Sometimes Mommies Just Know Best

Too make another long story short, the last several days and feeding Little Man has been emotionally demanding.  Even though feeding times doubled and tripled in size, Little Man would sometimes only get may be one small jar of baby food.  Leaving him hungry and even more frustrated.  He would just get so fed up that he would scream, pull on his bib and demand the mealtime over.  His 4 molars coming in (one as of yesterday did make its appearance) only exacerbated his frustrations further making it a perfect storm for Ian.

I have never seen my son cry almost all day long and throw tantrums like he was demonstrating.  I'd place him in time outs (and yes, Little Man sits for timeouts) and nearly cry because I knew the causes for his fits were not entirely uncalled for though I usually don't stand for them.  But this was different.  He was hungry, frustrated and hurting.  For the first time ever, I witnessed my son make two fists and shake them out of anger and pure frustration.  As I placed him in his third timeout, I went into the kitchen and cried as he was crying.  As soon as he was done crying I scooped him up in my arms as if to say sorry almost.  I probably confused the little guy.

Trying to null the situation, I had even tried giving him some ice cream for lunch one time.  I was just desperate to make mealtime fun again.  I even broke my cardinal rule and placed him in front of the television to feed him and contemplated doing it for the duration of these feeding expectations, even as I feared that a new habit would form that I would have to brake later on.

Finally, after Ian whaled all afternoon on Friday and after noticing how hungry he was, I decided that I had to initiate some changes and deviate some from the speech pathologist's plans.  Having a starving child was just not acceptable to me anymore.  So after visiting with my friend L and seeing how hungry my son was at her house and how much he was practically running after food, I decided that indeed sometimes mommies just know best and the changes I started earlier I was going to continue on through the weekend. 

I have contacted the speech pathologist, and although I have not received a reply or response from her as of yet, and I am not sure what her thoughts will be on my changes, I do know for a fact that mealtimes are 10 times more civil now and my son's hunger is being met once again.  So as far as I am concerned right now, his eating and lateral tongue movement have improved and he isn't starving anymore.  Please continue to pray for us, as I really would like my son to get into the new habit of eating this way even with the changes I implemented.  I really do hope and pray that I know best.