I put my foot down!

Jaxon has never been a big eater...and that's an understatement. His Dr. said kids eat when they are hungry so don't push it,...so we never did. But lately he has been complaining of being hungry, I mean- SOBBING, right as we are putting him to bed. I'm about 98% sure it's a stall tactic, which he is excellent at, but the other 2% of me knows how little he eats during the day, and it tugs at my heart.
Also, Jaxon rarely eats any dinner. He has to sit at the table with us, but he usually says he doesn't like what we are eating. I say it's that, or nothing, and he happily choses nothing and just waits until we are done.
WELL- NO MORE! I told Dave last night that from now on, he WILL eat some of what we eat for dinner, no matter how much he says he hates it, and if he doesn't eat anything, he will not be allowed ANYTHING else, until what I plated for him is finished. (Man I sound like a mean mom!) Also, once we head upstairs for bed, we ARE NOT going back down. PERIOD!
So tonight we had a very delicious, and simple, and not too fancy for him to complain over meal, grilled chicken with whole wheat penne pasta and stir fried veggies. He had to eat 4 pieces of chicken, 10 penne noodles, 3 tiny zucchini pieces, 3 tiny yellow squash pieces, 1 sugar snap pea pod, and one red pepper strip. Bless his little heart, after realizing that we meant business, he got to work.
I have never seen such awful grimaces (and they were not just for our sake) and more gagging in my life. It almost made me start gagging...but he never once spit it out. He still mostly loves to eat with his fingers, but made me pick up the zucchini and squash for him becuase he said it was too "slimey!"
We told him that if he plugged his nose (he couldn't figure out how to do that, breathe, and eat at the same time) or took a big drink of water and just swallowed everything (couldn't get the water to wash down the food) it would be easier. He probably drank 10 ounces of water trying unsuccessfully to wash down the zucchini!
He was a real trooper, and from here on out, that's the rules!

One last cute thing...but let me prefice it with this- Jaxon gets his way around here...A LOT! I really don't think he's too spoiled...it's just that there is no one else to contend with. So when he wants to do things a certain way, and we don't have a reason not to...we do it. Okay, so back to the cute thing- he loves to race us to the top of the stairs for bedtime, and really loves it when we pretend to fall. He ONLY loves it if he wins, and gets quite mad if we forget and beat him. Tonight Dave headed up ahead of us to fill Jaxon's humidifier, and boy was J ticked. He sat at the bottom of the stairs and yelled,
"THAT MAKES ME SO MAD DADDY! DATS YOUR UH-SPONSIBILITY!!!"
Pretty sure he didn't know what it meant, only that it was something big and important.

6 comments:

AnnaMarie said...

That's funny about racing up the stairs. What a guy. But I don't think you're unreasonable at all about making him eat. That drives me crazy with Katie, too. I don't make her eat dinner if she doesn't want to, but if it's bedtime and she says she wants something, I never let her. I say, ok, we'll eat peaches/noodles/whatever in the morning! Good luck sticking to your guns.

I also know what you mean about Jaxon (or Katie) not being spoiled, but getting his way. That's how it is for one kid...why not make them happy? That's why it'll be such a shocker for him when the triplets come. :)

ThePalmers said...

Sounds like the mandatory food portions are going well with Jaxon. All there is left now is to start the same program with Dave so he will eat his broccoli.

Brandt

Anonymous said...

For anyone who is reading the comments that have been left...I am not pregant with triplets...or at all! (just thought I would save you the time and uncomfortableness of asking!) :o)

Brit said...

Way to go with th food thing! I don't think it makes you sound mean. That's usually how we play over at our house, my girls hate to eat too, well mostly Belle. And she would eat a lot better if we spoon fed her likes she sees us do for Qiana, but I won't she is grown up and it is about time for Ana to start feeding herself too!

Sherri Macdonald said...

Welcome to the I'm the meanest mom in the world club! It's nice to have a new member. Remember there are lots of us fighting the same fight. Don't give up! You are the MOM! You win!! It's a hard job, but somebody has got to do it.

The Hoopers said...

Wow, I'm proud of you. Let me know how it goes after a week or so, there are way too many picky eaters around here.
You need to write a book of Jaxonisms...total best seller, that kiddo is a hoot!