Thursday, February 18, 2010

the single food diet

Lately Nate has been on a one food at a time diet. It has been great fun. His first love was meat. Meat of every flavor, cut, cooking technique, as long as it was meat. So imagine my surprise when I put a plate of pulled pork in front of my carnivorous son just to see him chuck it over the side of the high chair. Over the next few days, subsequent meals met the same fate......^let's have a moment of silence for those brave chicken tenders, pieces of roast, ham, pulled pork and hamburger.....Nate had moved on to the all fruit diet. For about a week he lived on bananas and grapes. His average was 3 bananas/day. His record was 12. It was probably good for his potassium levels, but I worried about the balance of his diet. So, each meal I spent 10-15 minutes trying to coax him into eating something else before giving in. In a moment of desperation, running errands with a hungry boy and nary a banana in sight, I pulled into the drivethru. I ordered the 10 piece chicken nugget meal, and it changed my life. Not only did I get the sweet, refreshing Dr. Pepper (a balm to my frazzled nerves), but Nate ate and LOVED the nuggets. He ate one and asked for another!--actually he yelled "MoM" and pointed toward the bag, demanding "that". With minimal effort on my part, the 10 golden, peace-bringing, ambrosial nuggets were gone. Nathan had left his beloved bananas for the new intrigue of McDonalds. And now, the peace-bringing ambrosia nuggets have turned on me. No longer are they a beacon of hope. They have simply filled the honored spot bananas once held. And, instead of making a trip to the grocery store twice a week for a couple bunches of bananas, filled with nutrients and potassium, I find myself in the accursed drivethru once, twice, sometimes 3 times a day.