As a first time mom, the first meal that I gave Taha was Sooji Kheer and I sang Old McDonald for him, imitating all the animals.
Techniques I used to distract feed
•Sing Rhymes
•Daddy played rattle
•Play dough
•Books
•Learning toys
•When nothing worked gave him, rhymes on mobile phone
He opened his mouth at every animal sound, I was elated. On the days singing didn’t work we tried different toys, daddy used rattles to make different tunes. And when nothing worked we used the screen. It usually worked.
When it didn’t I forced him while holding him tight. I always worked.
Feeding him was the toughest thing I have ever done. And after all the efforts of these idiociasy, I kept on watching bloggers on instagram and their perfect children eating from their hands. I always thought it wasn’t for me.
My kid won’t eat without distraction ever. But somewhere it was burning me from inside. I used to feel ashamed of doing it as I always judged moms who did it and always thought I will never do it.
But here I was in a muddle. A mess created by me and my poor baby paying the price for me.What made me change was this little incident when he was around 2.5 years old .
I was feeding him lunch. He ate two chapatis
Me: “Do you want more?”
Taha : “Yes” without removing eyes from screen
Ate one more chapati
Me: “What did you eat?”
Taha: “What you gave me to eat. I don’t know!”
I was shocked. He definitely recognized the veggies and food but he had no recollection of what he ate because he was just eating mindlessly.
That day I decided to make a change. It didn’t happen over night. It took a long time and a lot of efforts. But that will be a post for some other day,
On that note, stop distraction feeding now.
Do you distract feed? Do you want to stop that habit?
Imperfectbusymom 