Eat Dessert First

I have a sweet tooth.  I admit it, and I don’t shy away from it.  And since I’ve been pregnant and nursing, the onslaught of extra calories is the only way I’ve survived.

The sweet tooth is, I’m convinced, a hereditary thing, one passed down to me from my grandpa (thanks, Grandpa…  I think…). 

Unfortunately (fortunately???), I think Piper has inherited it, too.

And it’s obviously something that’s innate, because Piper’s too young for it to be habituated (that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it). 

Piper has only gotten fruits and vegetables (with the exception of bread a few times and whipped cream a couple times, although she was young enough to not actually eat any at the time).  Miss Becky said to try some soft meltable baby foods and see how she does with them.  I tried cookies.

They’re a hit.

They’re disgusting, but they’re a hit.

The gluey paste they create is awful, but oh so worth the pure joy glowing in Piper’s eyes.

So here’s the scoop—Piper usually gets to eat her dinner at night with us at the table.  She has her own special chair, and sits next to us to eat.  A few times now, I have offered her spoonfuls of food, but she got really grumpy and downright refused.  I got fed (no pun intended) up with it, and handed her half a cookie to occupy her until I was done eating.  Of course it satiated her, and she was happy as a lark (again, no doubt that this is my child…).  Since she was happy again, I tried feeding her her real dinner.  She took it like a champ, and finished all of it. 

Some kids with Ds have special oral stimulators that they use before they eat their meals.  I wonder if that’s not what Piper’s doing with the crunchy cookies.  If it’s getting her palate ready for more work?

…either that, or I should win some kind of prize for proving that eating dessert first is, truly, an intrinsic desire bred deeply into our genome.

I’ll go for the latter.

Because of the overwhelming sense of ickiness when Piper eats, I have no pictures pertaining to this post.  A picture of her “eating” her pacifier will have to suffice.