OK, so I never thought I'd come here to do this .....

If the child is healthy, and the food is nutritious and not overpriced.. Why?

So you can have your way?

-jim

 

Dude. Thank you. :up:

 

Because I'm the adult and you're the child. When you grow up, get a job, buy your own house, pay your own utilities to cook the food that you bought with your money, eat whatever you damn well like.

 

I think you're overreacting. You can see his ribs. so what? Every kid in my neighborhood looked like a POW camp survivor when we grew up. Kids are lard-asses these days.

 

Thanks for all the opinions and remarks.

I agree with some and quite honestly, baffled at some others. LOL!

Part of the problem may be that I'm a first generation American of Italian immigrants. I grew up on two course meals (pasta + fish/meat) my entire life, at home with my folks and still on Sundays, to this day, for dinner at mom's.

IMHO, my wife's parents failed her on this subject. My wife won't eat anything with condiments on it, no salads, soups and until she met me, no seafood except for fish n chips. Since she's been with me, she's broadened her palate immensely since age 23 to now. I just keep hounding her to try things and every once in awhile, I win.....YES! And we just add it to another food she never liked.

I don't want that to happen to my children, however, I think I'm a little late. A LOT of Americans seem to have this blase attitude, including their Peds, about eating. For crying out loud, there are times my wife brings mac n cheese to restaurants when we go out to eat knowing my son won't eat anything off the menu, for an example, the Hibachi spot down the road from us.

I'm sorta old school and tend to lean towards Darren's and Britt's approach BUT when you have a kid who just sits there staring at what they should be eating all night....when do you fold?

You force them to eat a bite and he starts gagging....I try to remind him that the first time I made him try Cheerios he gagged too, doesn't make a difference. How many nights would you let your 6yo go without eating dinner? LOL!

 

We were having dinner with about eight coworkers at a seafood restaurant in Scranton PA which, in itself, is a scary concept. I convinced someone who had never had oysters to try one. When she sucked that thing in, her facial expression immediately changed to a look of horror and helplessness. She didn't want to spit it out in front of all of us and our boss, but there was no way she was going to swallow it either. The boss felt so bad for her, he actually encouraged her to just spit it out. Hilarity ensued.

 

That's why I suggest not bringing the "I'll only eat this" foods home.

And mac & cheese is *anything* but healthy. :down:

I don't envy you, Frank. Gonna be a good bit of work to reverse their course.

 

Oh, and just as a "new parent" point of reference, we're already instilling eating habits with our kid. She only eats when she's in her high chair, she eats healthy, homemade natural foods, and when she starts pitching food overboard because she wants more of the other food she's being fed, that's when dinnertime ends. Couple hours later, or after a nap, and those unpalatable veggies she loved a week ago are suddenly too delicious to feed to the dog. :up:

 

:up:
Neither of my kids are picky eaters because they were required to eat the food provided by their loving parents. Their choices were eat the food provided or go hungry. It did not take them long to realise that being hungry sucked.

 

There are battles worth fighting. If a child is eating healthy, it would make sense to focus and fix whatever other issues they may be faced with.

Unless of course, feeling dominant over a little kid regardless of the circumstance makes one feel better.

-jim

 

:up:
The choices for the kids should be eat or go hungry.

 

Issues like defiance, narrow-mindedness and selfishness, perhaps?

 

Kinda reminds me of the first time my wife began eating fried calamari that was served at a dinner party. She thought they were onion rings, can you tell she's from the mid west? Onion rings!?!?! LOL!

Well, after a half dozen or so rings I asked her how she was enjoying the calamari, she asked, "What's calamari?" When I told her, you had to see the look on her face but then immediately admitted how good they were and continued to pick on them.


Thanks Darren, I got some hard days ahead of me when I'm retired and she has to get a job, undoing some of her work.

 

Maybe if you get him in on helping make the food you want him to try, he might be more willing.

 

You need to chill. They will grow out of it. I'd say as long as they are staying healthy and there are no health problems let em eat what they want. Not like they are constantly eating junk food and getting morbidly obese...

 

Home run...:up:

 

Some kids are picky, some aren't. As Papa mentioned, some kids can't tolerate certain tastes or textures. I will eat most things, but three things I won't eat (Lima beans, liver and asparagus) have nothing to do with the taste. The texture makes me want to gag.

Its very common for kids to get stuck on favorite foods, and it really isn't worth fighting over if they're healthy. Taking food your kid likes to a restaurant makes sense unless you like fighting with your kid while out to dinner.
Kids will try other stuff when they see their peers eating it.
You have to ask yourself if there's an actual problem there. This is one of those problems that sorts itself out. Most adults eat food you couldn't get them to touch when they were kids. Children's palates differ from adults. If its not junk food, then what difference does it make if they eat the same stuff all the time? Give them some Flintstones vitamins, they'll do fine.

 

This, my boys will eat or at least try anything they "help" prepare....Mine are almost three and four and it's a battle of wills I'll admit...It's the one thing they can control... When it comes down to it you can't make them chew...And they know it...Get them involved in the process, from shopping to cooking and setting the table...

That works for us with toddlers, don't know about when they're older though.

 

I'm assuming she was not from Florida.

Dem things are a staple of our diet.

Blart, kid's metabolisms are off the damn chain. I grew up on spaghetti-o's, Count Chocula and various other garbage. I eat really health now... but when I feed my kids what I make for me and my wife's dinner, they're hungry for two hours afterwards. If the chirrens aren't fat, don't sweat too much about it. Those folks telling you that "you're the parent" either have infants or no kids at all.

The best thing health-wise you can do for kids is to make sure that they're plenty active. Karate is really good. My kids are black belts... in very, very good shape and haven't lost a school-yard fight yet. :up:

 

My parents used to make me sit at the table till I ate my food or threw in the towel for the night. If I didn't eat my lunch, guess what I got for dinner? At least they let me re-heat it. I will eat just about anything that doesn't kill me. Lima beans? Brussels sprouts? No problem. The only things I take major issue with is Hamburger helper rice pilaf and pork chops with mushroom soup dumped over it. I had to finish those thing over two meals some nights.

I really don't find that cruel or a power play on my parents part. I look at it as: they worked their asses off and had 6 mouths to feed aside from themselves. You don't have the luxury to be picky until you start working for yourself and buying your own food.
None of my 5 siblings are picky with food unless you cook the meat wrong... Then you are in trouble.