I've Lost Touch With Reality

It looks like Naomi might be in a good position to try to wean from her feeding tube.  She no longer vomits.  Words cannot express how happy that makes me.  Until you have cleaned vomit from clothing, bedding, furniture, carpet, hardwood, pavement and people daily for a prolonged period of time you cannot understand how blessed mommies of persistent vomiters feel when they get a few emesis free days.  She is growing, very slowly, but growing.  Her celiac is under control and we are confident in the gluten free diet.  She no longer has huge speech delays and is very interested in other children and what they are doing and we finally have a date for her tonsils to come out the end of April so unless the bronchoscopy shows aspiration damage we are planning to start being more aggressive with her oral eating in May.

Here's my big problem though.  I have no idea what "normal" is for a preschooler's eating habits.  Although Naomi is fourth in our line-up of children it has been several years since Sam and Beth were little and Elijah isn't a good model to hold Naomi up against.  Elijah loves to eat.  He recently asked me how much more pounds he would need to be as big as daddy.  I told him he'd need at least 150 more.  He smiled and replied "Oh good that means I have to eat lots and lots."  I sincerely doubt Naomi will ever eat as much as Elijah.  So far today Naomi ate one container stage 2 baby food pear-pineapple with colored sugar sprinkles mixed in.  I know it is baby food and she is three.  It is what she wants, it has some nutritional value so I give it to her.  Honestly if she asked for a bowl of sugar, I'd give it to her, I would just try to hide it from her siblings.  She also ate about five pistachios.  While I was doing laundry Naomi and Mary dumped a Costco container of Parmesan cheese on the kitchen floor.  I came into the kitchen to find Mary and Naomi in all their cheesy splendor licking the cheese off their fingers and the floor.  I was not happy about the mess, but secretly I was happy Naomi was eating.  Licking it off the floor is a bit unconventional and will probably be a problem when she starts school, I don't see the school working with me on that as part of her 504 plan, but she was eating and a calorie dense food to boot.  For lunch she requested "gluten-free Nomi oatmeal with chocolate chips" so as I'm sure you guessed that's what she got.  She expertly mined all the chocolate chips out so I gave her a second serving of chocolate chips, they were organic, but she was done.  She's had a few sips of water today too, she isn't interested in juice or milk at all today.  Later this afternoon she may eat a cracker or two or dip some carrots in ranch dressing but it will only amount to a few bites and dinner is feast or famine with her.  If she is in a good mood she will often eat 1-2 ounces of meat and maybe a bite of something else, if she is in a bad mood, she will push the food around her plate, dump it on the floor or completely refuse to come to the table. 

Somehow I don't think this is normal, but maybe some of it is.  What does a normal three year old eat?  What should I be shooting for?  This is where I need your help.  I'd love to hear what your child does or did eat at three.  Please leave a comment, send me an email or Facebook me.  When I can recall what normal is I might have an idea of how far it is we have to go.  Right now it looks like there is a huge ravine between us and being tube free and there is a rickety bridge that crosses it but unfortunately it is missing most of the slats that would support our feet.  It's pretty scary trying to cross on just the ropes, we get tangled up, swing wildly out of control and spend so much time in fear of falling off.  If only I could get a few of those slats replaced....

My not so typical three year old.