Perhaps my most satisfactory moment – culinarily speaking, that is – as a parent so far was when Keira was about eight months old. I cooked Lentils; that particular legume I’d never actually eaten in my life prior to that point. I waited, I wondered, “Would she eat it? Would it taste nice?”
Yes, and yes, apparently.
Keira was an excellent eater. You offered the spoon. She took it. Heaven.
Riley, on the other hand, is fussier than a Frenchman. Leaving aside the fact that he had to independently eat ever since he could hold a spoon himself, given his particular moods, sometimes its hard to get anything in his mouth. Then, I get frustrated, he gets frustrated, he gets down from the table (oh, yeah, did I add he refuses to get in the highchair now?) and takes off. Then, it gets to 7pm and I think, I’ve got to get this kid to eat. So I offer him a cracker, or a milk arrowroot biscuit. Or ten. Perhaps a banana. Or a handful of prunes. Anything. I’m desperate.
Keira has been watching this debacle quite carefully over the past six months. So, you can guess what’s happened.
“Keira, please eat your vegetables.”
“I don’t like vegetables anymore!”
“Keira, please eat your meat.”
“I only want fish fingers!”
“Keira, eat your pasta.”
“IT NEEDS MORE CHEESE!”
“Keira, eat your potato.”
“I want chips.”
“Potatoes are chips.”
“Oh.” A beat. “Alright.” And she resentfully places a teaspoon’s full on her tongue.
So once when her diet was – if I may brag – pretty rich, now our cupboard is stocked with packet mac-and-cheese and other non-perishables. And we wonder why she went that week without a poo. Her intestines were probably frozen with all the carbs and starch.
I find myself waiting for this fussiness of Riley’s to pass. If it passes at all. I remember once seeing on the television on a current affairs show this segment about a boy who only ever, ever ate strawberry jam sandwiches. That’s it. His parents, like me, were waiting for him to grow out of ‘it’.
This boy was about ten. Lord!
Riley – don’t get any ideas.
It’s not all dire. Sometimes he floors me. Like that time he ate all of his Eggplant Parmigiana? My God. I fell to my knees, in thanks. For once I wasn’t Gordon Ramsay: all cusses and abuse (silently! in my case); no, now I was Nigella Lawson, all warm and bosomy, licking my fingers and leaning suggestively over counter-tops and tittering about the joys of food. I was a domestic goddess. Briefly.
Then the next day? He’d only eat bread.
Do you have fussy eaters? What do you do?
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
All my kids were great eaters until Ivy and Noah came along! Ivy is still pretty good, although she is turning her nose up at some salad vegies at the moment but Noah! OMG! I have never met such a fussy boy (well, I’ve read about Riley now and I think they are on the same par).
Vegetable will be eaten if I disguise them well enough, or if they are pureed into a liquid form. Now though, because he’s almost two, I put it on his plate and tell him that’s it for dinner and that he needs to at least taste the food. If he leaves it, then, oh well. Toddlers won’t let themselves starve. Mean I know but it worked with AJ (my foster son) who, when he came to us, wouldn’t eat anything green. He’s eat other colour vegies but not green (go figure). Anyhow, seeing as most vegies were green he learnt to eat them. Now he enjoys all vegies!
Good luck, I know it is very frustrating to have a fussy eater, especially when your other baby has been so easy going about food.
Amy is pretty good with her food – unless I actually spend a bit of time cooking her something. Then she absolutely won’t eat it. (maybe she blames the food for the lack of attention she was getting? idk)
I hope Riley growls out of it soon, it sounds stressful.
I don’t know.. I was very lucky, all my kids were pretty good eaters as babies/toddlers so I never had to resort to desperate measures… the fussiness has set in later, with the eldest in particular. I find that hard enough to cope with – it probably would have sent me over the edge when they were all under 5.
Our rule always was, and still is, no dessert if they don’t eat their main meal.
I’ve seen others cave in to fussy kids (eg. my sister), trying to give them “anything” as long as they’ll eat, and so they never progressed past stuff like chicken nuggets, and they are a real pain to feed when they visit. (And it was a real pain when our kids were together when she was giving her kids ‘dessert’ after they didn’t eat their main meal AND mine were still eating their main meal!)
When they’re older sometimes you can rename a meal, and they’ll eat it. (eg. one of mine said she hated ‘shepherd’s pie, but when I called it “Mince Dish”, she ate it. – but that’s not going to work with Riley’s age! (It also won’t work with my now 14 year old and fish.)
No matter what their age, when everyone hoes into their meal, particularly when it’s healthy, it puts you on cloud 9. Unfortunately, with criticism, the opposite tends to be the case. Talk about being a catalyst for bipolar disorder.
I saw the same program! Another kid would only eat chocolate biscuits from memory – they looked pretty healthy though (I wonder about their dental bills).
My kids won’t eat cheese. EVERYTHING has cheese in it… well not everything but lots of stuff. And it’s a real pain when all you want to do is make them cheese on toast and go to bed. Plus it means no lasagne (I love lasagne) and embarrassment when I order pizza.
“Hi can I order a pizza with the tomato base and some pineapple please.”
“No cheese?”
“No, no cheese.”
“Just tomato and pineapple?’
“That’s right.”
pause
“No cheese?”
etc
My kids are the same. My 5yo has always been an excellent eater, and my almost 1month old USED to be. Now he screws up his little face and spits out the most basic of stuff…and all things that he has eaten before. AND the big boy has decided not to like certain things too. I use the ‘no dessert unless you eat dinner’ thing with my big boy, but I feel guilty letting my little one starve (yeah right…he could live off his chubby legs for months!)..so I sually give in and let them have fruit..which at least thankfully they both love. Especially the expensive stuff like mangos, blueberries and strawberries. Thank goodness for Summer! Please oh please lets hope this is a phase that passes soon! At least there is comfort to know you are not alone!!!
I sympathise it is stressful .OMG I have one shocking eater .He has never eaten puree food, gags on demand and vomits …doesn’t even eat puree fruit but give him boiled rice and he eats a little when he feels like it. Even a biscuit he isn’t too fussed about.The other boy was a great eater but the last week … he has started to knock back his favourites & gag and he is faking it today …the gagging.Little sods. It is driving me over the edge.
Our 14 yr old was a fair eater as a toddler now he eats like a horse.
But by the time they get to their teens I am sure I will be wishing they didn’t eat so much.
Keira probably didn’t need to watch Riley. She’s at the correct age to stop eating. My sister-in-law used to brag about her son eating so well (Thai food, Indian food, veggies, etc.). Then he hit 4 and ate nothing except yogurt, and mac & cheese. For a year. (He’s 14 now, he got over it.) His twin brothers did the same thing.
My daughter (almost 4) eats fairly well. She loves broccoli, lima beans, corn, and green peas. She will eat all kinds of cheese. My 2-year-old son William sounds to me like Riley (I love the phrase fussy as a Frenchman). I don’t think he has consumed a green vegetable since he started table food. He will eat carrots, potatoes only in french fry form, bread and cheese. He doesn’t like meat of any kind except for the chicken nuggets at Burger King (and are they real chicken? who knows?). Neither of them eat peanut butter, or mashed potatoes, or mac and cheese. Weird weird kids. But Scott and I figured out long ago, like Tiffany, that our job is to put it in front of them, their job is to eat it. If they’re hungry, they will. We don’t have dessert as a rule, so they know this is it.