Thoroughly examining his pea

When my son eats, he is very meticulous and thoughtful about the process. He studies the food. And when I mean studies, I mean that he furrows his brow, squints his eyes and watches it very closely for a period of time. When nothing happens, he then takes his index finger and touches it. After touching it he gets his thumb into action and picks it up. At this stage, with food elevated to eye level, he studies it yet again. Having found it to be favorable he will slowly place it in his mouth. He mulls it around a bit until we get the bitter beer face or a solid “mmmm”.

Having found a food he approves of, he will then proceed to perfect his pincer grasp by individually picking up each piece of food and placing it in his mouth. For us, this means that fruits liked sliced bananas, peaches, and apples don’t really work too well. They are just too slimy for his poor little pincer grasp and he gets so frustrated he just gives up and “asks” for Cheerios. And if he happens to drop a piece of food into his lap? Well, he stops everything that he is doing to try and retrieve that lost piece. I am pretty sure he has a “no green bean left behind” policy.

As you can see, this is why it takes so llllllooonnnngggg for us to feed him a meal. It isn’t like we can just throw food in front of him and expect it to be gone. Every meal is a bit of an experiment.

Using his whole hand to get the goods.

Now, on the other hand, our friends have a child who loves to eat and doesn’t mind getting messy doing it. He uses his entire hand. (I’m not sure my son knows he has more than an index finger and thumb). You lay a food before him and he grabs as much of it up in his hand as he can get and proceeds to put that fistful to his mouth and shove in every morsel that he can. A little drops out? No problem, there is still a tray full of goodness awaiting him.

I am always amused because before this little man sits down to eat as I watch his parents get out the body suit to feed him. After all, he’s not real concerned with the fact that some of it isn’t making it to his mouth. He is confident he will eventually get some. And he will eat anything. Doesn’t matter if it is slimy, he has a whole hand with which to secure the food.

There are times that I wish that my son ate like his friend. It would be easy for me as a mom to be concerned that my son doesn’t eat as much or won’t touch weird feeling food, but I am not. I’m not concerned because I know he is eating well and eating foods that he enjoys. I also can see his personality shine through in his eating. He examines everything, always. No exceptions. Do I expect anything less when he is eating his dinner?

Do you marvel at the differences between your own kids? Between the development of your child compared to friends’ children? Do you wonder what in the world is going on sometimes? You are not alone. As you approach things like meal time with your infant and toddler make sure that you are viewing their development in light of their personality and their age. Don’t push them to be “just like so and so”. And remember, each child develops at their own pace and in their own ways. Even at the dinner table.

What does your child do that makes you go “hmm”?