You Say Your Kid Won’t Be Picky - But Then They Are
Jaimie on Jul 10th 2008
Yesterday on my finance blog I wrote a post about a generic item at Aldi being the same exact thing as a particular generic item at Kroger, and how amusing I found that. In the post, I happened to mention how picky my son is. I got a comment from someone about how their child wouldn’t be picky, because they’d have to eat what they were given.
And I honestly laughed out loud. For a few minutes even. I think, in fact, I might be slightly giggling still.
For I could have written that comment 5 years ago. I was going to feed my child the healthiest food possible, and they were going to eat it and like it or just not eat. And then I had my first child. And everything changed.
When I had CJ, the first few days were fine. And then he decided that he didn’t want to nurse. At all. And I went through a month of having to pump and feed him with a bottle so he wouldn’t have to be hospitalized. Luckily, he did eventually begin to nurse again, but that really was just an indication of how he is.
When he started solid food, I made everything from scratch, home pureed from the freshest organic ingredients. Some he loved. Some he HATED. And he completely let you know that. And even though all the “experts” said just keep giving the things he doesn’t like to him, and he’ll like it eventually - that isn’t how it went. Try a food he hates too many times (staggered and not in a row at all), he starts distrusting all solid food and refuses to eat. He’d rather not eat at all, honestly.
And he’s still that way to this day. Only offer what we’re eating, and he just doesn’t eat. And he’ll continue not to eat. I don’t know for how long, because I have my limits of how far I’ll push it at his age. But I do know it spans over a day.
And on the other hand - my daughter Alexa is so skinny that I’d feed her a steady diet of cookies if it’d help her gain weight. She has a wide and varied palate but doesn’t seem to eat enough to keep up with her activity level. I’m hoping she somehow gains 3 pounds in the next two months so she can at least find her way back onto the growth chart…
Oh, and the movie went fine, and my parents are here for a week and bought us a flat screen TV. More on those things later. 
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Just wait about 10 years and your teenagers will eat you out of house and home!
I personally don’t think that there is much you can do to force someone (kids, adults), to NOT be picky. When I was younger, my mom tried everything to get me to try and eat. She was in the same predicament that you were - I simply wouldn’t eat if there was nothing I liked.
This has continued until this day. While I am more adventurous with foods and will try new things, I find that I still don’t LIKE a lot of food that I do try. People think that just because I am picky that I don’t try things, but I do. I think it is just the way my taste buds are - I am more limited in the foods I like than most people.
Don’t give up on making your son TRY new things, but don’t force him to eat something he’s tried and doesn’t like.
Hang on… I’m still laughing at the person who said their child wouldn’t be picky because they’d have to eat what they were given. Clearly, that was someone without kids.
Great post. Found you via BlogHer.