missym
07-19-2004, 11:38 PM
For those just tuning in...
Gwen has never been an enthusiastic eater. Getting her to nurse for more than a few minutes was always a challenge. She didn't care much for pureed foods. She will nibble at table foods, but not eat enough to keep a bird alive. A few months ago, she was diagnosed as Failure to Thrive because she wasn't gaining weight. She's gone from 25th percentile at birth to off the charts. We have spent her entire life being worried about this.
So... it's developed into something really ugly. We've basically been forcing her to eat. I know, it sounds horrible, but honestly we're just so panicked at the thought of her not eating anything that we didn't see any way around it. She'll eat some table food if I'm sitting there "threatening" her with a bowl of pureed food, but still not enough. So with every meal, we've made her eat pureed food spiked with heavy cream. She is gaining weight, but very slowly.
Unless the sitter is lying to me, she eats without a struggle there, although she still doesn't consistently eat enough table food. She'll eat yogurt or pureed food fine for her. This tells me it's a power struggle rather than a physical issue.
Today, we decided it has to change. None of us can take it anymore. We're going to try it Ellen Satter's way. For a week, we'll let Gwen self-regulate what she eats. We'll see how it goes.
We did our best to make dinner a relaxing, no-stress experience, with an offering of foods she will, on occasion, eat. The result? I just put to bed a screaming, unhappy, hungry toddler. She won't eat, she will only try to nurse but I just don't have much milk anymore. I nursed her to sleep twice, but the moment I put her in her crib, she's up and screaming again. I'm sure she's hungry. Finally, she fell asleep. DH and I both feel so guilty, we can hardly stand it.
Missy, mom to Gwen 03/03
Gwen has never been an enthusiastic eater. Getting her to nurse for more than a few minutes was always a challenge. She didn't care much for pureed foods. She will nibble at table foods, but not eat enough to keep a bird alive. A few months ago, she was diagnosed as Failure to Thrive because she wasn't gaining weight. She's gone from 25th percentile at birth to off the charts. We have spent her entire life being worried about this.
So... it's developed into something really ugly. We've basically been forcing her to eat. I know, it sounds horrible, but honestly we're just so panicked at the thought of her not eating anything that we didn't see any way around it. She'll eat some table food if I'm sitting there "threatening" her with a bowl of pureed food, but still not enough. So with every meal, we've made her eat pureed food spiked with heavy cream. She is gaining weight, but very slowly.
Unless the sitter is lying to me, she eats without a struggle there, although she still doesn't consistently eat enough table food. She'll eat yogurt or pureed food fine for her. This tells me it's a power struggle rather than a physical issue.
Today, we decided it has to change. None of us can take it anymore. We're going to try it Ellen Satter's way. For a week, we'll let Gwen self-regulate what she eats. We'll see how it goes.
We did our best to make dinner a relaxing, no-stress experience, with an offering of foods she will, on occasion, eat. The result? I just put to bed a screaming, unhappy, hungry toddler. She won't eat, she will only try to nurse but I just don't have much milk anymore. I nursed her to sleep twice, but the moment I put her in her crib, she's up and screaming again. I'm sure she's hungry. Finally, she fell asleep. DH and I both feel so guilty, we can hardly stand it.
Missy, mom to Gwen 03/03