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  I could write a whole book called "I said I'd never…"  As my friend Karen says "I was a much better mother before I had kids" (maybe THAT should be the title of my book)    One of the things I swore I'd never do and was all Judgey McJudgerson about  cooking separate meals for the kids. I said horrible things like -

"I'm not a short order cook!"

"This isn't a restaurant!"

"My kids will eat what I make or they will go hungry!"

"I can't believe she feeds her kids toddler food, my kids will eat real, big people food"

"I'm going to be such a better mother than her" (ok, I didn't say that one, but lets' face it, we all think that before we have kids, right?)

And guess what….

I make separate meals every night. I'm so ashamed. I'm hanging my head here.  I don't know how we got to this place.  I remember very vividly going to San Antonio with my mom and Matthew when he was about 8 months old. He ate refried beans and rice and chips and enchiladas and loved it. I was so proud.  I thought that "eating normal people food" would continue, but somehow it didn't.

I blame it on McDonalds and other restaurants.  Everywhere we go the kids menu consists of the same things – chicken nuggets, mac-n-cheese, hot dogs, etc.  And my kids started eating those things and loved them and now if I presented a plate of refried beans and rice to my children they would look at me like I have three heads.

So what about the promise that "they will eat what I make or go to bed hungry"?  Here's what happened to it:  I haven't slept in 5 years. Not the whole night. What little sleep I do get is very near and dear to me. And I'm too afraid that if my kids have an empty stomach they'll sleep even less than they do (if that's even possible).  You see, it's all about sleep for me. Food = sleep.  And I love sleep.

So I let my kids pick their dinner every night and it consists of every toddler food on the market. I'm not proud. But I'm honest.

But, here's why I'm writing this post.

1. So you, too, can tell me that you do the same thing and make me feel less terrible about my parenting skills

2. To tell you about our recent victory!

Last week I made lasagna.  I never expected my kids to eat it. I had the mac-n-cheese all ready to cook when Matthew asked if he could have taste (!!). We're working very hard with him on at least trying new things and because he's such a good, well-behaved kid, he will do it.

He doesn't always like it and our rule is that he doesn't have to eat any more if he doesn't like it, but now that he's 4 1/2 he'll actually be honest and not automatically hate everything (unlike Ben who just says "That's YUCKY!" without every so much as sniffing it).  He's found several things that he likes. There's a light at the end of the corn dog tunnel, people!

Back to the lasagna.  He tried it and he loved it. He had 5 servings! (yes, five, that's not a typo!)  And so I put some on Ben's plate and he started picking at it too, and before I knew it his was gone as well.

It was the first time that I can remember (other than pizza night which doesn't really count) that we all sat down and at the exact same meal. Veggies, lasagna and bread.  I'm not sure I've ever been so proud.

So I'm hoping for more victories like the lasagna.

Anyone have any picky toddlers that ended up liking "big people food"? What was it that you served that they liked? I'm ready to keep this ball rolling.

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  I know it's normal for kids to go through phases. Phases where they sleep well, phases where they don't sleep well. Phases where they eat everything in the house and phases where they eat nothing.

Ben has entered into a "food is no fun" phase.  It's stressing us out because Ben was always our good eater. He was our best hope for having a kid that would try new things and eat something other than "toddler food". But that has come to a screetching halt lately.

The only thing he ever asks for is chocolatel milk. And he says it with this gravely little voice that is bigger than one would expect from his little 30-pound body.  It's pretty cute.  Except that he's now stopped eating pretty much everything else except chocolate milk and yogurt. The boy LOVES yogurt. Not the healthy, grown up  kind, of course, he likes the little squeezing Gogurt tubes or drinkable ones. 

No matter what I put on his plate he just pushes it away and says "Yucky!" and screams for "chocolate milk!!!"  (which he pronounces choca milk!)

I can usually get him to eat three or four tubes of yogurt (the good news is that he'll never get a yeast infection) before bedtime, but it's a wonder the kid is still alive.

I can't go more than three hours without eating food or I wander around in a daze speaking of death and unable to function from sheer exhaustion. Yet little kids can go days without eating more than a single kernel of corn and still have the energy of a hummingbird.  I don't get it.

So what's your "go to food" when your kid won't eat anything?
And remind me, how long do food strikes usually last? I know Matthew went through this but I can't remember how long it took for him to discover the wonder of food again.

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