June 29, 2011

Its time to eat...

Someone, anyone, please help.

How on God's green Earth do you get a child to EAT?

Rachel hasn't been eating well for about a month now and we have been told my numerous people (and parenting books- yes I have to admit that I own a few) that we need not worry, that she'll eat when she's hungry. So, please enlighten me, how soon might we expect this surge in consumption to occur?

She has been sick the last few days but when her temperature finally broke on Monday we kind of hoped that she would beg us to buy her a Big Mac. No such luck. We're suspecting that her total calorie intake since Friday (4 days ago) is around 1,000- and that includes milk. Yes, she was sick for part of that time. But, yesterday she was fine...and all she ate was a single pee (fresh from my garden of course), peanut butter that she licked off a cracker, and a few pieces of assorted cereals that we have. Yikes! Right?

Maybe our daycare provider, whom Rachel just adores, will have some kind of magic touch and get her to eat.

I hope so. True to form, I'm worried about her.

3 comments:

  1. I honestly think that toddlers survive on air and the occasional crumb that gets ground into their belly buttons. Each of my children have done this. All are healthy and have become good eaters. It gets better, but it's not unusual.

    I would check if she's cutting teeth. If her mouth hurts, it might not be fun to eat. You might try some oragel about 30 min. before a meal.

    Also, they really will eat when they are hungry. They have little tummies (about the size of their fist). You might put out some fruit or cheese where she can reach it and see if she feeds herself.

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  2. Don't worry! Easier said than done, but really, don't worry! She'll eat eventually.

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  3. Last night, after she was done licking PB off the cracker she declared that she wanted more. I probably went a bit overboard when I gave her the entire PB jar and a spoon but I just really wanted her to EAT. And the fact that she got it ALL OVER didn't even bother me...until I realized that she wasn't actually eating anything.

    She still has a little tummy so it's not like she's starving to death....but COME ON kid... don't make us worry like this! (okay, I'll TRY not to do that quite so much)

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