Eat your vegetables!
My kid is a terrible eater. Very, very picky. I joke that she only eats brown food. If it's crap, she'll eat it. If it's good for her she "doesn't like it." We had a major diplomatic incident at her school over her refusal to eat an apple. She eats macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets and hot dogs and crappy cereal and chocolate.And Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.
So I don't care. Because she eats Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.
When she was two, I took her to a check-up and she had dropped from the 90th percentile in weight to the 10th percentile. The doctor said we should go to a specialist just to make sure there was nothing wrong. So I took her to a Pediatric Gastro-Interoligst. This guy spends all day dealing with kids and their food and digestion. So I brought up the subject of her picky eating habits.
Me: (Worried) She won't eat any fruits or vegetables.
Doctor: (Chuckles) I don't either. My wife has to sneak them in on me, in rice or something.
Me: (Miffed) But what about the nutrients?
Doctor: Does she eat Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches?
Me: Yeah.
Doctor: That has everything she needs.
So the insurance company paid him $450 a visit every month for half a year for him to weigh her and tell me to buy Boost instead of milk. And she gained weight. And at her 5-year-old check-up last month she was declared to be perfectly healthy. And she just had a Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich for breakfast. And now she's eating her 10th miniature Hershey chocolate of the day. And it's not even 10 in the morning. And I'm fine with that.
posted by Nashville Knucklehead @ 9:50 AM
4 Comments:
I have no kids, but I do have nieces at The Commune where I live.
They hate food unless it has chocolate in it, or ramen noodles.
Why do ramen noodles rate, I do not know?
Hope all is well in Knuck. L. Head Land.
I have exactly the opposite challenge with my kid. Somehow -- and no, it wasn't because I'm a nutrinazi -- she's the kid who lines up for extra steamed brocolli and begs for an orange rather than a fruit-rollup. I would say it's from her dad's side of the family but my nephew hasn't eaten anything but PopTarts and prepackaged peanut-butter-n-chee crackers in ten years. Anyhow, it's plenty damn annoying when I'm all set to dive into that bag of Hershey Miniatures myself and get the sad-eyed clown look of disappointment because Mommy didn't finish her apple. I also get the stink-eye from other mothers who assume I have brainwashed her into being a judgmental carrot-cruncher so I can do a snide Mommy drive-by on class field trips when their kid is bouncing off the walls on a steady diet of Ho-Hos and Tang.
Where food's concerned, kids like what they like and there's no percentage in worrying about it much.
Hell, you've got it easy. My older son never even made the chart. Too skinny, too short. He still is, and he's now 19. Eh, at least he's taller than me. And he still would rather eat the crap.
The younger son is 14 and loves the veggies, whole grains, and once ate 14 peaches in one sitting. He is now taller than his (older) brother. Go figure.
The only thing I can tell you is: if you don't want her to eat the sugary and processed shit, just don't have it in the house. We, the parents, are in charge here, aren't we?
I don't mean to be preachy here, but I've been on both sides of this issue, and the fact remains that WE have control over what our kids eat.
No doubt you'll be wanting to contact me for more of my fabulous parenting tips.
My 3-year-old has been eating string cheese and bread for dinner for a while. Thankfully she likes fruit, but veggies, forget about it. Have you tried the new V8 Splash? It has veggie juice in it but it's disguised by the fruit juice. We've also bought the "gummy bear" vitamins. Any way, I feel your picky eater pain. My 12-month-old eats more for dinner than my 3-year-old lately (but she weighs 35 pounds so she's not a toothpick.)
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