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Feeding Your Toddler (1 of 2)

April 5, 2008

When it comes to feeding my son I have faced many struggles in the past 16 months of his life. He has a regular meal schedule, breakfast at 8 AM, snack at 10-10:30 AM, lunch at 12:30-1:00 PM, snack at 3:00 PM, and dinner at 5:30-6:00 PM. Now mind you, this schedule was set by my mother who takes care of him while my husband and I are at work. Since it is the schedule that formed I try to stick with it on the weekends. Only it seems I am being challenged more often than I would like when it comes to mealtime.

First off, he sometimes resists the high chair. My attempts to get him in only result in kicking and screaming. So I wonder if he is even hungry. I am thinking he must be hungry because of the number of hours since the last time he ate and besides, the schedule says its time to eat. I finally get him strapped in and put the tray on. By this time he is a little calmer.

The second thing that causes my patience to wear thin is the throwing of food. When I allow him to self-feed he constantly throws food off his high chair tray. I put bits of food onto his tray and allow him to explore and try them out. That is, if he will even try them. The funny part is he is completely nonchalant about throwing it over. He simply picks up the food and lets it roll out of his hand onto the floor. Then he looks after it and awaits my response. I continue to offer more food to him and he continues to throw it overboard.

The real tantrum starts when I am feeding him. I bring the spoon of food towards his mouth and the kicking and screaming commences. He tosses and turns his head as if he is under attack. Is he even hungry? I wish I knew. He is still unable to express himself with words so screaming and kicking is his way out. Once I put the spoon down he settles. On occasion I can get past this by being persistent. Eventually he does taste the food and realizes he likes it. Then he eats it all up. Again, was he hungry?

To tell you the truth I think I have a harder time with this than my son does. It’s hard on me because I worry a lot about his eating habits. According to his pediatrician and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP),

Your toddler needs about 1,000 calories a day to meet his needs for growth, energy, and good nutrition. (Caring for Your Baby and Young Child, Fourth Edition, AAP)

That seems like a lot to me because I feel like he comes nowhere near that. In the this book it gives you a sample menu and when I tried to go with it my son ate half the recommended amount for breakfast and wouldn’t eat what I offered for lunch and dinner.

My husband tries to reassure me but it is hard for me to accept that he will eat when he is hungry and not to worry. I am so particular about what I eat and how I like to eat it. So I am going on a mission to learn about various feeding methods for toddlers. I will keep you posted.

Popularity: 63% [?]

Written by Mrs. Admin · Filed Under Personal Experiences 

Baby’s First Airplane Ride

March 27, 2008

I had been looking forward to the time when I would be able to travel with my son. We would be going on a short flight — one hour — and my mom would accompany us to help out. I had only taken my son camping so this was a huge event for me. While at the airport he ran around as expected. He said hello to everyone he came across and tried to play with other childrens’ toys. No big deal here.

Our flight was delayed about one hour so he continued to flirt with pretty girls and play with the pay phones. We had a "wonderful" airport meal consisting of McDonald’s. Yum! Then it was finally time to board the plane.

By this time it had come very close to his normal bedtime and he was starting to be a little grumpy. We finally got onto the plane and found our seats. As we settled in, my son looked around with confusion. He did not seem to know if he should be excited or scared. Nonetheless, he sat on my lap and looked out the window. When the plane began to move he grew excited with anticipation of what would happen next.

Suddenly, the captain uttered these distressing words: "We will be held over for an additional 25 minutes." My heart sank so quickly I was sure the other passengers had heard the thud. There was no way a 16 month old boy would sit quietly in a confined space for 25 minutes — at least not MY 16-month old boy. Sure enough, it took less than a minute for my son to begin crying and trying to get down from my lap. There was nowhere for him to go and he got really angry. My mom took him and tried to calm him with his toys and a game of peek-a-boo. That worked for a few minutes then he started kicking and screaming again.

I could see some of the nearby passengers looking uncomfortable at the high pitched wailing of this child. There was not much I could do. I tried calming him by rocking then by showing him features of his toys he had not tried out. Again, this only worked for a few minutes.

Needless to say, that was probably the longest 25 minutes of my life. My son finally settled down and laid across our laps. He was tired and started to fall asleep as we took off. Whew! The short flight was over before it started. As we began to descend my son awoke to his ears popping and the screaming started up again. It was not as bad as earlier because he was half asleep but he was not happy.

Finally, off the plane and into his stroller my son was able to relax and just ride along off to the hotel. We will be returning tomorrow night so I will be sure to update you all. We have a late flight going home so this could be additionally troublesome.

I hope my experience opens the door for you to share your own experiences. I would love to hear what others do to prepare and deal with a delayed flight where you have to sit on the plane.

Here you can find an excellent article providing tips on what to do when flying with kids:

Airtravel tips when flying with kids!

Popularity: 80% [?]

Written by Mrs. Admin · Filed Under Personal Experiences 

A Sobering Conversation with a Catholic Mom

March 24, 2008

Alter boy lighting candle.

I usually shy away from things with religious or political overtones, simply because there is never really a conclusive answer to those types of conversations–at least none that everyone can leave the conversation satisfied with. I’m going to break my rule today, simply because I was so astonished by what was said that I simply had to share it.

I was talking with a young mother who has a little boy who is attending a Lutheran school. She was raised Catholic so this news did not go over very well with her family (as you might guess). This well known fact was the "elephant in the room" as she visited with her family over Easter weekend and she thought she might get out unscathed, until one of her more aggressive sisters had finally had enough.

"What’s the deal with your son going to Lutheran school?" she asked with a tone of stark disapproval. The mom, we’ll call her Linda, steeled her nerve and prepared to engage formidable foes.

"I’ll send him to Catholic school when the Catholic Church accepts responsibility and does what it needs to do to keep him safe," she said succinctly with just a quiver of adrenaline tinged nervousness inside.

"What’s THAT supposed to mean?" her sister fired back.

"It means that I’d be afraid for him physically and mentally if he attended Catholic school. Right at this moment there are priests serving who are known to have sexually abused children and the Church is protecting them and allowing them to stay in their stations. Until they admit these things and correct them, I will keep the name but they will not put my child at risk or see a cent of my money ." (See a related video from KCVE Newscenter Channel 5 for a new development on this issue.)

If you think you can imagine what happened next you might be surprised. Linda’s father joined in the conversation, and supported her position!

"I’m proud of you for not just going along with the flow, Linda," he said. He went on to say that though he desired his grandson to embrace Catholicism, it was important to him that his daughter made the best decisions for her son.

This was related to me by Linda herself. It was shocking to her, as it was to me that her family supported her decision and dropped the matter completely.

The truth of the matter is, although the light has been thrown upon the problem of abuse in the Catholic church, the problem is quite literally everywhere. It is when the places and people that we put the most trust in disappoint us that it becomes such an emotional affair that it is predominant in our minds and in our society.

Figures such as priests or preachers, doctors and police officers are supposed to represent what is good and decent in our society. When these people fail us, it strikes a chord that pains us all to our very cores. I write this not to discredit any religion or generalize any group, but rather to share the feeling I had when I heard the story. Truly saddened.

Linda then related this last little tidbit that I found very amusing. She said that there is a very wealthy man that attends her cathedral. He is adamant that priests who violate the priesthood should not be protected by the church and should be removed from their stations. He has not given up on his faith, but rather he has decided to take a stand about some of it’s practices. When the offering plate is passed, he does not put money in. Instead he puts a single, folded piece of paper in every time. On the paper it reads the same every week:

"I have opened up a separate account for the money which I have tithed to the Church. (A huge figure has amassed in the totals column). I will remit payment of these tithes, when the Church recognizes what it needs to do and ceases to protect the predators of our children and properly denounces and dismisses them."

Do you think more involved parishioners like this one might help incur changes that could save a new generation of children from prosecution immune predators? (See the video above for an update on this issue.)

Controversial, but none-the-less interesting…

Popularity: 74% [?]

Written by Mr. Admin · Filed Under Personal Experiences