice and this is what I found:

"Eating is a choice that toddlers have the power to make, and it doesn't take them long to seize an opportunity for a power game over their parents. "

Ah...yes...now I understand. It's not about food, it's about POWER.
Interesting notion, so I read on....

* Instead of confusing your toddler with too much variety, offer limited choices so your toddler learns how to make decisions. Here is how this would go down...
"Hailey, would you like an apple or a banana?" "ICE CREAM!"

"No... apple or banana?" "ICE CREAM!"

* Offering too many choices is just too confusing and often the cause of conflict and toddler tantrums. In our household, a warm breeze and a vacuum cleaner can cause conflict and toddler tantrums. We are going to have to reinforce the carpet in her timeout corner.

* Try being more clear, firm and consistent in your parenting approach. Clear...sure, firm...most definitely, consistent...uh...well....

* Around meal times, you tell her it is meal time. O.k., I have to admit that this thought never really occurred to me. I guess we do inform her that mealtime is coming when we try to give her the limited food choice. but I never thought it was necessary to come out and tell her that we are having dinner. We will have to try it.

* You determine her meal times.... and she determines everything else (they left out that part)

* If you are eating, you are sitting down. This is something we do try to enforce (hey we got one right - GO TEAM!). However, if you have a toddler, you know there are at least 200 different ways to sit in a chair.

I guess we will have to fight the good fight: keep trying new foods, try to let her make some choices...wait... limited choices. In the meantime, our fridge will fill up with rejected toddler meal leftovers.

Would anyone like a half cup of chicken stew, peas and a gummy vitamin?