Fiona was potty trained shortly after she turned 2, but continued to wear Pull-Ups at night. Most of the advice I'd read said that kids will pretty much let you know when they're ready to be night-time potty trained, and that you should wait until there's been about a month of dry diapers in the morning before you stop using them. So we kept putting Fiona in (expensive!) Pull-Ups, waiting for her to stop peeing in them. A year came and went, and another 6 months on top of that. Finally one night I decided I was done with it, and I just didn't put a diaper on her. Well, of course she wet the bed, and we were up at 3 am changing the sheets and her nightgown. The next night, I was ready to go back to the Pull-Up, not wanting another 3 am wake up call, but Fiona refused to wear it. And of course, she wet the bed again. But the third night? No bed wetting! And the night after that, and the night after that! Since then, she's only had 2-3 accidents over the past few months. Looking back, I realize that she was ready to be night-time potty trained ages ago, but she kept peeing in the diapers because I kept putting them on her...and that's what they're for! If only I'd realized!One of the most frustrating things raising Fiona is how incredibly picky she is. The kid won't eat anything. I swear, she's subsisted on cheese-crisps, PB&J, cucumbers, and grapes. I've read books and articles and message boards and blogs, hoping for some answer to the picky eating, but everything pretty much points to "It's a phase". One of the things my mom said to me multiple times was, "Stop giving her so many choices." Every time I prepared meals, I would ask Fiona what she wanted to eat. I'd give her tons of options, but I didn't make her stick with any of them. If she didn't like the choices, I'd make her whatever she wanted. My thinking was, "She's so picky, I've got to get her to eat something!" We tried bribing her with dessert, but she's picky about desserts too. We tried the whole 'you're not leaving this table until you've eaten' trick, which just led to tears and stress. Finally, I read online a solution that made sense to me. You serve your picky eater the same thing everyone else is eating, and don't make a big deal about it. Don't force them to eat it, and don't draw attention to the fact that you've served them something new. Don't bargain and try to get them to just try one bite or anything like that. If they won't eat it, don't get upset, just make them a PB&J sandwich. Every meal. The idea is that eventually they'll get sick of eating the same sandwich over and over, and will try bits of food here and there. I discussed the idea with my mom and she thought it sounded good, just suggested that I make the PB&J as healthy as possible with whole wheat bread and natural peanut butter and my own homemade strawberry jam.
Last night I put the plan into effect. I served Fiona a bowl of pork and veggie stir fry and brown rice, with no expectations of her actually eating it. I fully planned on having to make her a sandwich instead. She sat down at the table and looked in the bowl and promptly threw a fit. "THAT'S NOT WHAT I WANTED!!" *sob sob sob* I didn't react, just told her that we were having stir fry for dinner, and sat down to eat. She got up from the table crying and ran into her room. I didn't chase after her or demand that she come back. Two minutes later, she came sniffling out of her room and sat down at the table and started to eat her stir fry! John and I looked at her and then at each other incredulously. What? Seriously? After all the picky eating, she just plops down and eats a bowl of stir fry? Before last night, she wouldn't eat meat, she wouldn't eat rice, and she wouldn't eat a single veggie that was in that stir fry. I was shocked. I tried again tonight, and served her some sauteed chicken, brown rice, and corn. She didn't even object tonight! She just sat down and started eating with us! I'm flabbergasted. And again, looking back on this, of course my mom was right. I was giving her too many choices and letting her get away with eating whatever she wanted, because that was easiest. She probably would have gotten over her picky eating forever ago, or never even started with the picky eating, if I'd done this from the start!If only I realized!
Oh well, we'll get it right with the next kid. ;)
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