Food challenge

The latest development in life with Lily is that we have a stand-off at nearly every mealtime. Unfortunately, I have really started to dread these times of the day. Usually it unfolds in the following way:

• Lily indicates that she wants to eat by saying "eat" while doing the sign for "eat".
• We proceed to the kitchen where she either goes to the refrigerator so that I will open it, or points to the cabinet so that I will lift her up and she is able to peruse the goods to pick out what she wants.
• I then get the chosen foods and prepare them for eating (peel the banana, pour the cereal, open the cheese packaging, etc.)
• Once I hand the food to Lily, she screams "no, no, no" and flails her arms about in protestation.

This routine has become frustrating beyond compare, mostly because it results in wasted food. Once the peel is off, you can't exactly put it back on, and so it goes. Truth be told, I have been more frustrated with my lack of solutions more than her behavior. Usually I'm fairly good at evaluating the situation, identifying the problem, and then testing solutions until we come up with a winner. However, our current battle has been underway for the past few weeks without any signs of concession on either side.

But today I had a light bulb moment. To put some of my ECE training into practice, I took a look at what directly precedes the undesired behavior - helping Lily with her food. Of course, it seems so obvious now. Lily is completely headstrong and independent so it is not surprising that she would not want any help with her food. She wants to peel the banana, pour the cereal, take the packaging off of the cheese, etc. While she can't actually do many of the required tasks necessary to prepare her food for eating, I can make it seem like she is doing it while subtly aiding the process. I tried this at dinner tonight, and it seemed to work pretty well. As with most things, only time will tell if my assessment is correct and if the solution actually works. If not, it's back to the drawing board we go. But don't expect any white flags from my side any time soon; I'm too headstrong for that.