I am so pleased to be the parent of a wonderful, growing, 16-month boy who’s becoming more and more independent each day.  With that, though, comes the fact that he is getting fussy.  Truth be told:  my once insatiable little man has decided that he doesn’t, in fact, love everything I feed him – some days, he doesn’t love anything I feed him. 

I gotta tell you – as soon as you think you’ve got this parenting thing down to a wonderful routine, etc – something changes the very next day that makes you feel utterly incompetent.

What’s a mom to do?  I mean, suddenly the things he used to eat with wild abandon are things that he tosses to the floor, or refuses to open his stubborn little mouth to even try.  So very frustrating.

I decided to analyze this a little.  And I’ve learned some things – namely, my little guy is discovering his (very loud) voice and some days, things will work – and some days, they won’t.

Here, though, are the things that work more often than not:

1. Giving him a spoon with sticky things that will stick to it –  he gets a kick out of being able to do it himself.
2. Giving him a fork, with thicker things that can be jabbed – same as above, but I often follow with my own fork, to make sure he does in fact, get something inside his mouth, rather than flung across the room.
3. Giving him things in fun shapes that he can grab – bowtie pasta with cubed chicken is a great example.
4. Giving him things that aren’t pureed – kinda sad to see that one go – preparation was so much easier.
5. Nothing drenched in sauce – for SO many reasons, some obvious, others not so much so.

I also have begun to use my little indoor grill far more often, too.  A cubed grilled Panini melt with chicken, cheese and veggies is a much neater meal than chicken, veggies and cheese separately.  I think it’s all about the packaging – if he can scoop it, stab it or grab it, there’s a much bigger chance at a successful meal than otherwise.  Mini pita breads stuffed with yummy things – that works.  Wraps with spreadables, sliced into pinwheels –those work, too.  Mixing protein like chicken with crunchies, like apples – big success.  Basically, making sure he gets his grains, protein, fruit, dairy and veggies has become so much easier if I can group them into manageable little packets.

There you have it.  These are the things I’ve resorted to so that I don’t have to wipe flung food off my walls.

Now, if he’d only stop trying to upend his high chair tray…