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Right. It is not that hard to make a chicken dish for the family and save some plain chicken for the "picky eater" who prefers bland food. Or serving salad with every meal and letting the little people put their own veggies and dressing on that they prefer. I think adapting meals for picky eaters is a step toward changing their palates over time.
Childhood is the only time in your life you might have zero choices on what to eat. Even school lunches have some choice and variety.
I don't make special chicken but if the kids don't like the chicken dish I make, they don't have to eat it. They can eat the rice and salad and just skip the chicken. No drama.
If I make sauce and they want their chicken plain they can eat it plain. No drama.
If one of the kids isn't hungry one day and just wants to sit at the table with us they can do that. No drama.
We were aware of this potential problem, so from day one of solid food, everything hit the plate.
And I mean everything. Indian food, Thai food, italian food, japanese food, fruits, veggies, various proteins, legumes, spicy food, bland food, salty food, sweet food...the common theme was all fresh, no processed.
We have a GREAT eater now. He has preferences, but he will try anything once. And he eats a whole, fresh, varied diet (age 23 months).
Start it early and throw the kitchen sink at them.
We are friends with a couple families who take a similar approach with their little ones. I want to add, though, that they don't give their small children sugar. So fruit and carrots, to them, are "sweet food," and they love them. (Once the sugar is introduced, nothing else will taste as good. And good food shouldn't be "that yucky stuff you have to get out of the way to get the dessert.")
Also, if the food is rejected the first time around, it appears again after a week or so. By the third exposure it is usually accepted.
We had one family over for dinner recently. Their twin two-year-olds sat at the table and ate everything the adults did (chicken and apple main dish, potatoes, salad, carrots, broccoli). They asked for "mo' p'ease" of everything.
To change the eating habits of older children (who have already been eating sugar and processed foods) is much harder.
What did you do to broaden their spectrum of "liked foods", so to speak? Anyone been there, done that?
Edit: And if so, did the "clean your plate before you get dessert/leave the table" strategy work for anyone? Or are you opposed to that?
I'm opposed to that "clean your plate and eat everything I put on it" strategy. My parents thought they had to do that and sometimes dinner time became a bit of a fight with kids gagging down their peas or lima beans and swallowing gross things like those whole so we didn't have to taste them.
I think that just makes issues. Just don't have much junk food in the house, all snacks can be good ones. When my oldest was 4, we had liver and onions and he immediately stated "yuk, I don't like this" before he tasted it so I told him he could make himself a peanut butter sandwich. Then he decided to just take one tiny bite and realized he like it and ended up asking for several servings.
Or a 3 year old can really think peas are delicious if they're not forced on him. He might not like them at first but if he sees everyone else eating them, he may give them another try.
I never understood the idea that people have to like every single food in the entire world. I don't like beets. My husband doesn't like green beans. One of my kids doesn't like spinach. Another one doesn't like asparagus. When I serve stuff that somebody doesn't like it they skip that food. Why would a parent have to get into a pissing contest over whether a kid likes a particular food?
I had one rule, they could eat what was being served or they could get up and make themselves a peanut butter sandwich or bowl of cereal. No short order cooks but also kids didn't go to bed hungry, and dinner wasn't a battle zone.
My son doesn't get the luxury of refusing food for the most part. I can tell if he is trying to b.s us just so I will make him something different.
But he is not a picky eater and will eat most anything. But I think that's because I never let him very away with it. Many kids refuse to eat something because it doesn't look good. They don't even want to try it. I would never let my kid get away with that.
Last edited by glass_of_merlot; 11-13-2013 at 10:50 PM..
I am amazed at the number of people who allow their children to rule their kitchens and homes.
My Mother fixed our meals and we had two choices: Take it or leave it but if you left it you got nothing else.
We ate what we were given and were grateful to have something to fill our stomach.
We were introduced to new foods from the time we could eat regular food and as we grew and my children were introduced to food the same way and none of my children are "picky" eaters and their children are not "picky" eaters either. They eat what is fixed for that meal or they don't eat.
I totally agree. But let me add, certain foods does require a certain taste. I eat almost anything, not at all picky. But liver I can't stand. It makes me gag. My parents tried multiple times by preparing it differently without luck. Eventually they just have up.
I haven't read all the posts in this thread, so I apologize in advance if I'm repeating others... I wouldn't be concerned about a picky eater. The main thing is that you expose the child to a wide range of foods when they are young. Our rule is that they have to try everything even if it's only one bite. Eventually, they will learn to like most of the thing they don't at the moment.
I am amazed at the number of people who allow their children to rule their kitchens and homes.
My Mother fixed our meals and we had two choices: Take it or leave it but if you left it you got nothing else.
We ate what we were given and were grateful to have something to fill our stomach.
We were introduced to new foods from the time we could eat regular food and as we grew and my children were introduced to food the same way and none of my children are "picky" eaters and their children are not "picky" eaters either. They eat what is fixed for that meal or they don't eat.
My mum did the same but it didn't stop me being a picky eater, instead I swallowed the things I hated down with glasses of water so I couldn't taste them, or held them in my mouth and spat them in the toilet, and painstakingly scraped all the sauce off every piece of meat when we had curry or casserole.
I think sometimes a picky eater will be a picky eater no matter what you do (although exposing them to many different tastes from very early on, via mum's own diet while breastfeeding and then early solids can help them be more open to new tastes) and also it can just be a phase that they grow out of no matter what you do.
A friend of mine. her son is a very picky eater. She always have to make special foods for him. Im even talking about foods such as hotdogs, hamburgers, spaghetti, pizza. If the pizza have one wrong topping on it, like black olives, he refuse to eat it. It's not enough just removing the black olives, oh no, he will not touch it after the olive been on it in the first place. So they always have to specially order or make things specially for him. His school lunch comes home half the time because he decided that day he didn't like something. Ridiculous what she let him get away with.
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