Last night my daughter had the meltdown of all meltdowns. It was time to sit down to dinner and while she wanted to eat, she didn’t want to sit in her chair in the kitchen. Now, she’s not even two. So while she does understand most of what I say, I don’t think she was getting the whole concept of sitting down at the table and eating, since on occasion she has had a snack in the living room. The screaming was so intense that I took her out of the chair but she kept trying to grab food off her plate and kept yelling, “Eat, eat”. But she was crying so hard there was no way I was going to let her take a bite of anything.
So we sat down on the couch, which usually calms her down. No. She wanted to eat, but not in her chair. So I gave her the Prevacid and enzymes she needed while she was on my lap and told her that she had to sit in her chair to eat. And a new round of screaming began. If she wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to eat, I would have let her play to her heart’s content in the living room. But she wanted to eat and she has cystic fibrosis. When you have CF, every calorie counts. So, I did what (I hope and doubt) every CF mom would do. I put her seat on the living room floor and she climbed right in, sat down and ate.
I felt like I was losing control. I didn’t think I’d ever give in so easily to a small child. All I knew was this couldn’t become a habit for either of us. So what was my new plan going to be?
Right then, I decided it was time to reevaluate our routine. She had been taking two naps a day, but lately was just sitting in her crib instead of taking an afternoon nap. So, perhaps it’s time to make the switch to just an afternoon nap. I’m hoping that will mean she won’t be such a mess by 6 o’clock. A meltdown at dinner, means dinner is delayed, therefore PT is delayed, therefore vitamins are delayed and finally, bedtime is delayed. Mommy doesn’t like a delayed bedtime.
I have forgiven myself for letting her sit in the living room (and watch TV) while eating. So today, we start over. No morning nap (darn it). We shall see how my experiment goes and I will let you know what happens. One thing is for sure. If she’s hungry, she gets to eat, whether she’s upset or not about where she has to sit. But if I give in to this now, I see a future of more meltdowns and more demands to get her to do everything from eating to brushing her teeth to doing her treatments. And when you are trying to teach a toddler the importance of such things as breathing treatments and medications, there needs to be a plan. Because all of these toddler lessons will bring her to her teenage years when she can either rebel or do her treatments. And to a person with CF, treatments mean life. And the rules I establish now, will set the tone for life. So here we go….