Adventures in Eating

For the past couple of months feeding Sarah hasn't exactly been the most pleasant experience. She always wants to stand up in her chair (she can get out of all kinds of straps, even the shoulder ones), she takes forever, only eats certain things, makes a big mess. Neadless to say, lunch and dinner time resulted into my most grumpy times of the day.

That is, until this past week, progress...finally! Sarah had always been such a good eater and still loves to eat, so I couldn't figure out what was going on. All I knew was that she was transitioning between eating like a baby to eating like a todder. She wanted independence but seemed frustrated that she couldn't do things on her own.

So here's what we've figured out. Sarah needs to have an element of control in the feeding situation, not surprising. She must have her bowl of food in front of her and her own utensil to feed herself. She sometimes gets the food in her mouth and other times will take the time to put each piece on her spoon. I can still feed her at the same time to speed up the process and make sure she actually gets something.

She likes to have her cup available to her at meal times and throughout the day. She gets a bottle when she wakes up and just before bed. Sarah can drink out of a regular cup pretty good as well, but still needs assistance in order to not get it all down her shirt. I've also been happy that she seems to love water. For the longest time I would add a little apple juice to the water to sweeten it up. Then one day she seemed happy with just plain water, yahoo!


She eats pretty much everything, we're so thankful for that! She loves macaroni, stuffed pasta, rice, all meat, veggies, fruit, etc. She normally eats one of these bowls about half to 3/4 full of her main meal, then some fruit/ veg, some cheese, and perhaps a baby cookie. She continues to love tomatoes and will often eat a half a regular size tomato with her meal.

I'm happy to say that as long as she has her bowl, etc in front of her she rarely stands up while eating and is quite content with the whole experience. Thank goodness. Both David and I are glad that we're made progess in this area and that Sarah's learning to be a good little independent eater, especially with the baby coming.

Loving her pasta! I sometimes take off her shirt to eat, depending on if the main item is covered in tomato sauce or not. Keisha continues to be Sarah's little sidekick, always at her feet during meal times just in case she drops a "treat."