The Girl Who Never Ate Anything

According to “A Christmas Story,” every family has a kid who won’t eat. In our family, that’s Abigail Grace. The hours of my life I have spent trying to get that child to eat. I did everything right. When I was pregnant I read all the articles and books. (That was back when I was an idiot) I ate a variety of foods so that even in the womb she would learn to like a variety of flavors and foods as these articles and books assured me it would. When she was a baby I made all her food. Again exposing her to a variety of foods and flavors: Squash and sweet potatoes with brown rice, turkey with cranberries and apples and so on. Store bought food never touched her little lips. I even made homemade teething biscuits. I only had one kid, ok? I had a lot of spare time. (well, I still did all that for Madi but my house wasn’t as clean)

As a toddler I started involving her in the cooking process. You know how experts always say kids are more likely to eat their dinner if they helped prepare it. I bought cookie cutters and cut her food into fun shapes. I mixed food coloring in her yogurt. And yet, here we are, three years later and the girl wouldn’t finish a plate of food for a free trip to the North Pole. The moral of this story is that books and articles and experts are generally full of it. If you have been a parent longer than a year you already know this. I digress…. We’ve tried all the tricks. “Take 3 more bites and you can be done.” “Eat half of each thing on your plate and you can be done.” “Take a bite of broccoli and then you can have a bite of pears.” “Take a bite and I’ll tell you something fun we’re going to do tomorrow.” “Take another bite and I’ll tell you who is going with us.” “Close your eyes and open your mouth, I have a surprise for you (then shove in something she doesn’t like).” “Take a bite right now or you’re sitting in time out.” “You can get up but you’ll have to finish your plate later before you can have any snacks.” “You’ll just have to sit here by yourself until you take 3 more bites.” “Hurry, take a bite, Santa’s looking in the window!” “If you don’t eat some more you won’t have any energy to play later.” “Take a bit and then show me your muscles, and I’ll see if you grew any.” “I’m setting the timer and if you haven’t finished before it goes off you don’t get a treat/dessert.” “You know what animal likes carrots? Rabbits! Can you take a bite like a rabbit!?”

We always try to eat dinner as a family. But it seems like every night we all leave the table feeling frustrated and defeated. Not closer and more connected. I refuse to feed her junk, even though I’m sure she would eat it better. We never make her clean her plate. Just take at least a few bites of everything. I worry about her not getting enough. The pediatrician says as long as she’s eating a variety of proteins, veggies and fruits she’s fine. But she barely weighs 30lbs and is in the 20^th percentile for her height and weight.

And then there’s Madelyn. Who I caught literally eating out of the trash can yesterday.



you would think she was being tortured. nope. just being asked to eat a delicious, well-balanced meal.