Something I remember from yesterday morning is my sister choosing the type of fork my nephew would use to eat the breakfast I brought for him. I mean, obviously she just had the best intentions, she just didn't understand what I was doing at the moment. It went kinda like this (not word for word, but the whole base of the conversation)-
Me: *Holds up a normal fork in one hand and a plastic fork for toddlers in the other* Ok, Teddy, which fork do you want?
Teddy: *Ignoring me to watch TV*
Me: ....Teddy....which fork do you want? 😒😅
Sis: Give him the plastic one.
Me: Oh, well, I had a feeling he was gonna choose that one, but I was trying to give him the feeling that he has more choices when it comes to eating, so he might enjoy it more 😅
Sis: Oh. Well, there's other colors that he can choose from.
I found two other colors for that type of fork, so he got to choose between 3 forks! It didn't do too much, but I'm hoping that the small sense of choice and therefore, small sense of control, did some good for him.
So, the first day of my experiment held only a few small results, due to the fact that he doesn't like eating when he wakes up, but I had to do it early in the morning due to schedule changes for that day.
But the first experiment attempt ended with:
Him hopefully getting some kind of mental gain from the choice between the forks I provided (though he definitely wouldn't fully realize it, I'm hoping it did some good for him somewhere deep in the back of his mind)
I learned that he enjoys the taste of the omelette I made for him, even though he only ate one bite in front of me (we sent the rest of his food with him to the babysitter to eat later, when he's more likely to feel like eating)
He seemed to enjoy the playful names I gave the foods, so I'm hoping it will spark positivity in him next time I make one of those foods, which will hopefully make him more likely to eat with fewer issues
I got him to eat a bite of food before he had to go, which, believe it or not, is actually a decently sized win. I even made sure that he swallowed it, instead of just holding it in his mouth.
He didn't much care for the eating competition (Sis suggested I call it an eating 'race', so he could have an easier time understanding what was going on), so I guess I have to think of a different way to make meal time feel like fun time for him.
Next time I do the experiment, I think I'm gonna try gluten free pancakes (so I can still eat with him) in different shapes.
'Look, Teddy! Doesn't this one look like Mickey Mouse? And this one looks like a flower!'
Maybe he'll play around with the pancakes because of the interesting shapes, then slowly start eating them bit by bit with slight encouragement from me?
'I wonder what Mickey would look like with only one ear? How about we eat one of his ears to find out? Num num num num, he tastes yummy! Now you try!'
Uhg, getting a growing boy to eat shouldn't require this much planning 😩
Again; the parenting classes I took did not prepare me for this!
Thanks for teaching me the difference between encouraging a set or growth mindset, that was actually very helpful, but would it have killed ya to replace 'think of fun games' with 'let's think of the best way to get a picky child to eat proper meals'? That day could've been used so much better! Ah, well, I still learned a lot from that class. At least it provided me with the basics on how to begin altering things to fit to their liking, even if only a bit.
Not like they could prepare us for everything.
Though, it would be nice if it was somehow possible for them to do that, considering a few of those students already had babies that would sometimes be brought to visit the parent student during lunch.
Those students needed to learn as much as possible as fast as possible.
