Eating Vegetables....or anything else mommy tells me to eat

It is amazing what a one year old can really understand. I think we discredit what they can comprehend. I learned this early on with Chloe, after reading the Tomato book, when I discovered that we didn't have to baby proof our house too much. She learned how to respond to the word "no" before she learned to walk. With consistency and tomato staking I did more on teaching obedience with Chloe then I ever did with Mya and Sara so early on. So now we have come to the time where we fight the "eating of the vegetables." I knew the time was coming and decided to tackle it this week. So how did I tackle this battle? With extreme consistency and language that makes sense to Chloe. I chose a word that I used every time I needed to give her a command to obey. I chose the word "bite" (meaning....take a bite of the food I am giving you no matter what it is). But first I had to conquer the spitting of the food when she didn't like something. She had a consequence each time this happened. Then I gave the command "bite" to tell her to eat the food. Using a short word or phrase each time is good for a kid with a small vocabulary. They seem to get it quickly when your language is consistent. When she disobeyed, she had a consequence and then was given the command. She received praise when she complied. The cool thing is that Mya and Sara get into the praise part so the whole dinner table goes crazy with cheers. It took about five days but today.....she ate lettuce! That was our biggest challenge food. It clicked today and we are so glad!