When my brother was two, my mother asked our pediatrician how she could get him to eat more foods. The doctor said, “Well, what does he eat?”
My mother said, “He won’t eat anything but hot dogs, orange juice, and Hershey bars.”
The doctor said, “Eh, don’t worry about it. That’s not so bad, and if you fight him about it, he’ll dig in his heels longer. Just don’t let him eat more than one candy bar a day.”
Now, you may take issue with that, and to me, a Hershey bar a day does sound like a lot for a small child. But it worked, because now my brother eats Thai food.
Baguette likes hot dogs just fine. Pizza, too. But her current favorite is macaroni and cheese.
She wants it all the time. Yesterday morning she woke up early, so she had breakfast at home. I put her usual scrambled egg in front of her, and she looked at me and said, hopefully, “Macaroni and cheese.”
I said, “I’d like you to eat your egg first.”
She said, “Nooooo! Macaroni and cheese!”
On the plus side, she’s not picky about some aspects of it. I want to make it from scratch, but I don’t always have time. And she doesn’t care whether it’s homemade or Kraft. So sometimes I succumb to the lure of simplicity and speed–but then the next round is homemade.
On the negative side, she is picky about other aspects. Last week I made it from scratch and added pureed butternut squash (Is sneaking vegetables into dishes good or bad? I don’t care–I’m doing it.) No, that’s not what she cared about. The problem was that in what was clearly a fit of insanity, I purchased a box of bow tie pasta.
In my defense, I thought she’d think it was fun.
I know, I know. The outcome was totally predictable. She asked for macaroni and cheese, and I placed a bowl of my lovingly crafted meal in front of her, and she instantly screamed, “Noooooo! Macaroni and cheese.”
I tried, but there was no reasoning with her. And in her defense, that wasn’t macaroni and cheese. It was bowtie pasta with cheese.
Oh, this is deliciously wonderful — of course bowtie pasta isn’t macaroni. Silly mommy.
My kids – you have NO IDEA what they’re going to eat . . . there is no consistency. Well, popcorn, almost always, will be eaten. That’s about it. Grapes one day aren’t liked the next. Apples, sometimes. Leila will almost always eat a banana. CJ, nope. Chicken is continuously asked for, but seldom actually eaten.
Fortunately/unfortunately, it’s rare that the kids dig in their heels and claim to only ever want one kind of food. And we haven’t had to resort to “hiding veggies.” But there are days that, well, they seem to barely eat everything.
SHE WAS FINE WITH CAVATAPPI A MONTH AGO!!!!
Plus I really only “hide” veggies in ways I’d eat them myself. So I’ll add butternut squash puree to mac and cheese, but I’m not putting spinach in her brownies. Although we don’t let her have brownies, so maybe that’s a moot point.
Did I tell you that my sister fed them perogies, and they couldn’t get enough? CJ kept saying how much he loved them. Never could get them to touch them before.
I sneak in pureed cauliflower whenever possible. I do also try to get my kids to try new foods but sometimes you got to sneak in vegetables!
I keep forgetting about cauliflower.
I still only like hot dogs and macaroni & cheese. My parents never tricked me into eating anything but they made me try everything at least once. “Just try it”, their repeated pleas still echo in my head.
I feel that my job is to expose her to as many options as possible, but she’s going to like what she likes. And by the time we’re adults, we’re entitled to say “I only like hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.”
I hate sardines and eggplant and brussels sprouts (and a few other things). In the spirit of “tastes change,” I’ve tried them more than once as an adult, prepared different ways. And I just don’t like them. So that’s that.
Bestie has very distinct ideas about her pasta. Spaghetti is “noodles” and curly or bowtie pasta is “pasta.” Macaroni and cheese is definitely not pasta. And God help us if we get it wrong!
I guess it’s all part of their process of defining their world. Yay?
Guess so… Most days I find it funny. Daddy doesn’t understand it, and since he is not a huge pasta lover (like I am) he gets bored with the repetition. But that also falls into the category of needing to be better at meal planning, which is a work in progress…
Isn’t it, though?
I was REALLY picky like your brother, and my mom never made it a thing. I ate what I ate. Thai food is my favorite.
Mr. Sandwich doesn’t care for it, but I do!
I am a truly lucky Mamma in this regard – my child is a truly adventurous eater. There is practically no food she won’t at least try. However. Mac and cheese is still the number one favorite and her default meal of choice. Even when I was still pregant with her, this preference reared its ugly head – the only thing I could stand to eat for about three and a half months of my pregnancy? Kraft Easy Mac. Unreal.
I read Origins by Annie Murphy Paul that talks about evidence for how prenatal decisions influence babies, and food was one of her topics. I don’t agree with all of the conclusions she draws, but it was an interesting book. I can’t point to anything as specific as mac and cheese, but Baguette does like spicy flavors–and I did better with spicy than with bland until the very end of my pregnancy.
Macaroni and cheese is ONLY elbows. I have learned this the hard way! I have also learned to always specify the shape of pasta if it’s not elbows. 50% of the time, it still passes. But what will not pass with DS is KD. Must be homemade mac n cheese. Which, you know, I’m glad he’s not into processed foods (even if his Dad and I get cravings now and then for KD, which we totally indulge), but sometimes it would be nice to have a slightly quicker option.
Last night she made it clear that Kraft, and only Kraft, is acceptable. Which makes me sad because of the processing. I may have to try other brands, though, and see if I can find something a little less chemical that is still acceptable.