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Parenting fears: the picky eater
Filed under: Nutrition: Health, Development/Milestones: Babies
People told me it was going to happen and I didn't want
to believe them. "Stefania," they said, "Your child eats great now, but just wait until she's three.
She'll become picky." I listened and politely replied, "Not my child. We eat everything, so she'll eat
everything, but thanks for telling me." Color me eating my words."Bunny," my three-year-old, wants to eat nothing but spaghetti with butter and cheese or steak. Every. damn, day. I shouldn't say that she is picky in the traditional sense of the word. I do count my blessings that she will eat fruit; yogurt; starches; and veggies like peas, corn, and broccoli, but that's all she wants to eat. I am tired of pasta and peas. I don't want to eat red meat every day.
Gone are the days when she'd snarf down sushi, pad see euw, and aloo gobi. If her food doesn't come in spaghetti form, it's tough to get her to eat it. Chicken is frowned upon. Even beef from a Chinese restaurant is pushed aside because "it's not steak." A turkey sandwich is like poison. She's three-and-a-half and for the first time in my life I need to consider whether Bunny will eat it when I order from a menu or buy groceries. I do cook for my entire family, not just her, and if she doesn't like it she can always have yogurt and fruit, but I miss the days when I could put anything in front of her and she'd eat with relish. I hope this is a phase that passes quickly.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
1-13-2006 @ 9:21PM
Hillary said...Pass quickly? Not likely :(
Maybe it's just me, but - my kids start great. Eating everything - jalapeno-studded chicken chili, thai beef salad with fresh thai bird chile peppers on it, green vegetables, purple fruits, EVERYTHING. Then they hit two-and-a-half or three years and - NOTHING. Noodles, bread, the occasional bowl of cereal. Peeled, cored apples. Everything is WHITE or BEIGE. GAAAAH! My five year old has just recently re-added meatballs to his repertoire, and will occasionally deign to dip them into a bit of tomato sauce (NO HERBS!!). Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel?
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1-13-2006 @ 9:37PM
Mary said..."If she doesn't like it, she can always have yoghurt and fruit". If she always has an alternate choice, then she will be unlikely to return to her former good habits. I've alwasy taken the "it's your choice how much, even whether you eat, but it's my choice when and what you're offered." Once she realizes that her choice is to eat what's being served or not at all, she'll eat what's served. She may choose to go hungry once, just to see if you really mean it, but that's her choice, after all. You are not refusing to feed her, you're refusing to cater to whims or power tripping.
Once I was confident my kids would eat what they were served, then they were allowed two "don't have to" items each, because everyone has the odd thing that they genuinely loathe. They were only allowed two items, and though items on the list could change, they could not change at the moment of discovering what was for dinner!
My three children all eat their meals without fuss, and have done so reliably since age three to four.
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