Food matters

I asked the paediatrician, Dr. Subash Arya, for his advice on supplementary foods, and specifically if I could give him idli. He promptly said, 'By all means, if you give me some whenever you make them!'. He added I was to start the baby on this regime from the fourth month, but to do it one item at a time, in minute portions first and for a week at least before moving on to another food. So we progressed in this fashion till I tried hard boiled egg. This did not agree with him first, and Annaiya, who had already grumbled that no one in the family had been fed this forbidden food, and anyway, I was pushing too many new foods, really held forth. Adit did manage to stand eggs when it was given some months later.
We had got a high chair for Adit and soon after he was able to sit up, he was in it, and trying to manage eating by himself, with his hands or a spoon. Sometimes, he would throw the food around just for the fun of it. One day, he threw down some favorite item and wanted it back on his plate. That was my chance to explain that it was dirty, and that he should see to it that the food did not end up on the floor. It worked by and large. I think when mothers have too much time on their hands, they tend to fuss over a child's eating, and make it worse. I for one was glad that I did not end up running after a child to make him eat his food even when he was five years old.
Adit did not give us any problem in coming to meals or eating enough and in a reasonable time. Except during summers. The first year this happened, a really hot one, I was alarmed and rushed to the doctor. He said not to worry, most kids lost their appetites in summer. But I blurted, 'he will only eat oranges and curds!' Pat came the reply, 'Sensible chap! Don't you wish you could do the same?'. As to my worry that he was not gaining weight, he said he would automatically do that in winter, and so he did!