Jayden will not eat for me unless what I'm feeding her is really yummy. She makes a nasty sour face and spits it out or pushes it out with her tongue. The other night my mom was here and she was not eating for me. Grandma fed her the same thing and she ate it with no problems. Same goes when daddy feeds her. I guess she thinks that I'm just a boob or something!

We have had a really hard time getting Trevor to eat since he was 12months. Mealtimes for the last year have been a disaster! His weight is low. Last week we had a meeting with a nutritionist and life is so much better. I really wish I had talked to this woman a year ago because life could have been so much easier.

We have gotten to a point where we were sometimes even prying his mouth open to eat out of desperation. He would go days at a time and not eat hardly anything at all. He and Jayden are in the same size diapers; so he is really tiny. I was trying to do balanced meals but trying to get him to eat the high calorie/high fat stuff first. "Dessert" usually consisted of yogurt and fruit which he loved. I would tell him he didn't get dessert unless he finished his dinner. 95% of meals were a power struggle and consisted of fits from him and left me feeling pretty drained and often like a bad mommy.

The nutritionist said the rule of feeding children is to always put everything you plan to serve for the well balanced meal in front of them. Even things you know they won't eat. She also said to serve what the family is eating so that you don't get into the habit of "short order cooking." She said not to force them to eat anything and to try and serve at least one thing that you know they will eat.

In the last week things have become so much better. Trevor is eating things before he refused and last night even ate all of his veggies (sweet potatoes) that in the past he would have screamed if I tried to make him eat. We put veggies on his plate every meal so that they become common place. I still sneak veggies into other things in the form of purees with pretty much everything I cook. I also put real butter on everything possible to get some extra calories in him. He's gained 1 pound in the last month.

The hardest thing I'm still trying to get used to is not using dessert as a reward for eating a good meal. She said to even put that on his plate. So I'm putting his fruit on his plate with dinner and he thinks that's pretty cool!