Confession #3

I really dislike feeding time. Whether its chicken tenders cut up into micro sized bites that subsequently get stuffed into the mouth of a toddler at an alarming rate or heated up squash and oatmeal that smells like its been in the fridge a few too many days only to check the expiration date and find that its still months away. That is, in fact, how it is supposed to smell.

I keep a baby girl that just turned 6 months. She is trying out a pediatrician's definition of solid food (my definition is smelly mashed up disgustingness) So we went through oatmeal/cereal which is not so bad.. (she prefers the round purple spoon says the mom.. does she really care? I doubt it.) Now its the veggies and everything could not have gotten more complicated. Its heat up a bottle and put half in a sippy cup and heat up some squash (gag) for 12 seconds and give it to her alternating bites and sippy cup then give her some formula and then heat up some oatmeal for 16 seconds and do the same thing now put the contents of the cup back into the bottle and heat it back up and give it to her. Ok the kid is screaming through the whole thing because um.. newsflash she's hungry so it's very stressful. And quite frankly I find all the steps mundane and redundant.

I am sure that the whole process of helping a child learn how to eat and embrace the differences in tastes and textures I imagine is supposed to be rewarding and even enriching. Meanwhile I find the experience to be one of the most stressful situations in my life second to working a car wreck with entrapment next to a busy highway in the middle of the night (that my friend is where the phrase stressed out was coined) Overall I think this is a huge hassle.

Feeding time used to be one of my favorites because baby was happy and so was I. At this point, to my dismay, I have now come to dread it.