Meal Schedule Out, Grazing In.

For the past few weeks Amar'e has been abandoning her eating routine we had nicely in place for her. She use to eat three meals and one snack a day; breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner. This was working out perfectly for her, and us. She never seemed to be hungry in between her meals, she was always completely satisfied. It seems that over night she turned into an uncontrollable grazer. I know that some kids are just grazers, without any regard to set meal times. Its getting so bad that we had to lock the snack draw because she was reaching into it and helping herself to a snack whenever she wanted. (not that we have many snacks that are bad. We have snacks like Veggie straws, various types of nuts, Wasa crisp) Not good, because there are chocking hazards in there.  There are no more mealtimes with her. I'll get home from work at noon and fix her a lunch, which she proceeds to take 5 bites of and feed the rest to the dogs. Then 30 minutes later, she running into the kitchen and signing and saying to me "more". These are meals that she once devoured in minutes in the past. I thought for sure it was her teething throwing off her body's rhythm, but I am unsure on how to pinpoint that for sure. We have increased her meal sizes just in case she was in need of a bigger meal due to a growth spurt and that doesn't seem to help. I don't mind the grazing as much as I mind not being able to keep track of what she is taking in for daily nutrition. We are doing our best to get her back to her eating schedule. We keep offering meals at certain times during the day, but if she asks for something in between meals, she usually gets it. Andrew and I try to follow her lead for the most part, while setting limits when needed. Some days it looks like we are succeeding, and other days we are definitely losing. Wish us luck!

It is hard to say no to this face!  

♥