Z is already 2 years and 9 months old. How time flies, indeed. While he still doesn’t eat on his own, he has a very good appetite. He could finish a bowl of pasta on his own, he consumes about a cup of rice every meal, he doesn’t know how to eat junk food, and he doesn’t eat sweets. He even doesn’t like pizza! LOL!
He still doesn’t like to eat by himself so I or his nanny has to feed him. But he knows how to use his spoon, only he would rather play with it rather than eat with it. There was actually a time, just last month, when he held the fork, scooped a portion of pasta from his plate and brought his food to his mouth successfully without spilling it. He was able to do this a few times, too. So I guess, we just have to keep up to it and let him try to feed himself every now and then until he gets it. 🙂
His Developmental Pedia and I agree on his food consumption. No cakes and pastries, no sweets, no coldcuts, junkfoods, etc. Z eats meat, fish and vegetables. He even likes bitter gourd which is really surprising since I don’t know a lot of kids who likes the taste of it. He eats banana as his afternoon snack, too. For drinks, he only drinks water and milk. We tried giving him fresh orange juice but he didn’t like it. He also doesn’t drink sodas and artificial juice drinks. Unfortunately, he likes coffee, too. LOL!
His milk consumption has significantly been reduced as well. He only drinks milk before his afternoon nap, before he sleeps at night and one more bottle at midnight.
I am actually trying to wean him out from bottle feeding already. As advised by his doctor, he needs to stop bottle feeding so his mouth would form correctly to make it easier for him to speak. It has been a real challenge but slowly, I think we are getting there.
It took months to teach Z how to drink from his training cup and for him to get used to it. Now, he drinks water from it like a pro. I also switched a couple of his bottles from teats to spouts. He uses it, along with another sippy cup, for his milk intake in the afternoon and evening. At midnight though, I still use bottles with teats – just to be on the safe side.
I’m still working on weaning him out from midnight milk but given the heat here in the big metro (it is still warm even if it rains), I have to keep him hydrated so that might take some time. Hopefully though, I would be able to switch him to using spouts at midnight. Is it recommendable? Not sure about that.
I think we are on the right track since the little boy is now learning how to drink from a water bottle and sometimes, he likes taking off the cover of his sippy cup and training cup to drink directly from it. Maybe he will be drinking from cups and bottles by the time he turns 3, and that’s not too far away. 🙂
With all these switches made to how he drinks, I am seeing quite an improvement to his speech. He’s still non-verbal, but he can say a lot more syllables now compared before. Z’s starting “e” sounding syllables as well as “o” sounding syllables. He starting to have intonations as well when he babbles.
Z is scheduled for another consultation with his Developmental Pedia two weeks from now. I think we have some good news to share with the good doctor and I think we will be able to get a few tips as well. 🙂
