Picky Eaters

A week or two ago Ryker had a friend over that was a very picky eater. He didn't like anything I fixed for lunch and when I offered a snack later he refused. The offensive food? Apple Jacks cereal. Who doesn't like Apple Jacks (or brown bread or turkey or cheese curls) for crying out loud? It's just sugar rolled into a little doughnut shape anyway.

Before I had kids one of my biggest goals was to make sure that they would not be picky eaters. My children would eat anything set before them because I would train them from birth to do so. I tried. I really did. I fed Ryker every baby food under the sun and he ate it all, until.....green beans. Even as a baby he would gag and throw up every spoonful of green beans that I gave him. So that became my new rule: If it makes you physically gag you don't have to eat it. Then Ryker got older and pickier and Cainan came along and got older and pickier and then Kinley was born picky from day one. What did I do wrong?

Nothing. It was Brian's fault!! After all he is a very picky eater. When I met him he wouldn't eat salad, tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, peanut butter, nuts, mayonnaise, sour cream or anything made with those ingredients. He was pretty much a meat, potaotes and cheese man. He must have set a bad example for our kids. After all, I eat everything (well, except for american cheese, velveeta, asparagus, and organ meat.) I didn't cater to the kids, that's for sure. No sirree. My children were not indulged at mealtime. They were threatened, scolded, bribed and yelled at...but certainly not given in to. (Maybe that is why I preferred to eat in a different room.)

After all of the screaming and tears and cold, stiff food I've almost given up. I'd rather just sit and enjoy a meal with my family than fight my way through it and end up with indigestion. If that means in the grand war of children vs. parents I have lost the nutrition battle....then who cares. They'll just have to develop their healthy eating habits as reasoning adults, like I did. But just as I lose hope their is a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.

Ryker eats green beans now. Well, maybe "eats" isn't the correct word. He actually swallows them whole with a drink of milk, but who cares. They are officially entering his system. He has also developed a love of fresh pears and most other fruits. Cainan still won't even touch an apple or a pasta noodle but maybe there is hope for him yet. Kinley...oh boy...who knows?