Reply to How could I or should I have handled this differently?

Forum Index » General Discussion

Reply to "How could I or should I have handled this differently?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]17:16 again in response to your clarification OP -

Thank you for elaborating. It sounds like you really are trying to do the right thing. I am a little concerned though about having a three strikes policy for a 1 year old. I am very pro-time out, and pro discipline, structure, etc but 13 months is just way too young to understand a 3 strikes policy and to curb her behavior in response to that incentive structure. Perhaps the parents asked you to do this, perhaps the ped is recommending that you just end meal time when she's refusing, but I think there are ways to tweak the approach that might get you better results given how young she is.

Some alternatives: (1) Pick an approach and stick with it for at least a week before moving onto something else. For starters, I'd say meals should have two foods and she's free to eat as much of either or both as she likes, and there's no pressure to eat the lesser preferred option during that meal time, but there are two & only two options. If she's not happy during meal time, end it after 15 minutes, not with a time out in the play area, but by reading her a book instead and trying to feed her again maybe an hour later. (2) give one piece of food on her tray at a time - so one strawberry, not three. (3) If she really is just throwing things, then lay out a waterproof mat and feed her on the floor. (4) All three of you (you, brother, and the girl) sit down and eat a meal together. Put the food infront of her and don't say anything about whether and how she eats it. If she tosses it on the floor, don't say anything. Keep it upbeat & happy, keep the conversation on something other than the food. When you & brother finish, clean up the meal, and carry on with your day - no admonishment about what she should have done instead. This girl is probably feeling the pressure and not responding well to that - I went through that with my kid, I was really stressed out by her refusal to eat, but my ped said I really just have to bite my tongue and make food a non-issue. Pretty soon, my kid was eating again - not as much as I wanted, but enough.

Alternative to all of what I've just said - given how incrediably young she is, milk is still probably a large part of her diet. If she simply isn't into food, give her more milk. I'd run that by the ped/parents first, but some kids take longer than others to take to a food-based diet and when a kid is so hungry & tired, it's easier to drink milk than it is to sit & behave properly through a meal of your non-favorite foods. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics