The things they don't tell you about......

Days should be full of fun - NOT tears!

It seems like such a small thing to get upset/stressed about, but trust me your child refusing to eat can really get you down.

Actually they're both at it at the moment and it feels like an uphill struggle every meal time and you start to dread it approaching. Well to be honest they drag out so much when there's a feeding problem that the whole day just feels like a never ending struggle with eating!

BB I think may be picking up from his wee bruth's refusal to chomp. He's having a couple of mouthfuls then states 'all done Mummy!' I've been intentionally not playing up to this, telling him 'fine - no yoghurt then' and he happily pushes his plate away and takes off from the table. Aaaargh! but I know he'll not go hungry (I hope) so I haven't been too worked up about him, however I felt a bit guilty tonight and coaxed him to eat 'another forkful - only that bit there - how's about another, oooh clever boy, one more and you'll get a yoghurt etc etc.' As it turned out, he did almost clear his plate, but I had to stick to my guns and he got no yoghurt and annoyingly I couldn't give him any fruit either as that would seem like he'd won anyway - when I really wanted him to get the vitamins inside him.
He had a dose of the runs today as I don't think he's eaten enough to counteract his medication, so I cut back on that today too..........

AND that's the easy one!

It's LL who's getting me very uptight. He is literally clamping his mouth shut. If he does get any food in he follows with a gagging motion and then screams his head off. BFS asked me the other day if the food that went in was getting eaten or if it came out again. I let him know it was getting eaten and 'well that's alright then' was the reply. But it's not that simple. One meal can take 1 1/2 hours to eat, which translates to a very tiring and depressing ( I really can't translate how disheartening and draining this is....) 1 1/2 hours of a very very upset little boy (and mum) who, lets face it only wants to be strapped onto my front. He would happily suckle from me all day, but he needs to be on solids.

He needs to get the milk (as babies under 1 need a pint a day - and he's getting no dairy from elsewhere) so eventually after about 2 hours of trying with the food he gets milk and put down for a nap. Once he wakes the cycle begins again.

Now for the catch 22 if he doesn't get enough inside him through the day he'll never stop waking at night for food as he still is (yup - still feeding from me every night and he's almost 7 1/2 months old) I got him down to just 1 feed last night, and felt I couldn't deny him this as he hadn't eaten through the day. Admittedly his brekkie went down well, but the cycle began again at lunch.....

please let it end soon the stress and lack of sleep has me at my wits end!