Magic beans

One of the most difficult things I've been faced with yet in my scant three years of parenthood is the refusal of a child to eat. Namely, Lukasz these days. With the heat we've been having, I understand not feeling hungry, and he was more than willing to drink lots of water and juice. Actually, at first he was more than willing to chow down on cantaloupe and watermelon, and after that phase was done I was still able to get fruit and goodness into him by making smoothies out of frozen bananas and raspberries. But the past probably 2 weeks have been really difficult. He'd eat one or two small bites, and then with a high-pitched, close-mouthed whine, he'd shake his head vigorously and refuse another bite.

I received lots of advice and encouragement that he'd eat when he wanted to, that he was nice and chubby and a few days of eating very little were nothing to worry about.

Slowly, I was able to roll with this, I was able to offer him food once at meals, and if he didn't want it, I didn't press him. He started slowly coming around to the table when he was hungry and reaching for food I'd left out for him. He still wasn't eating much at all during the day but I just starting trusting that he'd let me know when he was hungry (a common sign became seeing him crawl under the table to crunch a cheerio that had landed there at breakfast).

Finally, last night, I remembered he used to love Gran's special recipe for garlic green beans. Since it's been a lot cooler, I whipped up a dinner of the green beans, chicken and rice. I cooled off a plateful of them for him, cut into bite-sized pieces and he inhaled them. Then he had some chicken, too!

That was only one meal out of many, but it was a definite success in my books!

Thanks, Gran, for the super-yummy, Woochie-friendly recipe!! (I'll post it up here later.)