Eating

Eating is probably my least favorite time of the day with Abigail. She could really care less about food. Luckily, she's not a picky eater, but she's uninterested. We also wonder whose daughter she is because she devours the fruits and vegetables before she will touch anything else. If I left her to her own accord, I'm not sure she'd eat much of anything. She likes to poke at her food, stare at her food, stare at our food...anything besides eating it. If I didn't help and and try different strategies to encourage eating, she'd probably sit at the table for two hours before she got the calories in her. As is, the process is a long one anyway. The newest trick, as shown above, is the dip. Dipping it seems to work. The other day I made her a sandwich and put a side mustard dip. She proceeded to dip all her strawberries in the mustard and eat them...um - OK, so that wasn't the plan, but whatever! Another strategy is the airplanes ("big airplanes specifically"), boats and cars that enter her mouth. We also tell her the number of bites she has to eat and can usually sneak in a couple extra bites than the numbered amount. We always do "last bite" for one last attempt at getting food in the kid. For the first bite, we do a "one no thank you bite." This gets her to try everything and not refuse the food right away. The kid does love sweets, however. She asks for treats, candy and chocolate throughout the day. We definitely limit those, but they're often on the mind.