I'm a meatarian

A meatarian!

If a vegetarian eats only vegetables, then you should be able to guess what is a meatarian.

Such is a concoction created by Wyng one morning on the way to school while I was commenting

that he eats only meat and not even a single tiny piece of fibre in his body.

What is the cause of his diarrhea?

He would die for a cone of ice-cream. He asks for it whenever I take him out, whether it's for grocery shopping, for breakfast, lunch, dinner or any outing.  At times, when Mom had bought him one, he would ask Daddy for it on the same day.  So, he got 2 in the same day! It's like oxygen to him.  It's like candies to most kids. He never gets bored of eating ice-cream.

Well, ice-cream is still better than the junk potato chips or even candies, Mom will buy a tub or two of ice-cream and store in the fridge.  Taking it on a daily basis, sometimes 2 cups in a day if I don't stop him, the tub is gone quickly.

Still perplexed as to the reason Wyng still complains about having sporadic diarrhea at school, it struck my mind that he takes ice-cream at least once a week. At times, he could be taking it once daily for a few days consecutively especially when there is storage in the fridge.  Now, the puzzle seems to be solved.

Ice-cream is made of dairy products! This boy is mildly lactose intolerant and no wonder he still gets diarrhea despite stopping him from his breakfast milk. This is definitely going to be bad news for Wyng.  From now on, ice-cream is a 'controlled food'.

When the kid's eating habits change

From preschool days, Wyng had always shunned egg yolk each time I serve him hard-boiled egg.  It came to a point when he totally rejected hard-boiled egg.  He didn't even like soft-boiled egg until recently, something like last year.  He slowly was able to accept soft-boiled egg.  Ironically, he has no problem with omelette or scrambled egg.  Maybe, he just didn't like to see egg yolk separated from egg white!

Then came one fine day, when there was an extra omelette that Mom cooked for Qo Qo.  I had asked him to take the egg since Qo Qo would not be back home for lunch.  He already had his egg, by the way.  He proceeded to scoop the watery egg yolk and sipped it. And he did that until he finished all the egg yolk!

Wyng doesn't take cheese but when we went for pizza the other day, he sprinkled a lot of cheese powder on his pizza after watching Qo Qo and Daddy did so.  In fact, he loved it. Funny, there was a table not far from us where the middle-eastern guy actually poured cheese powder straight from the bottle by removing the cap so as the cheese powder poured freely right onto his pizza.

So, Mom had to make sure he promised to take cheese the next time Mom serves him anything with cheese.

Spaghetti..he wasn't crazy about this food until this year when he asked me to cook it for him for his lunch. Previously, he didn't want to even try whenever we had spaghetti outside.  He had home-cooked spaghetti a couple of times at his aunty's house, out of no choice as that was the only food being served by aunty. Since then, I believe he started to develop a liking to it.  Now,he seemed to be crazy about it.  He frequently asks for spaghetti as his lunch.  But, he hates the mushroom that goes with it.

For dining out, he used to love claypot chicken rice. Now, he rejects it. Oh gosh...His favourite food at hawker stalls now is dried pan mee (flat noodle), minus the anchovies and black fungus.  So crazy is he about this food, that he will ask for it each time we stepped into a hawker food eatery, whether it's for breakfast, lunch or dinner.

Looks like this boy's eating habits are going through some changes, again.  Lesson for Mom is to keep trying to offer him food which he used to reject.  He may have developed some liking to certain food.  Once, he has tasted it and likes it, there'll be no stopping him, based on his pattern, so far.

What a difference!

One seems to grow 'vertically' and the other 'horizontally'. You don't need me to tell you who is who.

Hoe can eat like a horse most of the time. One who sees him gobble his food would be so happy that he has no eating problem. He loves pork and rice. Pork cannot be excluded from his meals.

Wyng is the picky eater at home.  He will only take familiar food ie food he has eaten before and has no interest to try new food. 

Mom hopes Hoe can grow taller. "Come on Hoe! Play more basketball and stop those computer games." She also hopes Wyng can be a little meatier.

Eating fruits

This post appeared in my previous 'lost' blog on 1 Nov 2007. I managed to salvage a copy and here it is.

H was not picky as W with fruits. Now, even though not very adventurous, H takes a few types of fruits such as apples (his favourite), bananas and grapes. That's about all. W sticks to apples only. He used to take bananas but recently rejects them.

This eating habit was in a way developed from young and partly my fault. When H turned 6 months, being a first-time mother and very conscious of nutrition, I fed him fruits almost on a daily basis. I even went to the extent of varying the fruits that I fed him hoping that he would be able to enjoy different vitamins and take a liking to a variety of fruits when he is older. I started off with apples (the safest to start with as the Chinese believe that other fruits such as bananas and oranges will promote formation of phlegm, watermelon is too cooling for the young). Later, papaya is introduced. Each day would be different fruits such as kiwi fruit, plum and grapes. I tried to give him orange juice and mix with water. Somehow, H didn't prefer it probably because of its sour flavour.

As for W, not many attempts were taken to feed him fruits. I only fed him apples, and even then, I only did so not until he was one plus. With H's growing demands for my attention to coach him on his studies, I had less time to care for W's nutritional needs.

As a result, W does not take much liking to fruits. And,it will depend on his mood too. H is crazier for apples.

I tried to make it up. Apples were given daily to them when W was in pre-school. I've learnt that eating habits must be developed from young. How I wish I can turn back the clock and start all over again for W? But, late is better than never. Both are still growing, and their eating habits may change over time.