I am not ashamed to admit it, but I’m near defeat when it comes to getting my girls to eat at dinner time. Averey fusses about what’s on her plate unless it’s chicken nuggets, pierogies or Kraft mac and cheese (which I never serve—she just gets it at my in-laws’ house). I am thankful for her chow hound of a sister, who has no discernment when it comes to putting food in her mouth (or dirt, but that’s a later post). However, we’ve noticed lately that as she is approaching age 3, she is becoming a little pickier, but I think it’s because she echoes her sister’s “yucks”. She still will try most things though, but I fear I will have another uber-picky child on our hands. Since Kelsey has been eating solid foods, I have been running an experiment of sorts with my girls, with no real science involved. I realize that may make me sound more like a researcher than a mother, but I’m proving a point (to myself) to make me feel just a little bit better about the polar opposites my girls are when it comes to food intake.
I was in two very different life situations when I became a mother to these wonderful girls. Being a single mother when Averey was a baby, feeding her was more about convenience than substance, to an extent. I breastfed because it was free (and I always wanted to, first and foremost), and while I should have been interested in saving money, I bought her baby food in jars. I wasn’t really cooking for myself and didn’t think feeding her Schwan’s food was the best option. She was a great eater when she started—I followed the advice to start her on veggies before fruit, and she gobbled every slurpy spoonful up. I figured I had a good eater on my hands. As she got older, she got pickier. By the time Jake and I got married when Averey was 2, we were cooking meals, but she wasn’t too big on what we would eat. We became short order cooks, but that got old fast. And so does the whining and complaining about anything that is on her plate at dinner time. (This mom heaves a great sigh.)
Kelsey, on the other hand, was rarely fed jarred baby food. Even though I was married, working and had a 3 & ½ year old, I could’ve settled for convenience once again. But somehow when I would go shopping, I saw the baby food as a lot more expensive! My mom had given me the baby food grinder she used for my brother and me, and while I used it to easily mash up bananas and maybe peas for Averey, I decided to utilize this 30+ year old grinder to its fullest potential. I ground up every single meal we ate so Kelsey could enjoy it too, and then would grind up some the leftovers, and freeze in an ice cube tray for later consumption. The textures and colors (and smells) were so much more palatable (in my mom opinion), that Kelsey was much more of a foodie than her sister ever was. Two-and-a-half years later, this kid is an incredible eater. I’m convinced that because of their baby diets, it has shaped their eating habits today.
That’s not to say that Averey doesn’t eat. She gobbles up fruit and veggies, and I am grateful for that much since most kids seem to be picky about those food items. She has a sweet tooth like her mama, and while I limit our junk food intake, I can totally understand where she’s coming from when she wants candy! But now that she’s 6, it’s starting to get old when she fusses about a meal that we’ve already eaten several times. We’ve tried pretty much every approach in the book to get her to eat at dinner. The only thing that seems to work (most of the time) is that she has to eat at least 6 bites since she’s 6 years old. Even if she kind of likes the dish, she wants to stop at 6 and believes that to be sufficient in order to receive a treat or privileges. I think what irritates me the most is she’ll say she’s not hungry, but if we tell her she can have a treat, she’ll automatically perk up and be starving. She always seems to be hungry a half-hour (or sooner) after she hasn’t eaten her supper. We’ve tried saving her plate for later when she gets hungry, but those are the evenings she’ll never get hungry again.
In having children, I try and put myself in their shoes and remember what it was like to be a picky kid. I know as an adult, I still don’t like mayonnaise, or any salad with a mayo base (potato, macaroni, etc. Someone once said I must be oh-so-fun at a picnic.), olives, pickles (been pregnant 3 times and never craved them—although the hubby did can some last fall that aren’t too bad), mushrooms, mustard, I didn’t start eating ketchup until a couple years ago (and that doesn’t mean I will put it on anything voluntarily—it just means I won’t scrape it off a food it has tainted), I have to heat up cold meat sandwiches (regardless of whether I’m pregnant—listeriosis risk—or not), but that’s not being picky, right? I mean, all of those foods I’ve listed are gross! I at least try everything before I say I don’t like it, multiple times. I’m just not sure what it is about her taste buds that severely limits the joy of tasting so many wonderful foods. Surely she is pickier than I ever was.
Of course, I would only drink Tang until I was 22 when I had to start buying it for myself and realized that after years of turning my nose at orange juice, it really wasn’t so bad. That’s probably a good thing, because my insides would probably be orange by now.
Having a picky kid does have one perk, as Jake pointed out tonight: it’s cheap.
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