The Meeting

So we finally had our meeting with Dermot's daycare. It seems that they were not withholding food from Dermot, but there was a misunderstanding. The director, who was rude, as usual, had interviewed all staff separately. It appears that a teacher who is not in Dermot's classroom came by during lunch to talk to one of the other teachers. When she noticed that Dermot was just going to throw away the cookie part of his Oreos, she suggested that his parents did not send him cookies just to have him throw part of them away. Dermot said that he didn't want to eat the cookie, but this teacher didn't give up. So she's in trouble because she was not one of Dermot's primary care providers and yet she was trying to work with him. I was actually happy to note that the assistant teacher in Dermot's room advocated for him. She told this guest teacher that Dermot wouldn't change his mind and that she shouldn't bother him.

Apparently, they were working on broadening Dermot's food preferences. Good luck with that. He eats about 5 things, and he refuses to try things. He would live on Pop Tarts (frostingless), vanilla soy yogurt, hummus, wheat thins, fruit roll ups, pasta, and Boca vegan chikn patties if we let him. How dare I try to get fruits or veggies into him. I'm at a point where red sauce on pasta counts as a veggie because at least tomatoes have vitamin c and other benefits.

After the heart of the matter was discussed, it came up that they were worried about Dermot getting enough calories. They thought that he was filling up on soy milk and not wanting to eat solid food. Dermot is not a freaking 18 month old. I swear. I know more about nutrition than they do. I send him high protein foods because he does play so hard. They feed the kids there such crap - chicken fingers and fries anyone, but they are concerned about my kid's food? I ate a vegan diet while I was building him. I know what we need to eat. I have books on vegan nutrition for crying out loud. Just because it doesn't fit the old fashioned lots of meat, some veggies and some "starch" that I grew up with, doesn't mean that it's bad. Plus Dermot is good at self-regulating his food. He seems to like one big meal. If he eats a lot of lunch, then he hardly eats dinner, but if he eats a small lunch, he wants a big dinner. It all balances out, and that's supposed to be our goal.

Overall the meeting was okay, but I still don't think that the director sees things from anyone else's perspective.