Thursday, May 31, 2007

More Ruminations On Parenting the Pathologically Picky Eater

I made the mistake of checking out some of the reader comments on the Times article. What nastiness. Parents patting themselves on the back because their kids eat what they eat. I just hate this 'blame' thing -It's NOT my fault that my kid hates 99% of what I eat. I put table food in front of him from the get go, and he never liked most of it. All this stuff about "developing a palate" is bullshit. Either your kid likes and is willing to try a bunch of different foods, or they're don't. And it pisses me off to no end that Random Internet People insist that it's my fault.

He comes by it honestly. You only have to sit and watch my darling husband systematically pick the beans and chunks of tomatoes out of a bowl of chili, or the minuscule slices of mushrooms out of a lasagna, or the avocado and cucumbers out of a salad to see that perhaps this is genetic, not a result of bad parenting.

My daughter at 13 months has eaten a wider variety of foods than he's eaten in his nearly 4 years. My neighbor's boys love pretty much all food, and LOTS of it. (This is funny because their parents are very slender and height/weight proportionate --unlike Rich and I who have a tendency to carry a little extra junk in our trunks). She said her boys 'came that way' and she never had to push them to try things. They just like all kinds of food.

I've introduced Kaylee to a lot of new foods over the last couple of months and she really likes to try new things in a way that Eric never did.

So, Random Internet Judgmental Fucktardards: IT'S NOT MY FAULT. HE CAME THAT WAY!

Really...

I swear.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Feeding the Picky Child: The Only Parenting Choice I am Truly Defensive of

This article came out in The Times today. The author says that kids menus are ruining our children's palates. He thought they were FABULOUS when his kids were little (duh, that's what they're for) but now he sees the error of his ways.

Oh, there is SO much to say about this. First of all, most good 'adult' restaurant food, while delicious contains about a pound of butter. NPR recently did a nutritional analysis of high end restaurant food, and it's just about as bad for you as MacDonalds. Just because it's from a fancy restaurant don't make it health food.

From the time Eric could feed himself in the post baby food era, he was very selective. It was a challenge to get him to eat diverse foods. The boy does not eat bread, except for the inside of a sweet baguette, or similar bread, so sandwiches were out. He will not eat meat.

He. Hates. Most. Food. Even sweets. I know this because he will try things to a certain extent. He will stick his tongue onto some foods.

What am I supposed to do? Fight with him about it every single day? Starve him until he caves? He has been this way from the get go. So many parents are horrified that some people make their kids special meals. But it's just the way he is wired. My husband has all these weird food issues particularly regarding the texture of food. Eric is much the same way.

If Eric was only eating chicken fingers and french fries, I'd be worried and more inclined to force the issue. His diet is not diverse, but it has everything he needs nutritionally speaking, carbs, protein, fiber. Some kids are just like that. My daughter is not, and I introduced her to solids much the same way I did him. She loves to eat what I eat. Eric is so happy to eat his pasta. He doesn't try new foods at school either. It's just the way he's built, and we work around it. It's annoying as hell and I don't like it per se. But the alternative seems much worse. I wouldn't force Eric to do anything else that he was frightened of, so I think we'll stick to his carbs for now.

Tell David Kamp the author of the Times article that he is welcome to come to my house for a week and get my preschooler to eat like a grown up. I will give him $500 if he succeeds.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

After The Farm

We went out to Western MA and had a fabulous weekend out on the Farm. We hiked, we hung out, I baked a bunch of cakes.

Speaking of which, I have started a new cooking blog here: http://thatlooksedible.blogspot.com

Not sure if I'll be able to keep it up, but I've been cooking and baking a lot lately and want a place to jot down what I'm doing.