Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Appetite's gone away

Since the fever he had last week, he has lost appetite to eat. If he used to gamely sit down on his high chair and open his mouth widely when I asked him too, now he shakes his head and tries to wiggle out of the high chair. When I put him down he wil run around and refuse to even face me. When I finally managed to get a few spoonfuls in his mouth, he will gag and spit out the food in his mouth. So eventually his Baba and I only managed to make him eat not more than 5 spoonfuls in one sitting.

We don't believe in forcing him to eat and we absolutely do not belief in distracting him with TV so that we can get a few spoonfuls down his throat. So I had to resort to other means. Initially, I thought he was sick of the food we feed him, - variations of soup with soft rice. So I decided to bring forward his weekly weekend treat, penne pasta with chicken and peas. This is usually reserved for weekends when we stay home. I have no choice but to give him frozen porridge on weekdays so I try my darndest to give him fresh food on weekends. Still, it didn't do much to make him eat.

Next I tried to bake bread pudding for him. But to meet his nutritunal requirements I added small chunks of minced beef and peas in it. He liked it for the first 4 spoonfuls and then decided he didn't like it anymore. Next day I tried grilled chicken sandwich and some baked fries. This was also popular but only if I placed it on our usual dining plate used a stainless steel spoon and not his Sesame Street kiddy bowl and colourful spoons.

I kinda caught on his trick but since he still didn't eat as much as usual, I tried baked chix nuggets the next day. Again I had to put in a grown-up bowl and used grown up utensils to entice him. I guess its not so much the food but where it is that makes him want to eat. His appetite is back but very gradually and it takes quite a bit of effort to coax him to eat.

Oh the things I try to make his eat! But I suppose this is a phase every child goes through. Let's hope my boy with that voracious appetite will be back soon.

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