August 28, 2001 - Tuesday
When I dropped Harry off at daycare today, his provider asked whether we still cut Harry's grapes in half before he eats them. She didn't have to explain the question. In addition to the Big Raisins, Harry now wants everything "big" and has taken to complaining when we try to cut his food into safe, bite-size pieces. Grapes get right to the core of the dilemma because a whole grape is theoretically just the right size and slipperiness to get caught in a little child's throat. To make matters worse, Harry thinks it's fun to play with the grapes in his mouth. Harry's daycare provider said Harry still eats the grapes she cuts for him, but complains that he "don't like it." That's better than we do. Most of the time Harry simply refuses grape halves from his parents and just demands "big" ones. We are having some success getting him to chew rather than play with the grapes, but that success is tenuous. So, we calculate in our minds the possibility that Harry might indeed choke on a grape, imagine what we would be able to do to help if that were to occur, and then balance those probabilities against other battles that we must also take very seriously.


Comments, opinions?