Picky eaters are born, not made. I blame Steve’s DNA.
It’s Pile-on-the-College-Kids week at the New York Times editorial page. Last week, Brooks complained that kids are too serious, then later complained that they aren’t serious enough. Today, Friedman says that they are diverted from real activism by virtual politics on the computer.
What happens when an actress wants to take some time off a show to spend time with her new baby? They fire her, cut the head off her character and put it in a box. Let that be a lesson to all you demanding broads.
Apt. 11d 
They still quote the “experts” claiming that you can train kids out of being picky, which puts the blame right back on the parents for not being sufficiently diligent in introducing new foods. I was excited by the article–at last, a sympathetic voice–until I got to that part.
Lyra is curious enough about new foods to say that she wants some, but as soon as I offer her a bite, she says “yucky” (generally without even tasting). Sometimes she will taste, but the new food is invariably spit out. I tell myself that *I* was a picky eater, and that she will grow out of it sooner or later. She is right smack dab in the middle of the age range for picky eating (2-5), and she starting rejecting foods that she used to like around 2 1/2.
LikeLike
Actually, if I were a college student I would be terrified of doing anything because some bloviating pontificator like Brooks or Friedman could seize upon my actions to mis-represent them as evidence in support of their otiose and banal “insight” du jour.
LikeLike
Maybe the only cultural universal really is that the old always complain about the young.
LikeLike
Wow — a single comment that includes “bloviating”, “pontificator”, “otiose”, “banal” and “du jour”. That is unprecedented!!
LikeLike
I’ve found hunger works. Not starvation, by any means, but a calm assertion that, “this is what’s for dinner.” I don’t torment kids by repeatedly offering foods they don’t like, but they have to take one bite of a “new” food. They also have to eat (or not eat, their choice) food which they’ve eaten before. Milk, salad, and apples are always available for the hungry, but I’m not producing special meals for the picky.
If kids know they can game the system, they will.
LikeLike
Oh, you have no idea how incredibly nasty some tv writers can be. Not all. But definitely some.
LikeLike
That’s interesting – I thought the two Brooks articles and the Friedman article were more sympathetic than judgmental of the kids they talk about. I wish that Friedman had gone a bit further, though, and recognized that many of today’s young people focus elsewhere than on the political process because they don’t feel they can make a difference through politics. At least I assume that’s how they feel – I don’t really qualify as “young people” any more but that’s certainly how I feel most of the time.
LikeLike
Ha. They’re likely to have kids on the brain at the NYT because Time Out rolled out that new Kids calendar product. It’s a smart idea and they must be kicking themselves.
LikeLike
My kids are picky eaters (and they are picky about different things…how extra annoying). My husband and I were picky too (as kids) but now like everything. I hope that will happen with my kids as well. Although right now it seems like a lifetime of mac and cheese and hamburgers for them. Sigh.
Very nasty tv writers, those…
LikeLike
Julia, your formula seems so simple. It is so simple. Julia, dear, you do not have a truely picky eater.
My son ate everything we ate until his third birthday (almost to the day). We had thought that we were doing everything right and that we “made” our son a non-picky eater. His transformation happened so suddenly that we couldn’t offer him things he’d like because we had no idea what he’d accept. We’d put out the same meals that he had happily been eating last week and get a stone wall. If we tried to insist that he eat something (something, mind you, that he had been eating happily – even enthusiastically – since he started eating solid food), he would just calmly say he’s not hungry any more. Then, he’d wake at four o’clock in the morning very hungry and crying. It took us months to figure out how to get enough food into him so that he could sleep through the night again. Julia, it sounds like you just have not really been there.
LikeLike
An anonymous kate, as I know neither you, nor your children, how can I judge?
I have known children who are beyond the catch all phrase “picky eater.” Some of these kids have sensory integration disorder, or acid reflux, or physical reactions to certain foods. One child found eating itself to be painful. My system worked for my kids, but there are conditions which require medical help.
LikeLike