Thursday, December 6th, 2007
If I had a penny for every time they don’t finish their meals
I probably would be a millionaire by now, or close to it, if I got a penny for every time our kids don’t finish their meals. I would be sufficiently wealthy if they finish even just half of what I put in front of them.
We have one Very Picky Eater, and one Semi-Picky Eater. Almost every meal I have to repeatedly say phrases such as sit down please, eat your food please, NO JUMPING on your chair, please DON’T BOTHER YOUR sister/brother, eating time is not playing time, don’t play with your food….
Not much luck at all.
Although they are not malnourished (and you can see they are not, from the Halloween pictures a couple of posts below this one), they aren’t getting all the basic food groups into their bodies most meals.
Many people have told me that when they were younger, their parents used to tell them something along the lines of “there are little children starving in China / Africa, you’re lucky to have food on the table,” and that usually worked to get them to straighten up.
I haven’t tried that yet, even so, I’m pretty sure they will just giggle and look at me like I’m a crazy mama.
When I was growing up (in rural China), having enough food on the table was a problem. So needless to say, we devoured any and all foods during mealtime without any persuasion from our parents.
Do (did) you have a picky eater or eaters at your home? How do you get them to eat without bribing them? Or is the adage that, they’ll eat what they need…?
on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 7:07 pm:
My middle child eats practically nothing. If I find something he likes, I give it to him until he’s sick of it. He currently only eats yogurt with granola on top and Trix cereal, so that’s what he gets. He’ll get sick of it soon and itll be back to finding something else. The big one will eat anything if he is guaranteed a dessert at the end.
on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 11:06 pm:
I may have the absolute opposite problem here. If I had penny for every time my child said “I’m hungry”…..We’d be living in a penthouse with a driver named Alfred. My daughter is the most food driven child in the world. …much like trained animals at the zoo. If you want her to do anything….you can guarantee it to happen if you offer her food. But I try to refrain from food being a reward. She does however, hate some foods such as spinach, sausage, hot dogs, cucumbers…..and a few others.
But the sit down please, eat your food please, NO JUMPING on your chair, eating time is not playing time, don’t play with your food….” that is a staple at our meals too
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 3:10 am:
My sister and I were very picky eaters when we were small, but Mum very bribed us. In fact, I think it must be her eyes that made us shiver and gulp our food down!
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 8:45 am:
my child barely eats a thing. as a matter of fact, he’s been battling a cold for the past week and he finally ate something last night after about 6 days of absolutely nothing. but even when he’s not sick it’s tough to get this kid to eat much at all. he’s very picky and usually prefers only rice and noodles. it totally drives me nuts because i keep thinking he needs to eat more veggies and other more nutritional foods.
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 8:49 am:
Yes, I have picky eaters. I was and still am a picky eater. I don’t even attempt to force them to try foods they don’t want. I just make the most of the healthy things they do like.
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 8:57 am:
Mine are picky, too. Just in a different way. The older one gets migraines from additives, so everything we eat is like organic and fresh and stuff. So they are food snobs. They look at stuff and roll their eyes if it doesn’t meet their standards. Pretty funny at school. But they’ll eat sushi, and Greek, and Indian and all kinds of stuff. And I don’t have a million McD’s toys laying around.
I just never gave them a choice on what to eat. I made stuff for us and fed it to them and that’s what they ate.
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 12:09 pm:
I was the picky eater. Hehe. This line –> “there are little children starving in China / Africa, you’re lucky to have food on the table”? Worked on me.
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 4:35 pm:
For my picky eater who loves to “ferment” food in her mouth, we just need to say the magic words, “No TV.” But then again, I don’t know how long this will last. *sigh*
on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 7:31 pm:
I feel you. My 3 year old girl is the worst picky eater, only 1 kind of food - homemade congee. Well, make it 2, fish. OK, milk, candies, cookies, crackers don’t count, I guess those are bonus. Good thing is, my 2 year old boy eats everything you give him even pea, or he anything can get. 2 extreme characters. I got lucky, I guess, at least, both of them would sit still even they don’t enjoy the food.
on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 2:07 am:
I have no advice. I have one very picky eater, who amazes me if he finishes half of his meals.. and he is somehow, magically chubby. I don’t get it. But he’s healthy, and he gets his vitamins daily so I don’t worry about it.
WHO said that their parents telling them there are starving children in Africa, actually WORKED?! That is so funny! I remember being told that, and I remember looking at my grandma or mom like they were crazy. What little kid thinks about such thinks? Its so far removed from their life and the yucky dinner you want them to eat.
on Sunday, December 9th, 2007 at 2:10 am:
Ooh! One more thing - can’t remember where I saw it posted recently, but Barilla pasta has a ton of protein, and tastes really good. If they’ll eat pasta, maybe try it.
on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007 at 1:48 am:
one picky eater and one semi-picky eater….it drives me crazy BUT I figure all I have to do is play my cards right and in about 10 years or so they’ll be feeding their own dang picky selves. Good plan, no?
on Monday, January 14th, 2008 at 12:43 am:
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