Mom: I thought it would be a piece of cake.
Do you remember when your child was a baby and you couldn't wait for the moment when the doctor would say you could introduce solid foods? I thought the moment was going to be magical. I had read that babies sometimes reject their first solid food so I was primed to have the rice cereal I had carefully prepared (after meticulously reading the directions -- "mix with water" -- about 26 times) spit right back at me. Instead, my little, adorable, bundle of joy just opened her mouth with glee, bite after bite after bite. She swished that soupy cereal around eagerly and when it lead out of the sides of her mouth and dribbled down her front, I didn't care. Feeding her was fun.
As the months went by and she lapped up whatever mush my husband and I thought to give her we were delighted and when she keenly gulped down the avocado and refried beans we fed her on a trip to Texas we positively beamed. We were so proud of our adventurous eater and so proud of ourselves -- surely this confirmed our status as stellar parents.
And then she learned how to say "no."
And "I don't like it."
And "I don't want that."
Oh, for sure, when we began dabbling in this feeding thing our beautiful daughter, had, on occasion, turned her head from whatever we had loaded onto the spoon. And, without question, there were times when food we had successfully enticed her to eat was propelled onto the floor with the staccato force only a baby tongue tasting something repulsive can muster. It just didn't happen that often. Not like it did now.
With words came will. The simple mission of feeding my daughter properly was suddenly becoming a lot more complicated.
Sound familiar?
My mission to solve my problems led me to read the scientific literature, to put my sociologist's hat on and to find the solutions, but it was my role as mom that taught me how to implement what I was learning. And now, I have listened to hundreds of parents and helped them solve their problems too. I understand what you're going through. I've been there too.
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