Blueberries and Pears

We have never really picked the "food" battle with Areyna. I know I'm a light eater and when I'm hungry I'll eat, and she is the same way. I do think she misses a lot of the nutrients she needs from foods so we give her Flinstones vitamins to make up for it, but our rule usually is; try one bite and if you don't like it you don't have to eat it, but if you get hungry later on the food that is left over on your plate will be your snack. I hardly ever give her snacks throughout the day since she has such a little appetite (Zeke on the other hand will eat a full, 3 course meal after eating a whole bag of pretzels so he has another standard). Anyway, yesterday we battled over 3 blueberries and today it took her about an hour and a half to get one bite of pear down. I mean really, it's not like a pear is hard to swallow like hamburger or steak. Today was especially dramatic. She kept lying to me saying that she had swallowed the bite and would then refuse to believe that the pear was the white stuff floating around in her mouth when she'd try to prove her point. It was nearing nap time when she finally called out that she had finally obeyed mommy so I went to cheer her on and give her a hug when I realized she had spit the mouthful out on her skirt. She simply said "I am sick, I can't eat anymore". Hmmm, she's trying to manipulate the system already. I am truly learning that you just cannot force kids to eat anything, BUT I am still pretty hard headed about our rule, so the one-bite rule will continue to dominate our household. Areyna may be spending a lot more time sitting at the table by herself if she can't get this swallowing thing down=)