Love Letters to Natalie
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Meal time!
Dearest Natalie,
Finally you are eating normal again tonight! Praise the Lord!
You have been eating like a chicken for the last 2 weeks, getting really fussy during your meal time. You'll take a mouth or 2 of whatever we gave you and then spit out the rest from 3rd mouth onwards. We tried all ways to get you to eat. Initially we thought you got sick of the food we fed you so we changed the food. We tried mashed potatoes, potato stew with green peas, corn and carrot, chicken, fish, macaroni n etc. All managed to sustain your interest for only 3 mouthfuls the most. It got to a point that I let you eat whatever you wanted, splitting into numerous meals a day.
Thank God after asking around, many friends told me that this is just a phase that you're going through and you'll be fine. A friend suggested to me to let you try feeding yourself and I decided to give it a try. Tonight as usual you refused your yummy porridge with the pork chop sauce I made plus some pork. I took your little hand, let you held on to the spoon on your own and guided you to take some porridge from the bowl and put the spoon into your mouth. You did it happily, with a sense of accomplishment on your face. We all can tell that you feel proud and important to eat like an adult! That look on your face is so precious and I regretted not rushing to take a picture of you. So you continue to feed yourself (guided) for the rest of the meal and finished the whole bowl of porridge. You continue to pretend to feed yourself after the bowl is empty because you enjoy doing so.
I am happy that you're eating well again! So starting from tomorrow, you're going to learn how to feed yourself. It's okay to get messy, as that's the way to learn how to eat!
With love,
Mommy
natnat's mom at 12:38 AM
