Picky eating: Not going to do it.

My decision to raise “non-picky eaters” and my determination to do it was re-ignited after reading this article. This approach is the one that Kevin and I decided on before we even had children but when those sweet little blue three-year old eyes are looking at you saying, “Can I please have something else?” It can be pretty difficult to say “no.” As a recovering picky eater himself, Kevin is onboard with this approach 100%, realizing all of the wonderful foods he missed out on for so many years. So…last week, I decided to stand firm and go with it.

I know that this approach may seem harsh to some but after reading the article I linked to above, I once again found my resolve to go with it. Now, with that said, I did choose to do this on the night that I KNEW it was something that Luke would like. He loves pasta, red sauce, cheese, and ground beef (what he calls “lion meat), so I knew lasagna was a good starting place. It was a little more difficult because Kevin was working late so I knew getting him over to the table would be a challenge in the first place. But, I told him, “Luke, you can eat this lasagna now or you can eat it later. If you choose not to eat it now, you will not get any snacks until you eat it.” He shrugged it off with, “okay, I’ll eat it later.” So…that was it. I had to get the kids ready and myself off to choir practice. I dropped him off in his class and told the teacher he really shouldn’t have much snack because he didn’t eat dinner. It gets a little tricky when you do this while leaving your children in someone else’s care. I wasn’t going to tell her he could NOT have a snack when she is the one who would have to experience his reaction to that for an hour.

We get home from church and immediately he says, “I’m hungry.” I told him, “you can have lasagna.” He proceeds to get a little aggravated as he is used to having a banana or crackers before bed. I reminded him no snacks until he eats the lasagna. He goes to bed. When he wakes up, he is ready for his morning routine of chocolate milk and a banana. This was a little more difficult for me…I didn’t want to send him to school on a completely empty stomach so I tell him he can have white milk or lasagna. He picks the white milk.

Next we have lunch time. We almost always go to lunch with friends on Thursdays. Its fun for all of us and we look forward to it. He hears all his friends excitedly talking about going to lunch and he says, “I get to go to lunch with my friends!!: Okay, now this was the hardest part. I really hated to break it to him that we weren’t going. I wanted to go. Kevin wanted to go. Luke wanted to go. I had to explain that he had to go home and eat lasagna. We get home- he will not eat the lasagna and goes down for a nap. I know the child is getting hungry at this point. I am hungry FOR him, for goodness sake. Fast forward to dinner.  As I was preparing dinner, I explained I was cooking something for mommy, daddy, and Emmie that he could have after he ate the lasagna. Apparently he and Kevin had a conversation about the lasagna before dinner that consisted of a lot of, “no I WON’T eat lasagna.” But the next thing I heard was, “Luke, are you ready to eat your lasagna?” “Yes, I am!!” He proceeds to eat what is on his plate and ask for seconds. Fast forward to today and he asks this morning, “Can we have lasagna tomorrow?” So…I think we have some success.

It was a difficult 24 hours but, yes, I would do it again. Am I going to force my children to eat a food that they gag on? No. But I think the true dislike foods are very few and far between. I think that most foods can at least learn to be liked. Kevin would definitely agree as he has learned to like many foods that he would not eat. This is just my experience and I think the article that I linked to can explain the reasoning behind it better than I can. But I look forward to my children experiencing foods far beyond the realm of traditional “kid” foods.

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