The very easy, short answer is a loud and emphatic
NO
Liam is easily one of the pickiest, finickiest kids I have ever met. He would survive on fruit if allowed. He does eat bread products (bread, toast, bagels, cereal) but it's not something he would pick first off. He will eat raw carrots and occasionally green beans. He was 5.5 before he would even consider eating a French Fry and still rarely has them. Lately we have seen him eat more chicken (homemade nuggets) and he did actually have a piece (bite sized, not serving size) of turkey at Christmas. I can probably count the number of hamburgers he has eaten in his life. Transportation Style noodles continue to be a regularly served item.
Hilary and I used to question how we got to this point. Where did we go wrong? Now however, we have accepted that Liam is not an adventurous eater and that food does not hold a whole lot of appeal to him.
From the very first serving of mushed up carrots, he has expressed his dislike of food. Hilary was a stay at home mom who is also a foodie. She made all of his baby food, exposed him to all sorts of textures and tastes. Yet most nights the only way to even get him to try the food would have been for me to get him in a full nelson with one arm, pry his mouth open with my other arm while Hilary shoveled the food in and ducked before he spit it back out. Needless to say we never actually tried this approach. We eventually figured out that he liked Minigos and if you put the real food on the spoon first and then dipped the whole thing in the Minigo, you might be able to sneak it past him. Only if he wasn't paying attention.
Liam trying to injest his food through his skin so he wouldn't have to eat it.
We still offer him new foods and we don't cater to him by cooking him a seperate meal every day. I have lot of food "issues" (I like to call them likes and dislikes, others call them "issues") and I would not want someone to be constently forcing me to eat foods that I don't like. Hilary once offered me a spoonful of something that I didn't like. I thought it was something else and she thought I knew that it was the yucky food (I've blocked out what it was, even though it was only last year). The moment it hit my mouth I spit it out and burst into tears. I cannot and will not inflict that on Liam every day. If he doesn't want to eat something, then who am I to force him?
I do believe that as time goes on his palate will mature and he will become more adventurous. And if he doesn't, then more yummy stuff for the rest of us!
3 comments:
I was a very picky eater. Although, my mom totally spoiled me and made me something else to eat. Now I LOVE food! A lot of the same foods I turned my nose up at when I was a kid. I'm sure Liam will love different types of food, too. If not, well then like you said..more yummy food for you!
I'm an eater with some strong opinions, and like Liam there are a lot of veggies I only like raw. I'm glad he's not being forced to eat things he finds repugnant, like I was as a kid until we finally agreed on the raw compromise.
Largely thanks to you, I used a Madhur Jaffrey recipe for bharta and it smelled so good that even a coworker who eats almost no vegetables was impressed when I brought it for lunch. Though she still wasn't going to touch anything with eggplant!
My 6yo nephew is an insanely picky eater. He's better now that my brother (his dad) employed bribery methods to get him to try things, but as of about six months ago he wouldn't eat meat, ice cream, candy, vegetables, watermelon, ANY melon, most fruits.
He would eat: oranges, goldfish (the cracker, not the pet), string cheese, and pizza. That's ABOUT it. Seriously.
Thankfully he's getting a *little* better. But he stayed with my parents and literally ate pizza for three meals a day one weekend....it was bad.
Needless to say, he would not participate in your Oscar festivities :)
Post a Comment