You Win Some, You Lose Some

I'm losing the food battle. Actually, yesterday was an improvement, but in order for this title to work, I need to tell you about the losing battle I've been fighting for about a month now.

Bennett is eating table food now, and has been for a few months. When he first started, he was a champ. He would eat just about anything I put in front of him. We did go through a bit of a rough spot where he only liked to eat food off the floor, but that's for another day. Anyway, he was my perfect little eater and I was so proud. He would eat carrots, broccoli florets and stems, whole grain bread, fruit, beans, spinach, collards, anything.

Well, not for long. I don't know what happened, but just all of a sudden he didn't want anything to do with any type of food I tried to give him. I tried everything. He wouldn't even eat tater tots. All kids love tater tots! After many attempts to get him to eat the table food, I finally decided that I'd have to go back to the pureed stuff. Well, not only did he not want the table food, he didn't even want to be spoon fed. He'd eat maybe a couple bites and then realize, "Wait, what am I doing? I'm supposed to be refusing this stuff." And he would eat no more. All he wanted was to eat graham crackers all day long. Incredibly frustrating.

I know they say not to give up when your child goes through a phase like this, but do you know how exhausting it is to fix a breakfast, lunch and dinner for your child every day and have him not eat it? Not only fix one, but fix a second just to try and get him to eat something, and then have that pushed back at you too. Very, very tiring. And wasteful. I even tried taking him to "the trough," as Daddy calls it. The two of us took him to Golden Corral to see if we could get anything in him. They have it all. If he didn't eat something from there, he wasn't going to eat anything. Well, he did okay, but it was still pretty much a losing battle.

I think part of this came with the sickness he has been struggling with since we got back from Winston-Salem on new year's eve. It's just a little cold, but it has been dragging on forever now. So, I'm sure part of the food refusal is due to that, but it started well before he got sick.

You're probably asking what the winning battle is. Well, it is this. Since he has been sick, his nose has been stopped up. So, when he nurses (yes, I am still nursing him. My goal was one year. I have been very nervous about weaning him, therefore I have been rather lazy about starting the process, but just read on), he can't breath. He can take a couple swallows, but then has to pull off and gasp for air. I can imagine how frustrating that is for him. He finally gets fed up and just pulls off. Rather than sit there and try to make him nurse, I just go on and put him in the bed. To my surprise, that usually suits him just fine. He's not nursing for the nourishment anymore, it's just a comfort thing now, so it's not like he's going down hungry.

So, I am pleased to say that I am totally winning the weaning battle! What an incredible relief. Because if I was having to deal with him fighting me on that one while also fighting me in the food battle, I'd probably not have any hair left.