As soon as Syntia started exploring solids, we’ve let her decide what she wants to eat. Initially she was mostly interested in a small selection of fruits, but she quickly expanded her tastes and interests to a large and varied range of foods. Sometimes her choices seem odd to me, like choosing a tomato as a late night snack 😂 , but I know that when she gets to follow and test what works for her body, she’ll develop an effective awareness and communication with her body right from the start. Most of us only start this process later in life when physical consequences show us we need to change how we’re eating and then require to walk through the way we conditioned ourselves and our bodies to eat – much of which is imbued with ideas, fears and beliefs that we copied from our parents and their relationship to food. While we want to guide them and teach them about healthy lifestyle choices, we forget that their best teacher is already with them 24/7: their physical bodies! To interfere is an implicit statement that they cannot trust their body as their teacher, and they start losing touch with their inner compass to make way for outside authorities to point the way. As I observe Syntia and her eating choices, I reflect on my own habits and beliefs. For instance, her diet might mainly consist of carrots for several days, to then not want any for a month. I was raised with the idea that you need to daily ingest a big variety of foods for your body to have everything it needs. So when I crave something for days, I will indulge once or twice and no more out of fear of eating too much of the same, instead of unconditionally following my body’s cues and observing what in me and my body changes that it had been lacking. As I learn to stop interfering in Syntia’s eating habits, I am learning to do the same for me, shifting from listening to my mind, to listening more to my body and telling my mind to butt out when it tries to interfere. It’s quite a process because what and how I eat has been heavily influenced by emotions most of my life. While I often ‘mess up’ up and fall back into old habits, I also keep picking myself up again and recommit to what is important to me!
#healthyfood #babiesofig #babyledweaning #eatinghabits #lifestylechoices #selfdirectedlearning #consciousparenting #principledparenting #respectfulparenting #bodyawareness #desteni #parentingforlife
![Cesar gave Syntia his train tracks about a year ago, and before they were hers, she would play with them together with Cesar. She's had a ton of time to learn the different pieces, how to put them together and build a track, but for some reason, she DID NOT want to build a track by herself and most of all preferred to just watch as someone else built the track for her.
Lj and I knew she was perfectly capable of building a track for herself and we tried to support her to start small and show herself that she can do it. Or that we'd be here if she gets stuck, but she can at least try on her own. Any such attempts, however, were met with an absolute and firm refusal. So, we did it with her, or for her.
We started wondering, is this little girl really just taking advantage of us at this point? Are we entertaining this too much? Should we push harder? We knew she could do it, she knew she could do it, but for some reason she just didn't want to do it, at least, not yet.
And then one day, out of the blue, she takes out her blocks and starts building a track... by herself. Lj quietly waived me over, pointing at her, then signing 'shhht', lol - didn't want to disturb the moment. The track you see in the pic is the first one she built by herself. It wasn't a "beginner's" track like a simple circle or a straight line, it was a more intricate design laid out exactly and precisely how she wanted it to be, including all the elements she wanted to have as a part of it. Kabam, out of the blue.
There are other things where Syntia 'took her sweet time', like learning how to walk and potty training, where it was clear at some point that she was able to do it, but for some reason, pulled back or didn't want to do it all by herself just yet. It's so easy as parents to freak out over that, to think that children should develop skills in a particular way, like 'starting small' or doing something by yourself as soon as you're able to. But not all kids are the same in this. [Continued in comments..]](https://scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/135216034_868657797266702_107582540258970761_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=c4dd86&_nc_ohc=Z1V8WJUUqosAX-4LmjA&_nc_ht=scontent-dfw5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&oh=00_AfCJjAXVxtNiIi6gvUUl0MZd6cdkXtaHW6r2JeZgYPVE-A&oe=64DB2E92)
