Frustration

So the Bug is 20 months old. She only switched to 3rd foods a few months ago. For those who don't understand that, there's 3 or 4 stages of food (depending on the manufacturer). 1st foods are the first ones they get beyond bottle. 2nds have a little more flavor and texture. If I remember the crash course Mur gave me (which I don't) I think 1st are all single ingredients, 2nds start mixing things.

Anyways, 3rd foods have more texture, like rice pieces or small pasta balls (like you find in Frog's Eye Salad). They're supposed to be close to adult type foods, to help getting kids eating solids. Most kids switch to 3rd foods about 9 to 12 months. She didn't start 3rds until about 17 months. And that was difficult. About 12 months or so they are supposed to switch to toddler food. She's still on 3rds.

Now, here's the frustration. We started trying to switch her to 4ths, the toddler foods. She's done nothing but scream and spit it out, fight us and everything. She -does not want- toddler foods. And now, she has decided to fight on 3rds again as well. She's spitting them out and refusing to eat them as well. When she had been doing so well with them.

I'm about ready to pull my hair out because I'm the one feeding her breakfast 5 days a week, and lunch about half that. Mur catches Lunch the other half and Dig does dinners, but half the time she goes to bed hungry and the other half she gets Fruit which she isn't rejecting. Meats were the first things she started refusing. Now it's also veggies.

I don't know what to do, and since I'm not the parent, I'm not really prepared to handle this. I mean, they know her, they've learned her for 20 months. I've only had about 3 months training and I'm not certain what the hell I'm doing. Half the time she's screaming because she doesn't want to swallow the food and I feel like I'm abusing her. But the other half I think she's playing us trying to get what she wants, and I shouldn't be giving in to her. But that still feels like abuse.

She's certainly being a pain right now and I'm frustrated. *bangs head against walls*