Friday, September 12, 2008

Kids & Food

Is your child picky?

Read this. And the comments. I find them so interesting. I am a bad mother. I don't push things I know my kids won't eat. I ask occasionally.

Seth - I started to write a list of what he *will* eat and then realized it was pretty comprehensive. He will not eat most veggies however. I try to fill in with fruit and he will eat raw veggies over cooked. He refuses anything "fuzzy" (soda) and love milk and lemonade. He loves sushi, pate (a direct result of his trip to France this past summer). He is not big on sauces (on his chicken nuggets, pasta sauce, etc.) He will eat beans in any form: chili, hummus, black beans with his tacos, you name it. Often he tells me he LIKES something (such as mushrooms) but he's just not in the MOOD for it right now....

Maya - would willingly live on mac & cheese (she likes Easy Mac the best! Better than Stouffers!!), grilled cheese, cheese quesadillas, cheese pizza. You get the picture. She would rather die than drink milk, however. She LOVES soda. Ugh. She does realize when she has eaten too much cheese or sweets and will self ration at times (No more sweets today, Mom. No cheese until Tuesday!) HOWEVER, she will eat other standard things we have a lot, with not *too* much fuss. And, she will always pick the apples at a fast food restaurant over fries. She also loves Greek food.

They will both eat Chinese, Thai - any Asian. We took them for Pho (Vietnamese noodle soup) and they were both in heaven. They love any type of berries and will pick those for a treat over candy at the grocery .

SO - I know I need to push the veggies more. When I was growing up, we always had carrot and celery sticks and if you didn't eat the vegetable served with dinner, you ate those. I need to start doing that!

Scott and I eat Indian, Greek, Asian, sushi, lots of veggies, spicy food, a broad range. I love to cook (obviously) and try new recipes and we love to try new restaurants. In the winter we eat a lot of soup. I think this food electicism (is that a word) is rubbing off on my kids. They are always willing to at least try new types of foods, or foods they like cooked in a different ethnic way, and for that I am happy. This is not to say they don't eat pasta with butter & cheese at least once a week. Cause they do. And they love it.....

1 comment:

Linda said...

I have to say that my kids, while picky to an extent, are good eaters. Hannah's the fussier of the two...she doesn't like "fuzzy" stuff (though she will occasionally drink a European Fanta - ask Seth if he ever tried it in France - NOT like the horrid orange-staining stuff they sell here!), she doesn't chew gum...she doesn't like milk and most dairy, though she slogs down yogurt and will eat queso dip at Mexican restaurants. But she loves all fruits and most veggies. She tries everything at least once. She LOVES corn (all styles except creamed, and seriously..is that EVEN a veggie?), and recently has been turned on to raw green beans!

Scotty's the cast iron stomach kid. He'll eat pretty much anything. He's hit a bit of a fussy stage now, but I know he'll outgrow that quickly. He's like your kids, chooses apples (or fruit) over fries and always takes milk over soda. Neither of my kids likes those juice bags/boxes, and rarely drink koolaid. They like real juice (Raspberry Acai is Hannah's latest favorite!).

It's nice to know that we can find stuff for them to eat wherever we go. I love that.

And for the record - I'm not a fussy eater (though I have some food allergies/intolerances). My husband is...only eats corn, green beans (cooked) and carrots (raw). Still working on him!