I know a lot of picky eaters and find myself exhausted watching their poor parents as they desparately try to please their picky kids. Still, I can’t help but wonder what would happen if the parents didn’t cater to their kids demands. Would the kids starve? Or would they find a way to eat the food they are currently rejecting.
“No Child has ever starved in the presence of food”, according to my husband’s pediatrician when he threatened to be a picky eater as a kid. His mother followed the doctor’s advice and my husband learned to enjoy broccoli, beets and brussel sprouts as opposed to starving.
When most of us were kids, we ate what our parents served us for dinner. If we didn’t like the main course, we filled up on the side dishes or we choose to be a little hungry. I think that most of us try the same approach with our own children. We are thrilled when it works and when it doesn’t, well that’s what I wonder about. Do we panic and cave to their picky eating demands? What would happen if we stood our food ground?
I guess it boils down to this question: Is picky eating a condition, like autism, that is inexplicably on the rise in this generation? Or are we parents, with all our catering and fussing, enabling our children to become picky eaters? I don’t know. What do you think?
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Listen, nobody likes what I cook. I don’t even like what I cook. Why? Because I’m a terrible cook! That much being said, “Eat it or die.” Hungry enough, they’ll eat it.
Time Magazine just did an article on picky eaters and how they are born that way and links to other issues — like autism. http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2004676,00.html
I wondered about this myself before my son was eating solid foods… Now I know that kids are what they are, not what we make them! My son eats like a bird, much to my dismay, and as much as I try to offer a wide selection of foods from vegies to grains to proteins, all he wants is fruit and cookies. I have learned to call a wide array of foods ‘cookies’, like healthy granola bars and cereal bars, and I pack his smoothies with tons of healthy ingredients.
It’s tough when I can fit everything my child has eaten in a day into my palm, but I do believe the advice mentioned in the article, that a kid won’t starve in a house full of food. I tell myself everyday that this particular eating habit is just a phase, and it will not last forever!
Good luck to all the parents of picky eaters! Any good tips or strategies? Share them please!