All three of my boys went through various levels of picky eating, food favorites and meal shunning.
I expected that Ryan(10) would be the most discerning. It is just his personality to be suspicious of anything. As a toddler he was food-opinionated, but as he has grown he has surprised me with his willingness to try new things and often like them.
Reid(7) went through some phases of food preferences, but those preferences were traditionally kid-type foods. It never was anything unexpected and he has always just not eaten if he doesn’t like what is served. It has been pretty easy for me to manage.
Rhett(5) is a nightmare to feed. Every day it gets harder as he continues to cross things off his list of edible items:
white breadany breadtoastwith the exception of Pepperidge Farms cinnamon swirl or brown sugar swirlcheeseanything with bread or cheesejellywith the exception of grapesyrupwith the exception of blueberryhamburgershot dogspizza…duh, it has cheesevegetableswith the exception of non-dressed lettuce and carrot sticksfruitswith the exception of oranges peeled and de-pulped and blueberries or grapes (please notice theme of jelly and syrup above)milk or soymilk
The boy lives on peanut butter, oatmeal and the occasional Morning Star Farms Chik Patty. Meanwhile, I am disguising cheese and substituting crackers for bread. Often I just give up when dinner rolls around and he has little to nothing acceptable to eat.
Oh well.
Last night I made pasta with meatballs and tomato sauce. Rhett looked at it very suspiciously, but was hungry.
It was either endure my homemade dinner or go hungry.
He took a bite.
And then another.
And another.
This is the best food I have ever had!
I put the left-overs away and fed them to him for lunch and then again dinner tonight. It was three most balanced meals he has had in a year.
While he was feasting on leftovers, the rest of the family was enjoying pierogies and mushrooms (NOT on the list of Rhett-accepted foods). I looked over to where Rhett was sitting in his usual seat at the kitchen counter which is above the silverware drawer…
*foreshadowing alert*
…and noticed that he was a huge mess.
His face was covered with tomato sauce.
His drinking glass was no longer clear.
His hands were red.
A moment later I watched as he reached BOTH HANDS into his pasta and brought two fists-full up to his mouth.
Rhett!
What?
Where is your fork?
He looked around his plate, his chair and then onto the floor and then looked up and replied…
I guess I just forgot to get one.
Love it! These are challenging food times, I tell you. You sound very calm through it all.
At least he was eating??!?! ;-P
And my B will eat NO cheese, except if it’s on pizza. Crazy kids.
wow, that’s a pretty big will-not-eat list! My daughter doesn’t like pizza either- who doesn’t like PIZZA???!!!
Miss E. is the world’s pickiest eater. She only eats certain types of chicken nuggets, french fries, pancakes, crackers and peanut butter. My husband has a cousin who as an adult only eats chips and queso and candy (non-chocolate). That is it. I always said none of my children would ever be so picky. Oops.
Both mine are picky but for awhile they would eat pasta with ‘green sauce’ which was pureed spinach & broccoli. Then all veggies were suspect. Now we are at a point where only RAW veggies are acceptable. It’s totally a texture issue with my kids. Food, that is not meat, should be crunchy or pureed.
HRH eats almost nothing but thankfully loves milk and chicken. He can live off that for a while. Vegetables are consumed in the form of Flintstones vitamins and mommy guilt.
Even as we speak, Gremlin is having a left-over chicken enchilada and orange juice for breakfast.
Go figure.
Hilarious! At least he was eating!
My little guy is a picky eater too.
He lives on peanut butter sandwiches, cheese sandwiches, toast (with either margarine or PB), grapes and apples.
He will eat pizza but only if there is pepperoni and ONLY pepperoni on it.
Breaded chicken, granola bars (the fruit filled kind), and the occasional French fry also fall on his “OK” list.
Notice a starchy, carby trend? Lol
He used to eat absolutely anything you’d give him and now.. Well, it’s difficult to say the least. He won’t eat any vegetables so when he has his cup of juice for the day it’s usually one of those fruit/veggie blends.
I’m really hoping he’ll grow out of his pickyness.
Luke right now is vehemently opposed to mushrooms & zucchini. However, he has been nagging me as to when we are going to have brussels sprouts again. Brussels Sprouts! Figure that one out.
the entire time was his mind nagging him: “this seems different than last night at dinner… what was different??? eh. oh well.”
so funny.
When Gen was little she was picky but now EVERYONE comments about how wide (and developed) her palate is. Much more than my older two kids. I’m so proud. 🙂