ThaiBankie

For a long time now we have been having problems with Megan vomiting during eating, after eating, going to bed, when she was upset.  It has been happening for the last couple of years and as a result her teeth are pretty much ruined.  At first I thought that it was because we were feeding her too much but it seems that it is a bit more complicated than that.

We had a bit of a breakthrough while my mum was here, I don’t know if it was a fresh pair of eyes watching at how she behaves and what triggers the vomiting but it became quite apparent that she is making herself sick and it is because she ether does not want to eat her food or after she has been crying because she was upset about something.

I had a theory a year or so ago that she was doing it on purpose but I thought about how a kid that is only two years old be so aware and controlling of her parents.  It is easy to fall back into the way of just worrying that she is not getting enough food if she is being sick.

We have been trying to put her under less stress when eating and have told her that she is the boss of her own food, if she doesn’t want it, that is OK but she doesn’t get any snacks as a replacement.  Before, when we were putting her under pressure to finish her dinner she would start coughing for no reason other than to make herself sick.  It looks like she was doing this to try to divert attention away from making her try to eat. 

Our realisation came after we had been out for food when Mum and June were here and I noticed that she would not eat the fried rice in the place that we were in.  A few weeks previous we had been to the same place and Megan was eating the fried rice but complained that there was too much pepper in it.  I think that this has stuck in her mind and when we went back to the same place and ordered the same food for her she put her escape plan into action.  She started coughing and kept going until she finally made herself sick.  She had a bit of a fever the previous day so at first we thought that maybe she was still a bit sick and she was vomiting because of whatever she had.  When Mum mentioned that it might not be that it all started to fall into place and it was clear to see that it was her way to tell us that she was not happy with what we had given her. 

We are trying to be less strict on her eating but have added some rules to still maintain some control over the situation.  Hopefully we have figured it out in time and she now start to normalise her eating behaviour in the future.  I just hope we didn’t take too long to figure it all out and that she will end with a good healthy appetite.  Sorry Meg.