Saturday, October 20, 2007

Lesson Learned

When Wyatt was a baby I can safely say that not a person that held him didn't also get spit-up on. And by 'spit-up' I mean SOAKED. It got to the the point where if anyone asked to hold him I would first lay a burp rag over their shoulder. I still remember vividly our feeding routine. After one side came the burping where I would prop him up with at least two burp rags up by his chin prepared for the hose spray spit-up I had become accustomed to. He has always been a real puker. He still hasn't grown out of it and I'm not sure he ever will. Craig affectionately calls Wyatt and I the "gaggers" of the family.....we hurl quite easily.

This poses a problem when your 6 month old is now 4 1 /2 and has trouble eating his dinner. I make his portions very small so I expect him to eat most of what I dish up. He's my skinniest kid, too, so that makes it even more important to me that he "clean his plate"! That said, there have been several times around the dinner table when Wyatt is encouraged to eat "4 more bites". There have also been a few times I have paid the price in vomit for encouraging those bites. Last night was no exception. I needed him to eat a little more of his dinner in order to justify giving him a rice krispie treat for dessert. I asked him, "how many more bites do you think you should take?" He replied "nine". Wow, nine, that's great, I was thinking four, but nine it was and he was off. By about bite 7, I think, I turned to catch him starting to heave. I immediately pulled his plate in front of him and instructed him to puke on that. He did, and thankfully not much.........but then a few second later the floodgates opened and it ALL came up. So now I have white chicken chili, peaches and raspberries overflowing off his plate and dripping off the edge of the table, and the boy I am so intent on filling is left with a completely empty tummy.

Yep, I think I can now safely say that it really isn't worth making him finish his dinner. I was the one to clean it up, gagging all the way. I guess I'll just choke it up to another mommy expectation down the drain (no pun intended). I finally learned my lesson.

By the way the white chicken chili was very good, but I doubt any of you want the recipe now :)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Heh Lin, good job on your template!! Don't you hate that it took away all your links...I want to change to a "fall" template but don't dare because I don't want to start over again with all my sidebar. I need my techie husband to figure it out for me :-)! Oh, and I laughed at your Wyatt story (and cringed with you). Yes, no more extra bites for Wyatt!

Anonymous said...

Ok, now I'm laughing because I keep checking back on your blog just to see the minute by minute changes you're making :-). The white one is much easier to read. It looks great!

Kristen said...

Hi there...I love your new template too! Very nice!
Even though I am a nurse, I am so not good with vomit. I did laugh at your story though because I remember throwing up what seemed like a mountain of cooked carrots when I was little...right back onto my plate, after my parents had similarly asked me to clean my plate. Although, strangely, this did not deter them from making us clean our plates. We just got smarter and started hiding unwanted food in our napkins, then throwing it over the fence into the neighbors yard. I still don't think they know we did that :)

Lindsay said...

Thanks! I wasn't sure when you checked it the first time. I started with this one, then changed to the pinkish one, then decided I liked this one better.

I've added my links, I saved them so it wasn't too bad. I want to put up new pics on the side, too. Much easier now that we have high speed. We just got it and I can't believe I blogged for almost two years without it. Scary. :)

Kristen said...

LOL, welcome to the world of high speed, isn't it grand!! Sure does make a difference!!

Happy fast blogging!

Tami said...

Lindsay,

We just got high speed a couple weeks ago, too! It is such a difference--especially a help when uploading images!

Anyway, I DO want your recipe! I remember both my oldest two doing something similar when we forced them to eat--I don't even bother with Catherine yet. She is much too stubborn--you've gotta pick your battles, you know!

Aly sun said...

Cleaning up vomit bonds us as mothers. There is little that is worse than that!
My worst experience was when Emma puked on the way to the grave-side service at Jeff's grandma's funeral. We had a car full of people and we all gagged all the way there. I raced home to clean her up, missed the service, and had a smelly, and sick baby to deal with the rest of the day.
This is why, some day, our children will arise and call us blessed!