Dining with Sam

Sam has all but stopped eating dinner. We assume he's eating a good lunch at school, but we actually do need to confirm that. He eats a solid breakfast. But dinner? That's another story. Ever since he stopped eating purees, he has been picky, but the older he gets the worse it has gotten. We've gone through a particularly frustrating period the past two weeks. He isn't even eating his favorite foods anymore. No pizza, no french fries.

"All done dinner!" "Me no like it!" "No, thank you." (at least he's polite)

What's most interesting is how Bruce and I are handling his table-side shutdown (hint: not well). We've read all the rules (don't force them to eat, don't bribe them to eat, don't keep bringing out foods you think they'll eat, and the obvious: don't try to shove a bite into their mouth) and flouted all the rules. Read, repeat. We alternate roles of being the calm parent and being the crazy, food-shoving-down-the-gullet parent. When I'm not the crazy gullet-shoving parent, I marvel at the kind of primal reaction we have to our child not eating. MUST FEED CHILD! CHILD WILL STARVE! YELL AT SPOUSE ABOUT HOW THEY'RE DOING IT WRONG!

You are "supposed" to put out a selection of foods you would like them to eat along with one thing you know they will eat and leave it at that. Sometimes he doesn't even eat the one safety food I put out. Tonight for dinner, I think I will just throw in the towel and feed him the last of the remaining foods I know he will always eat. I could really use a break.

On tonight's menu:

• Yogurt
• Berries
• Apple
• Goldfish crackers

Would you like to join us at Chez Warreid?