Eating

Eating...now this is something that logically follows mantras and guilt. But if you have a child, and that child or infant at the time will not eat, it is a bit unnerving. Peter could sleep for hours on end, so needed to be woken to be fed. Once awake, he would have preferred to sleep, so all those little tricks, letting his feet get cold, tickling his feet, just did not work. When breast feeding did not work we tried all the formulas known to mankind and he still did not want to eat. You would think feeding should be natural, after all who doesn't want to eat. My older two children, couldn't eat enough and now here was there brother who had absolutely no interest in food. So, we plodded along, and Peter's weight fell off the growth charts. That's how he ended up at the children's hospital. Everyone scratched their head, but he just ate the minimal amount. To this day, Peter only eats until he gets full (sort wish I had that gift) and stands only 5'3" and weighs 112 pounds. The good is he still wears children's clothing and I can still order the Land's Ends pants with elastic as he is not into buttoning which he recently demonstrated at his cousin's wedding when he became hot during the ceremony and decided to do some Herculean thing by ripping off his dress shirt only to reveal the t-shirt he had put on which said "This is not my costume".. Who dressed him for the wedding anyway?
So, back to eating...by the time Peter could chew, we had discovered McDonald Fries. Many days were spent around the city while Peter ate a bag of Fries. He ate, I drove. He gained some weight...everyone was happy. Life was good!
Until recently, Peter's diet consisted of about five items: pancakes, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, French Fries, Peanut butter sandwiches. It was the "no thought' diet when it came to feeding Peter. About one month while eating with his sister and me, I placed his usual fare in front of him and we ate our chili. Peter told us that he ate chili. We looked at him and said "No way" , he proved it, we called the neighbors and anyone else interested as this was a very big event at our house. That is one of Peter's gifts, the little things that make you get all excited and want to celebrate. Who would have thought...chili!