During the growth and development of a child, the major challenges faced by some parents is the lack of child compliance during their feeding time. Also, children always run away from medication, so, it is somewhat impossible to succeed to give them the right medication dose. Nonetheless, parents still find a way to administer bot food and medication to their children.
When I was a kid, didn't like food. I prefer to play and lick lollipop than to eat. Me and food were far apart. My mom used to make promises before I think of eating. One day, she got fed up and developed a technic. Though this technic is quite risky, it's effectiveness is top notch.
Mostly, she uses this technic only when I'm about to eat a liquid food.
If she sees that I'm playing with the food as usual, she will intervene. She will grab me, then use her legs to secure my leg down to my hip.
She will use her hands to biceps to secure my hands under her armpit, and my head will be visible at her stomach region. She will secure my head to avoid turning around, while she forced the pap down my throat with her hands.
She will continue this until my stomach is as big as a ball. No matter how hard I try, I will not be able to move my body until the feeding is over.
When I'm in this position, I have two choices, either gulp down the food, or risk the food entering my nose.
I know you may be wondering, what if my epiglottis fail to cover and the food mistakenly enters my trachea. Welp, if it does, then my back is up for some tapping. I'll be coughing while my mom tap my back until I stop coughing. She will wait for sometime for the food to digest a little, then she will continue.
This technique actually helped me a lot ya'know, but then, it's too risky and I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.
Parents of these days are not usually harsh on their children during feeding. They try to be as soft and kind as possible, fearing that the worst may happen.
Its very rare to see me feed children, probably because where I stay, I don't have them around. Majorly, I do feed babies with special cases in the ward. Most of the times, through NG-tube, while in some cases, their mothers express breast milk into a feeding bottle, then I administer it to the baby.
There was one time a patient brought her child to the hospital. She came for a doctor's appointment. She came with a toy which kept the child distracted.
When it was time for the child's feeding, he was so engrossed in the toy that he did not want to eat. Seeing this, I offered to feed the baby which she reluctantly agreed to.
At first, the baby refused to eat, so, I decided to play with the baby. When we were playing, I brought his food and convinced him by telling him how big boys do eat their food complete. When he said he was a big boy, I took it as an advantage to tell him that he's not. I added; if you're a big boy, then you will finish your food.
He probably saw it as a challenge, which made him to start eating. After eating, I gave him praises which made him very happy and he continued playing..
Thank you for reading