Monday, March 15, 2010

Picky vs. Not Picky

My older son is a really picky eater. I think he gets it from his Daddy, who has actually been making really great strides towards eating a more balanced diet recently. There are several different types of picky eaters and my son is really pretty maxed out on the scale. He is one of the only children I know who doesn't like applesauce or raisins or bananas or any fruit at all really. We spend more time than I'd like struggling to get him to have one bite of a fruit or veggie at each meal. The whole thing can be frustrating and exhausting to say the least, especially when I consider myself to be pretty experimental when it comes to food.

This is why when my second son was born I just kind of assumed he'd be the same way. You can imagine my thrill when Clark began eating bananas at the young age of 1. Then we tried applesauce and raisins and green beans and watermelon etc etc etc. He liked them all. I have felt my heart leap each time he eats a new fruit or veggie without any struggle at all.



So here we are today...Monday. This hasn't been a great Monday for several reasons (daylight savings, personal issues, health issues, etc etc etc). So when Clark asked for some of my blackberries and strawberries at lunch today I figured, what the heck. I was near tears when he woofed them down and asked for more!



Yesterday I began part three of my dietary changes. I spent the last two weeks being meat free and the two weeks before that were spent adding many fresh fruits and veggies into my regular diet. Now I am embarking on the third phase of the plan, which is eliminating processed sugar. I have done this before with great success and fallen off the wagon, so to speak. So here we are enjoying our dessert of fresh blackberries and local strawberries. What a thrill to finally have a family member to share my love of fruit and veggies with!!!

3 comments:

Heat said...

FWIW:

I was looking for information over the weekend and accidentally found out that apparently children have more and more sensitive tastebuds than adults. Babies have tastebuds on their cheeks and roofs of mouths, besides on their tongue. (Weird?!) So that's why many kids don't like many veggies - they're really super-bitter to them, whereas they aren't so much to us.

Doesn't explain fruits (which are sweet), but I thought you might find that at least interesting, if not useful.

Karen L. said...

It's nice that you got one child that will eat the things you like. I could sit and eat with him ... especially when he starts on watermelon .... and raspberries ... and strawberries .... and blueberries .... well, you get the point.

Oiyi said...

It made want to cry to when I read how he wolfed down blackberries and strawberries. My daughter started refusing food at 18 months and it has been a struggle ever since. She was such a great eater and liked to try everything. Now, I am lucky if I get any real food into her. She prefers dry crunchy things like cereal all the time. It makes me so sad since I love to cook and she won't let anything pass her lips that she does not recognize which is everything.