Eating and sleeping have been a big focus of raising our son since he was born. He arrived almost a month early, and Kaiser Walnut Creek was fantastic about making sure he was healthy, gaining weight, getting milk, making sure I had milk, etc….from day 1. Literally. For three weeks, we made ridiculously anal and detailed spreadsheets recording Luke’s input and output, color, times, consistency, you name it, as well as my output (milk-wise), sleep times, duration, placement, which song put him to sleep, which movement kept him asleep, you get my point. As he grows, the same topics stayed pretty much at the forefront. When he started eating (and I use that term l o o s e l y) solid foods, it didn’t matter to us that he was in the 90^th percentile for height, weight or length, we were sure he was going to waste away…

Comparing him to our friends’ kids (I know, I know, I shouldn’t start comparing already, all kids are different, it doesn’t matter what the Jones’ kids are eating, etc.), he ate next to nothing on a regular basis and then every now and then would eat eat eat for a full day. So we always felt worried.

About a year ago we went to dinner at our friends’ house. Their daughter is about eight months older than Luke, and always eats well when we are around. Luke decided to show off and not eat much at all. Of course conversation turned to our kids’ eating habits, and our wise friends gave us some of the best advice we had heard. To paraphrase, they basically told us what every book says, what all the nutritionists say and what our pediatrician has said. Kids will eat what they need to eat, how much they want to eat, and they stop because they don’t need to eat anymore. They have far better sensors that they base their food consumption off of than we do, as we are run by emotions and taste as well as by our stomachs. Some days they may eat a completely balanced meal, other days it might be all starch, other days all protein, fruit and vegetables, etc. As long as you offer a wide healthy variety of food, your child will eat what they need.

We had heard all of that before. Their exact words were, “Basically, at the end of the day, if the kid wants to eat parmesan cheese for dinner, then give them a plate of parmesan cheese for dinner!” That got through.

Two nights ago, Luke had a slice of gouda cheese and ten wheat crackers for dinner. Tonight, he ate a tortilla, rice and beans, black beans sautéed with green chiles, cumin, spices, onions and garlic, a pile of shredded cheese, grapes and some cereal. I guess the theory still holds…