Food Battles

Maren is not what I would consider a compliant child. She is strong willed and although I'm confident this will serve her well later in life, it's not fun for her parents in the interim. Until a few weeks ago, Maren refused to eat anything other than Cheerios, veggie straws, animal crackers, or baby food from a jar. The minute something else would touch her lips, she would make a terrible face and spit out the offensive food. And this wasn't gross food, either. We're talking mac & cheese from a box, for heaven's sake. What child doesn't like that?

Well after a few Joan Crawford episodes on my part of giving her food to feed herself but not feeding her baby food if she didn't eat what I gave her, we're finally making some progress. Last week she fed herself cooked broccoli and strawberry chunks at dinner and I seriously thought I would start crying out of excitement. This reaction was to peanut butter on a piece of bread. That's more like it.
So then yesterday Kevin was eating a turkey and cheese sandwich that also had mustard on it. Spicy brown mustard to be exact. Maren grabbed the sandwich off his plate and shoved it in her mouth. Me, being happy that she was actually eating "real" food, forgot about the mustard temporarily.She wasn't so much a fan of the mustard.
Poor girl. Abusive parents, I tell you.Last night I found her sneaking up to some veggies and dip I had sitting on the counter to snack on.If it's her idea, it's a whole different story. Maybe reverse psychology will be the way to go with this girl.