Woes of feeding a fussy eater

If you've been following the feeding section of my blog, you'd know by now that I have an extremely picky eater. Sometimes, I really wish that she were not so fussy then I'd have an easier time (and I can spend more time playing with her instead of feeding her). Very often, I get people telling me that I shouldn't give such 'fanciful' food to Alicia and just feed her fish and spinach porridge for her meals as everybody else does. I get really pissed by comments like these because people just don't understand (and they don't even bother to try to) that I'm feeding a fussy baby and fish and spinach porridge for every meal and every day just doesn't work out at all. And the most irritating thing is that because Alicia's on the smaller side (her weight's been hovering between the 10th-25th percentile since she became mobile), people just think that it must be because of what I'm feeding Alicia: if only I'd listen to them and feed porridge day in and day out instead of fanciful 'rubbish', Alicia would surely grow. I'd just say 'thank you very much for your input, but really, if you know what my daughter is like, you'd know that it isn't as easy as it looks'. Then there are those who say that it's because I've introduced 'fanciful' food to Alicia, she's rejecting simple porridge. Honestly, if Alicia were agreeable to eating simple porridge for every meal, I'd most certainly have given her that. Need I spend so much time every day, racking my brains and planning her meals if things were that simple? It's because she refuses the simple food which other babies have no problems with that I have to come up with so many ideas of what to feed her. These people just can't get things right.

My daughter's not only fussy about food, she's extremely active. How can she possibly put on much weight? But of course, people don't understand. They just think that I'm a bad mummy. And there's the breast milk issue. If it's not the food that I'm feeding that's not causing her to grow, it must be the milk I'm providing. Breastfeeding beyond the first year and even after the first 6 months seems undesirable to most people. When am I ever gonna stop breastfeeding, people would ask in a most irritating manner. Well, my response is always a flat 'as long as Alicia wants to'. If you've read my musings in the breastfeeding section, you'd understand why I really love breastfeeding and why being able to breastfeed is so precious to me. I really don't want to switch or even supplement with formula when I've got no issues with milk supply.

It seems that once I have my baby, everyone has something to say about the way I treat my baby and somehow what I'm doing is always 'wrong' or 'just not desirable'. I'm sure every new mummy (and daddy) knows just how irritating that can be. Maybe next time when someone tells me to feed simple porridge to Alicia instead of the food she eats, I'd tell her to try feeding Alicia herself...