Our little one has always been a pretty good eater so far. He happily eats most of the things that I like, but also loves rancid, manky things, like cucumbers, tomatoes and bananas! My mum always tells me that I wasn’t a fussy eater until I was much older and would happily devour anything healthy that was put down in front of me, so for now we’re just grateful that he enjoys some things that are actually good for him whilst it lasts!
The only things he appears to despise so far are chips and salad leaves. With the salad leaves his aversion is so great that he will pick each tiny piece of leaf from his plate before he will eat whatever else is on there! But given everything else he gobbles down we don’t mind compromising on salad leaves even if their painstaking removal is a touch frustrating!
So, you may think, our little one sounds like a perfect little eater. And generally you’d be right. Apart from the toddler SNACKS!!! My word, the SNACKS!!
As soon as he comes downstairs in the morning he’s asking for breakfast. Two Weetabix later he’s still hungry. As I bring in my bowl of very adult and manly, not at all childish Coco Rocks, he’s at me like a starving sparrow.
‘Joshy eat Daddy ball balls’
So he’s there eating one ball at a time as I’m necking the rest like it’s going out of fashion, making sure he doesn’t get his hands on my chocolate-filled rocks. No one touches my chocolate-filled rocks. Grown-up breakfast cereal complete, he’s then asking for a ‘nana’ or ‘banananana’, whichever he chooses to call it that day.
The banana lasts all of 5 seconds. I don’t know if he swallows it whole or whether he is the human equivalent of a chipmunk, but one blink and it’s gone.
‘Daddy, nana in Joshy tummy’
Yes son, yes it is.
‘Joshy have it one more nana’
No chance.
‘Peas Daddy. Joshy need one more nana’
No one NEEDS two bananas. He then asks for a fruit pouch. Or an oat bar. Or cheese. Or a biscuit. Or any other toddler snacks he sets his eyes upon. Ad infinitum until I either crack under the pressure and give him something or he gets distracted by something more pressing. Like Blaze. Or Ryder. If we get to 10am without him having exploded through excessive food consumption or had a snack-denial-related tantrum it’s been a good morning!
So where does this constant requirement for snacks come from? Maybe it’s a year long growth spurt? Perhaps he is about to morph into a giant? Maybe he sees me constantly creeping to the fridge to eat junk and wants to get in on the action? Maybe he likes the ambience of the kitchen environment?
Or perhaps he’s just a greedy little bugger and is trying to build a physique like his dad! But for now it looks as though toddler snacks will be a big part of our lives for some time ahead…