We have a Breakthrough!

Adik likes to eat. I think I've mentioned that before. His appetite is generally good, even when he's unwell. Feeding him his meal normally takes around 10 minutes; if he fusses maybe 15-20 minutes.

Lately I tried to get him to feed himself his lunch and it worked so well that now he wants to do it all by himself without any help from me. My plan backfired. I used to be able to "help" feed him once he started playing with his food - when he was not hungry anymore, but not quite full yet - but now he very firmly pushes my hand away. I can't even get the spoon from him!

So now we have both regressed and I don't give him the bowl and spoon anymore, I just feed him.

He does well, except when it comes to fruits. Since he started on semi-solids, I've been trying to introduce fruits into his meals. Before he had teeth, I tried giving him mashed bananas, and mashed papaya and small bits of watermelon. But he flatly refused.

Later I tried to do it differently, for example offering them to him when he was really hungry.

"I'm sure he'll take it," I thought, "he's so hungry, he won't turn it down I'm sure."

I was wrong.

When he had more teeth, I tried giving him the banana to bite. All I got was a scrunched up face. The only way he would take any fruit was bananas blended with milk and ice cubes, making a nice banana milk shake or smoothie. He only likes that. Which is fine, since it has real bananas in it, except guess who has to finish the leftovers?

And then, a few days ago, I was eating some grapes. As usual, I offered Adik a bite and as usual, he declined. So I sat down and put him on my lap (we were enjoying the movie 'Cars') and munched away at those yummy grapes.

After awhile, pointing to my bowl of grapes, he said, "Nak. Nak."

"Adik nak grapes?" I just had to double check.

"Naaaak."

So I peeled one, dug out the little seeds and let him bite a bit off and he liked it! In fact, he finished about 4-5 grapes. We have a breakthrough!

When I told his paediatrician about his reluctance to eat fruits and this grape incident, the good doctor said at this age children just love to "copy what we do".

"So you want to try and trick them into copying you eat the fruits. Don't offer it to them, you just eat it yourself when he's around and soon he will probably want some too."

I'm waiting for our next batch of home-grown papayas to ripen to try out my newly acquired doctor-approved method. Wish me luck!