Diet Crash

Been ruminating about the ups-and-downs of toddler feeding habits this week - which, by the looks of it, is a common issue - even for kids (like ours) who were previously prolific eaters.

It's as if someone flipped a switch in the last week or so -- "ingest" has now been reset to "reject" as Marianne spends meal times either spitting or picking out pretty much anything that enters her mouth, even if she had been greedily grabbing at it from our dinner plates (a habit that my in-laws love to indulge) seconds before.

Some pediatricians blame bottle feeding for the finicky eating -- the idea is that if you do away with the formula, the baby will regain an appetite for solid foods. This theory sounds all well and good, but it hardly seems practical knowing our baby's temperament (judging from the online threads, most parents in similar situations seem to agree).

The most likely explanation to me is yet another round of growing teeth, to which Marianne has definitely had reactions before ranging from the usual drooling to constantly scratching behind her ears and even coming down with a low-grade fever.

Whatever the case may be, it's got everyone at home all worked up yet again. Perhaps the best solution is simply a chill pill for the adults...