The Food Chronicles

And so the saga continues. It's been a week now and the Tough Love Menu continues. Doodles gets a small amount of food he likes plus something else I'd like him to eat. If he doesn't want to eat what I've set out, he can go hungry. Doodles has spent a lot of time this past week being hungry.

We've had some progress. There are two foods he has definitively added to his repertoire: French toast and French fries (any other French foods we can introduce?). The former is a big deal because (almost) every Friday I serve a homemade challah and then on Saturday morning we have French toast. It's a ritual now and I'm delighted that Doodles can now partake. Now, the latter probably has everyone rolling eyeballs and saying, "Ugh, French fries!" but for us, this a huge breakthrough. We have never been able to eat out and recently, we've been able to start going out to breakfast since he'll eat pancakes and now French toast. But French fries opens up a world of lunch and dinner. There is now something on the menu my son will eat. Plus it means that I may be able to sneak Sweet Potato "Fries" (Bakes) into his diet. And that, my friends, would be an actual vegetable. Granted, those French fries must be dipped in cinnamon sugar, but I stopped by Penzey's this week and picked up a small plastic bottle of cinnamon sugar to keep in my purse at all times.

During the past week, he's also had one bite of pasta, a bunch of crackers with jelly (he objects to the squishy jelly so this is an achievement), the equivalent of three apple slices, one bite of fish stick, and two, yes count 'em TWO! chicken nuggets. It hasn't always been easy. For instance here was our dinner conversation on Sunday night about the apple slices (those with the password can see part of the conversation on our video site):

Doodles: I want more fish [meaning Goldfish crackers, of course].
Me: Take a bite of pasta and you can have more fish.
Doodles: Noooo waaaay! I want more fish noooooowwwwww!
[repeat. repeat. repeat a few more times and you're close. The grown-ups are having burgers and fries.]
Me: I'm willing to cut you a deal.
Doodles: Yes?
Me: You can have a bite of French fry instead.
Doodles: No way! I want fish!
Me: Okay, you can be excused from the table.
Doodles: I. Want. Fish. Noooooooowwwwwwww!
Me: Have a bite of French fry.
Doodles thinks. He says: Okay.
I put a French fry on his plate.
Doodles: Can I have cinnamon sugar on it?
Me: Yes.
I sprinkle some on his plate. Doodles tentatively takes a bite. He takes another bite. He takes yet another bite. He finishes the fry.
Doodles: I want more French fries!
Me: What do you say?
Doodles: Can I have more French fries, please?
I give him two more. He eats those.
Doodles: Can I have more French fries?
Me: After you eat some apple [oh, how quickly the rules change!]
Doodles: Noooooo! I want more friiiiiies!
[repeat]
Me: I put lots of cinnamon sugar on the apple. You can eat it.
Doodles finally looks to relent. He goes to pick up the apple and changes his mind.
Doodles: I can't pick it up! It's too heavy!
ARRRRRRGGGGG!
He did eat one and a half slices of cinnamon sugar apple (as long as someone else was holding it; we've offered him a fork so he doesn't have to touch it, but that doesn't work) in exchange for more food.

I'm also feeling very clever because I have a new food to hold out over his head. I made a new discovery at Whole Foods. Carrot chips. Yes, they're fried and therefore not perfect, but they are 100% carrots made fresh by Whole Foods. He loves them! It's a great bribe: "One more bite of chicken nugget and you can have some more carrot chips." Whoo hoo!

Anyway, we're getting there. Slowly but surely we're getting there. If anyone has suggestions for new foods that aren't too far off his beaten path to try, let me know! (He eats: pancakes, French toast, dry cereal, yogurt, smoothies, cereal bars, and any kind of crunch carb.)