Mr 2 years 5 months old…
He is learning about cucumber and has been for a while now.
When he first started learning about cucumber, he was very unfamiliar with it and found it difficult to tolerate touching it.
That’s ok, I gave him the option to use tongs to transfer the cucumber from one bowl to another whenever I served cucumber.
Then one day he used his hands. I noticed he was much more comfortable with cucumber, so I checked if he was ready to learn more.
So, I exaggerated taking a bite and placing it on my hand. He watched and followed. He was ready to try. He took a bite and spat it out on his plate. He has worked on this every time I serve cucumber. We call them ‘moons’.
Yesterday he chewed up a slice of cucumber to small bits and removed it from his mouth – he needed to in order to get comfortable. But then he put it back in! AND then back out. 🙂
I could view these experiences in a number of different ways:
- I could decide he doesn’t like cucumber, so why bother serving it?
- I could worry that he is spitting food out and not eating cucumber (plus ALL the other foods he is learning to eat) – argh why????
- I could see that he is building eating skills, has come a long way and is A LOT closer to eating cucumber. I can relax and carry on serving dinner the way I want because I know he will learn to eat cucumber when he is ready, in his own way.
I want to acknowledge that for many parents, it can be really hard to watch the above and not try to interfere in an attempt to “speed things up” – it’s totally understandable!
What I have described above is really typical during the toddler period – we can help it go smoother by understanding what it means.
Get in touch with us if you’re feeling a bit stuck with feeding your toddler, we would love to help.
Eat Happy!
Inés Astudillo
Accredited Practising Dietitian
