Re: Anyone here with picky-eater kids?

[Guest guest]

Thank you for saying what I was afraid to!

When I baby-sit my nieces and nephews and

they ask for breakfast, I tell them it's

eggs or nothing, and that I don't care what

their parents allow them to eat. Once my

niece wanted to have microwavable frozen

pancakes for dinner, and for me to make her

peach cobbler for desert! Have you seen the

giant sized bags of breakfast cereals they

sell in the grocery stores? They remind you

of bags of dog food. How many families put

a scoop in such bags and put them in the

pantry? When the kids get up, they know

where their bowl and spoon is and how to get

the milk out of the refrigerator. The parents

don't even have to get out of bed. Disgusting!

> Stell, I grew up in a family of 6 kids so meals were prepared for

eight.

> There was no way my father would put up with picky eating,

gripping,

> complaining about food, cooking to accommodate or any of us

just " not

> eating " and food going to waste.

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/17/03 10:18:04 PM Eastern Standard Time,

zumicat@... writes:

> I'm having a hardd time with my two younger ones eating green leafy

> veggies.

> The youngest one (3 1/2) doesn't eat kale or collards and I feel bad that

> they

> don't eat it. I typically braise it in broth.

>

> The youngest eats lots of broccoli though (daily) and both eat lots of

> fermented veggies.

Kids seem to love fermented veggies for some reason. If they're eating

those, who cares if they eat kale?

Chris

[Guest guest]

--- In , " " <mhysmith@e...>

wrote:

> Stell, I grew up in a family of 6 kids so meals were prepared for

eight.

> There was no way my father would put up with picky eating,

gripping,

> complaining about food, cooking to accommodate or any of us

just " not

> eating " and food going to waste. If you said you didn't like

something, he'd

> tell you to eat it anyway and develop a taste for it. So we all

did.

Ditto for me - but the thing is, we very rarely complained! That's

why I don't get their attitude! but you also hit on something else -

the hypoglycemia.

I'm definitely hypoglycemic, and I let it get pretty bad sometimes

(I am soooo rotten about regular meals - time management is NOT my

strong suit!) And sugar addiction is definitely a culprit, though

I'm sure it's not the only one. We've done sugar fasts before,

where I have to pull myself away from ALL sugar, and man, it's like

drug withdrawl - it's horrible! Only, with drugs, there's a limited

quantity not easily acquired....but sugar is EVERYWHERE, especially

at my mom's and MIL's (That right there is the sugar-laden house-

next-door that the kids run to - what do you do about THAT?

Especially when MIL thinks you're crazy for " denying " your kids

such " harmless " things like the yoplait yogurt - that's where she

gets it, not from me! - and fruit snacks and microwave popcorn!) and

so family gatherings are the pits, because all it takes is ONE

cookie or piece of pie or candy, and I'm off the wagon & craving

sugar (and succumbing to te cravings) again.

I don't offer them a choice - I can't, because there are too many

people, and I hate cooking anyway. I do insist that they at least

try the food I prepared....but often they are prejudiced against it

because of the name, or how it looks, or one of the ingredients (and

of course, it's always a different offending ingredient for each

kid, so the holding some back before adding the rest of the

ingredients thing doesn't help).

Maybe I'm just too wrapped up in their acceptance of my cooking? I

do feel it terribly personally when they turn up their nose. My 11

year old is always sighing " I don't care for it, mom, but I'll eat

it anyway. " I appreciate his honesty, and his willingness to

please, but dammit! Can't they like at least ONE thing that I

like? Even something as unoffending as chicken & dumplings - one

kid doesnt want the chicken, all of them hate the onions, one hates

the celery, one won't touch the dumplings.....I just can't

comprehend it! My brothers & sisters & I FOUGHT over who got to

finish off the food at our house! I can count on one hand the

instances when there were leftovers from a meal when I was growing

up! (zucchini boats stuffed with this nasty breadcrumb & mayonnaise

filling come to mind....Ewwwww!) Is it a genetic thing? Are they

programmed to be picky like my DH & his sister, and their cousins?

Y'know, I LOVE being a mom, but this is the ONE area that drives me

absoloutely bonkers. If I could have a live-in chef, I'd be in

heaven, I think!

-Stell

[Guest guest]

--- In , " wtsdv " <liberty@p...>

wrote:

The parents

> don't even have to get out of bed. Disgusting!

>

What's so disgusting about that? My kids know how to fix eggs &

oatmeal themselves (on the stove, not the crap stuff), & I am often

still in bed when they have breakfast. I work late, and they are in

bed earlier than me. So watch the generalizations, please.

The cereal may be disgusting, but I hardly think kids getting their

own breakfast (i.e. self-reliance) should be called so.

-Stell

[Guest guest]

> >

> > The parents don't even have to get out of bed. Disgusting!

> >

> What's so disgusting about that? My kids know how to fix

> eggs & oatmeal themselves (on the stove, not the crap stuff),

> & I am often still in bed when they have breakfast.

What I find disgusting is clearly the dog-food-sized bags

of cereal and their being used by lazy parents in the same

way an automatic hamster or hummingbird feeder is used.

> I work late, and they are in bed earlier than me. So watch

> the generalizations, please.

I made no such generalizations. Your quote of me above

is not complete. I was clearly expressing disgust at

neglectful parents feeding their children garbage, not

at children who are old enough to use the stove making

their own breakfast, or at people whose schedules require

them to sleep later than their children.

> The cereal may be disgusting, but I hardly think kids getting

> their own breakfast (i.e. self-reliance) should be called so.

I never called kids making their own _healthy_ breakfasts

disgusting. Most of the children I'm referring to, while

able to scoop their own cereal and pour milk on it, are

too small to use the stove. Are you truly unaware of the

sort of situation I'm describing? It really has nothing

to do with your own.

[Guest guest]

yes those are my thoughts. My older two grew up eating kale (they were

vegan for the first 3 1/2 years) I guess when your diet is so limited , kids

will eat anything LOL!

Elainie

[Guest guest]

you are a sick and demented creature for even making such an

observation! ;-))))))))) LOL

They remind you

> of bags of dog food. How many families put

> a scoop in such bags and put them in the

> pantry? When the kids get up, they know

> where their bowl and spoon is and how to get

> the milk out of the refrigerator. The parents

> don't even have to get out of bed. Disgusting!

>

>

[Guest guest]

Stell I think he meant the dog food like bags with the scoop

> The parents

> > don't even have to get out of bed. Disgusting!

> >

> What's so disgusting about that? My kids know how to fix eggs &

> oatmeal themselves (on the stove, not the crap stuff), & I am

often

> still in bed when they have breakfast. I work late, and they are

in

> bed earlier than me. So watch the generalizations, please.

> The cereal may be disgusting, but I hardly think kids getting

their

> own breakfast (i.e. self-reliance) should be called so.

>

> -Stell

[Guest guest]

They not only have octopus dumplings and octopus dumpling-flavored snack

puffs, they have octopus-flavored ice cream!

----------------------------------

And wasabi-flavoured ice cream and chocolate. Mm Mmmmmmm!~

Filippa

[Guest guest]

As I read the posts on this topic, I keep thinking of the 2 years I

spent in east Africa. There was a huge difference in the behavior of

African vs American kids -- and even vs the European kids (however,

my experience w/European kids was limited to 2 families).

I never, ever, ever heard a single African child complain about

food. I guess if you grow up knowing food isn't always available,

you're grateful for whatever you get. I wasn't in areas that had

famine, but even seasonally there were times when food was more

plentiful and times when it was scarce.

I was close friends with a British couple and ate dinner with them

and their 2 boys (ages 5 & 7) about once a week for 2 years. They

ate fairly plain fair; lots of beans and rice. Dessert was always

one piece of fruit. While at their home, I often noticed how the

boys readily ate up their meals and how I thought most American kids

I knew would have complained a lot about the food served in their

home.

I also lived with a Dutch family (3 young boys) for over a month and

the same thing -- not a single complaint over the food.

It was embarassing to see the American children complaining/whining

about food in front of Africans. We, who had the most, complained

the most. It would have been laughable if it wasn't so sad.

I don't have children, so I don't have personal experience. I was a

very picky eater when I was a child (though I still had to eat what

was on my plate). I changed at about age 20 when I decided I felt

embarrassed when eating with friends to always be the one who didn't

like so many foods. I decided to start eating everything even if I

didn't like it. Eventually I grew to like a lot of it!

But I wonder what it is about our culture, our parenting, our food

that makes for such across-the-board picky eating in children? I

wonder if it's the amount of sugar/refined grain products because

once you get the taste of sweet, it's easy to want everything to be

sweet? I haven't followed the posts closely enough to know if the

children here are eating sugar or not.

I don't know what it is, but from my experience it's a cultural

phenomenon. Has anyone else experienced this? What about the Brits

on this board?

[Guest guest]

> Interesting? Best l can understand from metabolic typing and WD is

protein

> types (more likely of northern ancestry) are most likely

sympathetic

> dominant, fast metabolizers. So undereating during the day,

overeating at

> dinner would work.

Interesting! I'm almost ALL British by ancestry, and by nature I

tend to avoid eating much early in the day, and then stuff myself at

night (not on purpose - I just forget to eat, until I'm so hungry

that I have to). That's something worth looking into....

-Stell

[Guest guest]

Haha! That reminds me of the Calvin & Hobbes strip that went something

like this:

Mom, what's for dinner?

Tortellini.

Ewwwww, grosss! Tortellini!?! I *HATE* Toretellini!

[in the next frame, Calvin is at the dictionary:] Tortellini. T-O-R...

Tom

-- In , " mehndimama " <mehndimama@y...>

wrote:

>

> I do think there is something to the " being resistant just because

> it's new " speculation - my kids will decide they don't like

> something just because the NAME sounds funny! I tell them we're

> having enchiladas for dinner, the immediate reaction is " I hate

> enchiladas " , even though they have never once in their life tasted

> an enchilada. Maybe they just hate my cooking? Or maybe I should

> invent new names for everything? I got the kids to eat ravioli

> (yeah, I know, bad stuff - but that's what we were having that day)

> once after they proclaimed a hatred for ravioli by calling

> it " pillow spaghetti " . They hate ravioli, but adore pillow

> spaghetti!

>

> I WISH I could remember being so unreasonable - it would be so much

> easier!

>

> -Stell