Eating

***An addendum to this post...
Maybe the way I described what happened last week with dinnertime was a little on the dramatic side. When I "sent her to bed hungry," that means she chose to only drink her milk and eat whatever carbohydrate we were having (e.g. rice, corn, etc.) She ate no protein. Now, we know that our bodies burn through carbohydrates very quickly, and that they do not provide enough nutrition to keep us full through the night. I "sent her to bed hungry" means I made no further attempt to get her to eat protein other than that which was on her plate. What I have been guilty of doing in the past is giving her yogurt after her meal to make sure she'll stay full longer. That's it. I can assure you there was nothing cruel or unusual about it.

Here are the results of my little survey:
The kid(s) eat what we eat. Period. 3 (33%)

I give the kid(s) what we're eating, but if they don't like it, I give them something else. 5 (55%)

I give the kid(s) whatever they like. Hey, a hot dog every night never hurt anyone. 1 (11%)

You're supposed to feed them??! 0 (0%) (Well, that's a relief!)

So, I want so badly to be an A, but this week I'm more like a C. Here's the deal...90% of the time, Eleanor won't eat what we're eating. It frustrates me to no end. I mean, I'm not asking her to eat hot wings. I try to make sure what we're having is appropriate for her, or I fix a special portion for her with less spices or onions or whatever. But she won't eat it. Most of the time, we can get her to try a bite, but then she'll spit it out, which really makes me even more frustrated because it's disgusting and uncalled-for. Last week, I decided I was putting my foot down, which resulted in sending one little girl to bed hungry five nights in a row. That, in turn, resulted in one hungry little girl waking up super-duper early and demanding milk.

So, last night she had a hot dog and tonight she had chicken nuggets. Both nights we were having something I knew she wasn't going to eat, and I didn't feel like wasting any of it by having her squish it between her little fingers or by the aforementioned spitting out. I did give her the same side items...she just didn't have the same main dish.

I really want her to grow up willing to try new foods (this coming from the queen of picky!) and eat whatever is put in front of her. Ughhh....

Next to bathtime (don't even get me started), dinnertime is the most frustating part of our day! Did I already say UGHHHH?!!