Weaning the Gina Ford way.... and this is not to start a debate on GF's methods.... AGAIN!

[pupuce]

For those mums who are interested in GF's stuff... here is a review of her latest book in the Daily Telegraph :
www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2002/09/13/hbaby13.xml&sSheet=/health/2002/09/13/ixhmain09.html&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=54080

I am only sharing this for interest... naively hoping there won't be a row over this one....

florenceuk - food given to Chinese kid is usually a "throw everything into 1 pot" type of cooking. As a child, altho' my food would be a variant of one or two of the dishes my family has on the table, I would really be expected to dig in & pick bits & pieces of the various dishes until I could feed myself.

As for chopstick, started off with big Chinese style soup spoon. U can get baby chopsticks now which are shorter or just get the disposable ones. I can't remember clearly, but I prolly started playing around w/ chopsticks at 6 or 7? More for fun of it but didn't really get to grips until prolly 9 or 10 yo. Kids usually start off by holding/picking up big pieces of food in scissor style (which fyi is incorrect n sign of bad upbringing in grownups, among traditional/uptight Chinese families) then over time u learn to hold it properly.

I am fascinated to hear/learn more about fussy eating habits in kids. What sorts of things r they most fussy about e.g. green bits, tastes, textures?

I could write a book on a fussy eater! I have tried soooo many recipes, cooked everything myself when I started weaning at about 4-5 months, I've tried every type of recipe from Annabel bloody Karmel (now can't bear to do one of her 'quick' 45 minute recipes to be met with clamped jaw) to Planet Organic (she liked the breakfasts but not much else), Nigella Lawson (finally thought I'd lost it when I was cooking quail eggs for the little darling!!!), weaning charts from HV, recommendations from friends, dietician who got involved, etc, etc, finally tried jars and she liked only one of the many I tried.
I honestly believe I couldn't have tried any more, she's just not a great eater and there is nothing I could have done to prevent it, it is in her make-up, unfortunately! Bugs me to pieces when people criticise fussy eaters like there is something the parent has done wrong when I know I've spent many, many hours over a bloody hot stove!
I should never go on these threads!!

PS I am due my next in 6 months and I will probably buy GF and use it as I am so desperate to not repeat this (bit like how some people on other threads have used her first book on their second child as they went through terrible sleep patterns with their first, I can see where they come from and how you could get obssessed with making it work).

Janus - sounds like 'even' Gina might not be enough! My sympathies - I went through this a few months ago with dd (though not to the same extent) when dd ate fish fingers and peas for lunch, tea and supper. She was getting cereal for breakfast so I reckoned her vitamins must be OK, and she wouldn;t TOUCH vit drops.
Hope it all goes well 2nd time round