Food fight

I will be the first to admit that Gabe has never been, and probably never will be, the hearty eater that Nicki is. While Nicki is pretty much willing to eat, or at least try, anything that is placed in front of her, Gabe on the other hand takes things to the other extreme. And lately it has only gotten worse. These days his diet consists of the following:

-Milk
-Bread (and any bread-like product such as bagels or english muffins)
-Cereal: Cheerios/All Bran/Oatmeal Squares
-Fruit, fruit and more fruit
-Peanut butter
-Cheese Whiz (sometimes)

And that's all! It's scary to me that he can exist and be fully nourished on this type of diet. I'm just thankful that, at the very least, all of the food groups have a representing item on that list. But he doesn't eat any meat at all, any vegetables at all, any pasta at all, any rice at all. It's not just a "healthy food" thing either. On our rare splurges with less than healthy food, we have discovered that he won't go anywhere near pizza or even french fries. In fact just last week when I made brownies and Nicki was happily licking the batter off the spatula, I approached him with a batter-covered spatula of his own and he literally ran away from me crying. Never in my life have I met a child who didn't jump at the chance to lick a chocolate covered spatula!

At every meal we always put a small amount of everything we are eating on his plate. He will eat the bread and fruit and drink the milk, but won't even touch the rest. Actually that's not true; he will will pick up the other items, name them and then drop them with disgust and disdain back into his plate, leaving them to be ignored for the rest of the meal. He certainly isn't lacking in examples, because Nicki sits right in front of him eating everything, even occasionally saying "Look Gabe! It's good!" It isn't a lack of hunger issue either, because if we keep giving him bread or fruit he will continue to eat. If we try to put the undesired food into his mouth ourselves he will simply spit it out. Nicki has never spat food out in her life, even as a baby... What a difference.

My hope that continually putting the food in front of him might lead him to eventually branch out and try something is waning as of late, since his list of foods recently diminished again. He used to eat cheese, now he doesn't; he used to eat yogurt, now he doesn't; he used to eat veggie burger patties, now he doesn't; he used to eat peas, now he doesn't. When he first began eating table foods way back when, he would take the occasional nibble of meat here and there, maybe sample a noodle or two, or test out a carrot once in a while. But it's been ages since any of those foods have made it anywhere near his mouth, despite their continual reappearance on his plate.

It is incredibly frustrating to see him eat (or not eat) this way, since as a mom I am eternally concerned with my kids nutrition. I have to be honest though and say that he truly appears to be incredibly healthy and strong. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this whole ordeal and should just take a step back and let him hopefully discover these foods in his own time. But it sure would give me a whole lot of hope if he'd just eat a noodle!