Food Fight

Most families have at least one kid who is not a great eater.  When I was younger, it was my baby sister Megan.  She would go through phases of what she would eat.  For a while, it was nothing but cereal, which wasn't too bad.  Then she would only eat cottage cheese or mayonnaise sandwiches.  Ew.  I know.  The fact that my parents gave in to this type of eating, tells you that she was the youngest.  They were over trying to get us kids to eat what we were supposed to by the time she came along.  I guess my mom figured mayo on bread was better than nothing.  On a good note, she is MUCH better about her choice of food now at 28 years old.  She'll actually put cold cuts on her mayonnaise sandwiches now.  I've got a bit of a picky eater among my girls too.  You'll never guess who!

Lana has never been a great eater, but it's gotten worse over the past few months.  I can usually get her to eat peanut butter and jelly, when all else fails.  She also likes scrambled eggs, but beyond that it's a crap shoot.  One day she'll eat something and love it, and the next day you try and feed it to her and she's sticking her tongue out and telling you "ick".  She's not even big into mac and cheese or pizza.  What kind of kid IS this?  I try to do my best to get her to at least try everything, and I'm not above bribing her with sweets some days.  She'll eat just about anything for a chocolate chip cookie.  This past weekend, however, she would not break.

I made chicken parmesan and pasta for dinner on Sunday night.  A favorite for everyone in our house.  Most of the time Lana loves it too.  Sometimes she won't eat the chicken, but she'll usually eat the pasta or her cucumbers and tomatoes.  Not on Sunday night.  No, she didn't want any part of it.  What she wanted was the garlic bread I had made.  I was holding that hostage from both her and Sonya until they ate some of their dinner.  If I don't do that, they'll eat nothing BUT the garlic bread.  Sonya eventually got a piece and this sent Lana into a tizzy.  She whined and cried for bread and we told her when she ate her chicken she'd get some.  She refused, and continued to whine, so we put her in time out.  Sometimes, that will chill her out enough to calm down and eat.  This was not one of those times.  She whined and cried some more, but we stood our ground.  Then she decided she wanted down.  That is what she does when she doesn't get what she wants to eat, because she's not eating what she's supposed to. She'll decide she's done and wants down.  We wouldn't let her, so she became more upset.  Then I told her she wasn't getting down at all until she ate a few bites of her chicken.  

Eventually, the rest of us were done, and I had to get baths started for the girls.  I wanted to get them to bed at a decent hour, since Sonya was starting school the next day.  So, we left Lana in her chair and told her to eat something.  I mean she hadn't taken one bite.  Not ONE!  She sat in the kitchen screaming and crying by herself.  I washed GG  and got her ready for bed, while Andy played with Sonya in the bath.  Lana cried to get down.  Finally, I went in there and explained  she just needed to eat a little bit and we'd let her down.  I told her I would feed it to her if she wanted, but every time I'd get a bite of chicken or pasta near her mouth, she'd stick out her tongue and turn away.  I bribed her with M&M's, and even showed them to her to try and entice her.  Didn't work.  I did manage to get a couple tomatoes in her, but that was it.

 I left again for about 2 minutes, but it was getting late and after the crappy day we'd had with them, my patience was wearing.  I  tried one last time to get her to take at least one bite to the same result.  I finally gave up.  I just couldn't take it anymore.  Lana-232 Parents -12  Yeah I know, I probably should have let her sit there all night, but that's just not reality.  She won that battle, I admit it.  I don't like when they win, but sometimes they do. 

Later, after bath, she did ask for a banana.  I wouldn't let her have it.  I knew she wouldn't starve to death before breakfast, and if I let her eat something after she didn't eat her dinner I would be letting her take advantage.  I think she's starting to understand it more because I said to her,

"No, Lana you can't have the banana."

"Pweeeezzzzeee!" she begged.

"No.  Do you know why?" I asked her.

Without hesitating she scowled at me and said, "Becawse I dind eat mwy dinnoh."

"Yup, so maybe tomorrow you'll eat your dinner and you can have a banana, okay?" I told her.

"Okay," she replied and ran off to play.  

I'm sure even though peanut butter and jelly is her staple food right now, some day she'll eat better like Megan, so I'm not too worried.  As long as she doesn't ask for mayonnaise on the peanut butter and jelly, I'll be fine with it for now.