Alternatives

[lillibet]

I'm curious what other parents think of this post. Our solution has been that Alice doesn't have to eat what she doesn't like at dinner and then she has a before-bed snack of yogurt mixed with oatmeal and fruit, so she won't go to bed hungry, which drastically affects the ease of bedtime. And, mostly Alice will find something on her dinner plate

Comments

[bkdelong]

Hard to say. Our hardest thing is that W has no interest in food per se. He seeks anything possible to distract him from eating whether it be toys or magazines or something belonging something else. He stands in his chair, goes to the bathroom multiple times etc.

Eventually we get him to eat 2/3 of what's on his plate but sometimes it involves spooning things into his mouth while he's distracted. It's embarrassing. It's not so much he doesn't like it.

Though things he thinks he doesn't like we can get a handful of bites into him. Sometimes we propose alternatives but that doesn't seem to make a difference.

And other days he'll plow right through his meal. Haven't quite found the sweet spot yet.

[bkdelong]

Yup...he gets hyper and even more distracted culminating in belligerence and defiance. So we're doing more mood management in some respects.

[firstfrost]

My sister seems to be having good luck with the "try just one taste" theory with my nieces. The older one is very suspicious of foods she thinks she hasn't had before (she likes macaroni, but declared she didn't like spaghetti, because she didn't remember it), so "try one taste" does seem to lead to not as many foods being icky as she expects.

[kirkcudbright]

That's pretty much the approach we took with Kylie. She had to try it, then she could go make peanut butter or Cheerios or whatever. (If it was something she had previously rejected, but more than a few months ago, she had to try it again.) She took that option a lot when she was younger, but not now that she's a teenager.

Travel was a challenge when she was a pickier eater. She was 10 the last time we were in Scotland, and didn't like most of what was on offer, but discovered cheese out of desperation. Since then, she hasn't met a cheese she doesn't like, even some I won't touch.

My own childhood was one of "you have to take some of everything, and you have to finish what's on your plate." What a complete waste of time.

[lillibet]

Oh, yes--past the first bite, we don't ever coerce Alice into eating something she doesn't want. My own childhood was filled with the mixed messages of "eat more" and "eat less" and I'm trying very hard not to repeat that history with my own daughter.

Not a parent, just remembering being a kid

[antikythera]

I wonder if a hot dog is just yummy enough food that kids will love it anyways. The strategy you linked says the backup food has to be something bland. I assume that's so that if they really hate the meal they have an alternative, but at some point they'll get bored of the cheese/yogurt/tofu and decide to have a crack at the actual meal.

All I remember is that my mother tried to feed me all sorts of wacky stuff, and I ate it. When I was really little, a little of everything my parents were eating went into the food grinder for me. There were, according to my mother, a few phases where I would only eat one category of food, such as green things, orange things, meat, etc.

[xthread]

I recently had occasion to realize that one of the side effects of growing up in a single parent household was getting a lot more exposure to cooking than I might have otherwise. Which is a pretty useful life skill, as such things go. (I know, somewhat tangential, but relevant to strategies - it's a few years before she's near there yet, but being involved in meal prep is definitely one of those independence and capability-affirming activities.)

[urban_faerie_]

Looking back on my own life I ate what the grown ups were eating pretty much from the time I was able to sit at the table. I always thought this was because there was no such thing as "kid food" in my house growing up. My mom didn't keep junk food or even frozen chicken nuggets in the house. I would go over my friend's house and find their food confusing and scary. I think I barfed the first time I tried kool-aid. To this day fast food still gives me a stomach ache