breaking all the rules...

Count how many "rules" I break in the following narrative of our day. See if we agree at the end...

When I talk to families struggling with feeding, I stress the importance of structure. It is important to offer fat/protein/carb at every meal and snack, roughly every 2-4 hours. Most days I practice what I preach and things go pretty smoothly. Sunday was another matter and an example of how challenging it can be. In an effort to not go crazy indoors, we have been visiting the Oxford pool as M is really into swimming now. (After months of intense fear of getting her head wet.)

Anway. We enjoyed pancakes for breakfast (mostly carbs) with about 1/4 cup of high protein Greek yogurt. I had some business calls (which is rare on a Sunday) and spouse had to work- which is less rare. So, M watched TV with some cut up apples and a big bowl of popcorn which she nibbled from about 10:15-11:30. At this point I was starving so we had lunch around noon. M of course wasn't hungry having grazed all morning, so she had a cucumber with Ranch. (I had whole wheat bread, ham and cheese sandwich, cucumbers, clementines and milk.) Then we went to the pool. By 1:30 she was asking for food. I had packed clementines, a banana and a small rice Krispie treat. (The snack bar there serves popcorn, nachos, ice-cream and cookies...) She ate the Rice Krispie treat, half a clementine and then was dying to get back in the water. By 3:15 she was crying that she was hungry, which considering that she had had a mini cucumber and rice krispie treat in the last 4 hours was understandable. (For those of you who have heard me talk or read Child of Mine, imagine what her little blood sugar charting would have looked like. Probably crashing right around then.)

So we got home, she had some TLC crackers, cream cheese and a clementine. Then rushed off to church where they gave her a snack of raisins at 4:45, then home for dinner which was cut up veggies and dip, a salsa-based stew which turned out to be really spicy so we gave her left over mac -n-cheese (we had no fresh bread available.)

We ended up with a really haphazard day which felt off and chaotic. She didn't have time to sit and tune in to hunger (TV, the draw of the pool, rushing to church, then a snack on a snack.) Then I broke the cardinal rule and let her eat separate food (short order cook.)

So, we all have crazy days, and break the rules– but I'm not worried. It was an aberration, it wasn't alot of fun. It will happen again, but not too often I hope! Nobody is perfect, nobody has to be perfect. Do the best you can, be honest if you think you can do better, and realize that part of eating normally is "breaking the rules" sometimes.

What days like this in fact do is remind me of how much better our days are when we sit down to eat without distraction, take our time and have balanced offerings. It's a great motivator to keep up all that work.

"mistake" count: TV, rushing, did not offer protein with snack, short-order cooked, let her decide when to eat (though this was a byproduct of our off-schedule morning grazings)

6 and counting probably...