A win win situation

Feeding A has become an exercise in innovation and entertainment. As such A is not a fussy solid eater, unlike her sister S who used to fuss over every solid meal and had the remarkable ability to vomit out the entire meal after the last spoonful if she felt it was too much. A usually has about half her meal without too much fuss, and when the tummy is no longer hungry decides its more interesting to play or jump out of the bouncer. Earlier with the baby maid and a plethora of toys to distract her, her mealtimes were somewhat easier. But here with limited toys and no one to help distract her I find myself having to innovate at every meal time. Add to this, the fact that A has now outgrown the baby cereal I continue to feed her for some of her meals (really have to vary the food when I get to Bangalore).

Sometimes i can get by with a couple of books . Later I started filling a bag with small colourful packets of coffee/tea/sugar with the hotel has and gave it in A's hand to play with. The next stage after this got too boring was for me to throw these packets in the air, and quickly feed A when she was distracted. Then this became too boring. So it was on to stickers. First she was ok putting stickers on a book. Now S sits next to her and hands her stickers for her to put all over S face!! Really S is very obliging sometimes.

But this morning really takes the cake. A refused to open her mouth despite the range of entertainment on offer. Finally I got a jar of cheeselings and handed it over to A hoping she would be distracted for some time. She made me open it and put in on my hand, and proceeded to take one cheeseling at a time and put it into S mouth. Each time S opened her mouth for the cheeseling, A would also open it and I would quickly get in a spoonful of cereal. Needless to say this was a win win situation for all. Snacks were off limits for S for the last few days because of the tummy bug she had, and she got cheeselings out of this (and a fair amount). A had her quota of entertainment for the day. And I managed to get A fed!!! I need to find a better solution for the feeding quickly, or else most of my day in Zurich will go in feeeding A!