About a month ago, we introduced cantelope and apple slices into Alex's breakfast. Over the last several months, he'd begun refusing the apple sauce he's been eating since he was a toddler. For the first week, he seemed to really enjoy the fruit slices and for once we thought we might have added a new food without going through the usual drama.
We're not that lucky. About two weeks ago, he began refusing the slices. We wondered if maybe we'd cut them too thick that day. (We usually try to make them paper thin for easy chewing and swallowing.) It had been going so well that we decided to trust his reaction and we didn't push it. That began a major battle each day to get him to eat the fruit. He'd been eating it cheerfully and now he whined and complained. I needed to make eating the fruit a necessary step to earning screentime, but that affected other issues.
Today is the first day of Advent calendars. I told Alex he could have the toy from his Advent calendar as soon as he finished his fruit.
And he did it without complaining or stalling tactics. Just ate it quietly and quickly and got a calf from his Advent farm set.
That gives me 24 days of rewards to incorporate the fruit into his regular breakfast. Then we'll have to figure out another reward to keep things going, one which is a little less seasonally dependent.
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