Healing from the stomach bug

We've encountered another stomach bug this past weekend.  Luckily we weren't hit as hard as before.  Nonetheless, my 20 month old still spent the weekend feeling 'off'. 

It's been a few days and he's getting back on track with eating again, but it's been tough.  He acts like he's hungry but when I offer him food, he turns his nose.  He would love to munch on goldfish all day, everyday.  Some mornings I do give him goldfish for breakfast because I did justify it with the fact that he wasn't feeling well.  And well... any food is better than no food.

So now I'm trying to stick to my guns and make him aware that goldfish are practical snacks, but we can no longer justify making meals out of them.  Toast?  Sure.  Crackers?  Okay, maybe with some peanut butter too.  But still, he tries his best to refuse, and he in the end, will end up not eating a lot. 

We get frustrated and there's a lot of whining going on.  I try not to whine too much... my my son seems to make up for it.  He wants to get down from the table and drink his juice or milk.  There's nothing wrong with that either but now I feel he'd prefer to make his meal out of his drink.

So I pack up his lunch for school.  I make sure he has his usual routine lunch which always includes vegetables.  He does enjoy them, but lately, he's been exposed to bbq junk food.  It'll be a long road to get him back on the veggie train, but I know he'll get there.  Until then, we have small battles over what to eat.

We're not very consistent in our eating habits so maybe that's where he is learning this behavior.  I try to keep a routine going.  Sometimes it works, but most of the time he just snickers at my attempts.  I have to remind myself he just had the stomach bug, even though it was as extreme as it could have been, it will take some time for his appetite to return. 

How do you justify meal times with a 20 month old? Or any kid for that matter? Where do you draw the line? Some days meals are pretzels and yogurt. Other days it's meatballs and toast. Hot dogs with broccoli and cheese? Sure! We've seen it all, including a few peas for breakfast.

I try not to stress about his lack of eating, but some days are harder than others.  How do you cope with recovering from the stomach bug?