we’d recently saved on, ohhh, about two diapers the past two days.
the first day, the lil one decided he wanted to have a dump in the toilet bowl. i wasn’t around to witness it, so it was a second-hand account by our current help. she’d smelled him, err, gassing, and asked if he’d like to use the potty. he nodded and she helped him onto the toilet bowl, and whaddayaknow… :D
i made a big deal out of it and went “WOW!!! GOOD BOY!!!” so he’d feel the sense of accomplishment of doing the do like the big boy that he is.
and last night, before bed, he’d had a bit of constipation and was a little teary coz it must’ve been discomforting, as he’d not gone the whole day. so the two of us got him to sit on his little potty, remember the blue one?, so it would make the elimination easier.
and just like expert lamaze coaches, we encouraged him to “push, aniq! PUSHHH… erk erkkkk… sikit lagi! dah nampak tuuu… come on! you can do it!”
imagine that, two adults squatting in the bathroom, akin to a labour ward, massaging the little one’s tummy and coaxing the stubborn poo out of him. very dignified, LOL!
he stood up halfway, upset because the poo was obviously stuck between two worlds (!!) and again, the midwives aka izadnhana made him sit down and continued cheering him (and the poo) on.
he gave a final red-faced push and we all, including him, peered down the potty and… what a relief (pun intended)! more rounds of cheers and claps ensued.
as we put him to bed, i told him that THAT was how mummy felt when she pushed him out of her. much, much more painful than that, and with less tears. this was nothing.
he must be thinking mummy pooed him out in a potty.
***
on a different note, i’ve been reading the ‘zero to three’ magazine again, and found some articles really interesting. (sheesh, what happened to girly fun mags like cosmo and cleo, hana?!)
this issue focused on childhood obesity, and some points i noted:
“Unlike adults, young children do not decrease their attention to TV during advertisements. This may make infants, toddlers, and preschoolers especially vulnerable to ads on TV at an age when food preferences and eating habits are forming rapidly. Indeed, watching a 30-second ad only 1 time increases a preschooler’s liking for the advertised product. Young children are bombarded with TV commercials for food: 2- to 5-year-old children see just under 5,500 commercials for food, or 30 hours of food advertising, each year, most of which are for foods high in saturated fat, sugar, and salt.
Many commercials use themes centered around taste, fun, and happiness, with a focus on branding. Branding is a form of marketing that promotes product recognition, which focuses on creating long-term consumers… Children as young as 2 years were able to recognise 8 out of 12 advertised brands, and their liking for recognised brands increased with age. Perhaps not surprisingly, young children will request more advertised food at home and at the grocery store, and parents are likely to comply with these requests.”
i think it’s true – kids are known to LOVE tv ads! even the little one is not spared, often stopping to intently watch the commercials, especially where kids are shown. one time i gave him a cup of jelly and he associated it with that ad where the kids sing “give me one, give me one, give me one more!”, and proceeded to sing along to it – “one more! one more!”
and whenever the honey stars or coco crunch cereal ad comes on, he’d get all excited and point, “NAK!”
of course, it’s cute that they have the ability to imitate, but hmm… there may be some subliminal ‘brainwashing’ thing going on coz then they instantly want all those things on tv instead of boring ol wheat crackers or vegetables. which of course leads to higher chances of obesity, or poor eating habits. :S
another article on eating and emotions in obese toddlers brought this to my attention:
“In addition to the negotiation of autonomy during feeding, infants also must learn to differentiate between internal sensations related to eating (hunger vs fullness) and emotional experiences (wish for affection, feelings of anger or frustration). It is, therefore, of utmost umportance that caregivers recognise the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond accordingly. For example, parents should offer food when the infant signals hunger and should not offer food when the infant is upset and needs affection or calming. Likewise, parents should end the meal when the infant is satiated and should not insist that the infant keep eating until the plate is empty.
If the parents consistently differentiate the infant’s hunger and satiety cues and respond appropriately, they will support the infant’s internal regulation of eating. The children will become attuned to internal sensations of hunger and fullness and will be able to tell the difference between these sensations and other internal sensations such as anger, sadness, and pleasure… However, if parents respond to their infant’s emotional needs by feeding the infant, the infant will confuse hunger with emotional experiences and will learn to eat when sad, lonely, frustrated, or angry.
Parents may also further blur the line between the child’s hunger sensations and emotions by trying to soothe the children through feeding them – that is, by using special foods (eg. sweets) as rewards or to express their love and nurturance.”
i think this probably explains why we have ‘comfort foods’ as adults, mostly in the form of ‘junk’ food, like ice cream and chips and chocolates! feeling depressed? let’s reach for that tub of ben & jerry’s…
i’m aware all along of how i shouldn’t force him to finish up his food if he didn’t feel like it. i always tell the helper to just stop giving him any more porridge if he doesn’t want anymore. sometimes i fall into the trap of ‘sayang makanan’ and try to coax one more scoop into his mouth, even though he’d shown signs of having enough. we always think it’s not enough! and sometimes i end up regretting, coz occasionally he’d throw up, and there goes all the food, much more of a waste. so i think there’s something to be said about kids and their “internal regulation of food”.
the article continues to say that restricting appealing foods focuses children’s attention on the restricted foods and increases their desire to obtain and consume those foods. of course, there has to be limitations! so i guess those “poks” and other bad stuff i give him occasionally are justified. (haha, making myself feel better here.)
food for thought?
mummy says this is “pok” coz it’s crunchy…
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