The Hunger Games - Mocking Baby

Of all the tasks that me and my wife have undertaken as parents, the one that has given us most satisfaction and fear is that of feeding the kid! The stories we've woven and role plays we've had to perform to keep ourselves in these hunger games has been quite an experience!

I think one of the reasons why kids (at least some of them) are allergic to eating on time without any tantrums is because a) they are kids and b) karma is a bitch... I was told I was a fussy eater as a kid and now it has come to bite me.. bohot hard.. bohot hard!

We've had many a pressure test in our kitchen with the end result sometimes being scorned disdainfully by baby Gordon Ramsey, our son! My wife and I have often faced off against fictitious competitors called "Whats in his head?" "What does he want now?" "Why won't he eat this?" and "He ate this last time whats wrong now?" in our master-chef kitchen to get that immunity pin - "Kid eating without a fuss". We have lost 697 out of the 700 odd battles.

So is there a secret solution to this? Screen time is a temporary fix. After initially helping few YouTube channels raise their IPOs through multiple views, we thought it is better if he knows what's on his plate and is aware of what's happening around him. See.. every child for that matter is different. Some actually do eat without any fuss, some eat after a bit of cajoling, and some eat their favorite food with gusto. After much deliberation we came up with this master stroke of keeping him hungry for more time than usual so that he devours the food without much effort from our end. And.. bingo... it didn't work!

What we did however realize is that this phase is usually sporadic and there are ways to address it (lol). I want to share some of the things that we've done to make him eat (most of the times we have had great fun!). Please don't try these alone at home - Dual responsibility recommended

• Using his cars, trucks to transport food to him on the dining table
• Play Swiggy, Zomato where he pays you for every bite delivered through a fake card/cash
• Making food in the shape of objects he likes
• Who eats first on the table (not recommended.. has very low strike rate)
• Actual peer pressure through other kids in the house who probably are not fussy eaters
• Fictitious peer pressure by telling them their friends in school eat without a fuss.. you get the drift...
• Introducing new cutlery or sharing the same cutlery that you use (Which sometimes means he is trying to eat with a spoon the size of his hand)
• Involving him in making food so that he eats it (again very little strike rate plus collateral damage in the kitchen!)
• Counting down the number of servings (Sometimes it may however not help if you say... baby see only 28 bites remaining.. Usually works with small portions)
• Threatening a visit to the doctor (Our guy has become pally with our pediatrician, so this is not working now) 

There are many others which we made up at the spur of the moment and I cant recollect them now... but see if these work for you as well. If you are one of those lucky ones whose kid is not a fussy eater.. I hate you. Get lost. (God bless the kid though!)

Happy eating/serving!

One of the rare successes in the kitchen battles - "CarDosa"