Barbara_in_FL

I warn you that some people will take you seriously ;-)
I was in a local delicatessen recently and a child of about 2 1/2 pulled at her mother's skirt and said, "My olives?"
Her mother bought her a small tub of olives and the child was eating them like sweets.

I still shudder at the memory that I went through an anti-shrimp phase for about two years, starting around age 8. What was I thinking?

My husband and I are adventurous eaters. My two kids are 14 and 16. One will try anything and everything, and goes out of his way to order, make or try different foods. When he was a little guy, he kept trying to grab the Chinese mustard at one meal. Maybe he was 2. I kept telling him it was hot and he wouldn't like it. He kept insisting, so I gave him a spoon with a tiny bit. Don't you know, he loved it and kept asking for more! Now he eats extremely hot sauce as a snack with a few chips. He has sushi almost every day after school as a snack.

The other child has definite likes and dislikes. He's never been catered to, as far as making separate meals, so he'll try a bit of everything and then eat what he likes from the meal. As he's gotten older, his tastes of expanded, but it's clear that he has certain likes and dislikes. I try to generally make meals he'll like when he's home and then things he doesn't care for when he's not here. Steak is his number one favorite.

My mother and father-in-law are not the least bit adventurous with their meals. The first time I made tacos for them, they ate them suspiciously. I consider it a triumph that DH went from that kind of childhood to meeting me and subsequently trying lots of new things and liking almost everything.

Once, I had a family with 3 children over for dinner. I couldn't believe it when the mother asked me to make 3 different versions of the pasta dish I was serving. One with everything, one without any added cheese and one without any vegetables. Yikes. I kind of had a little meltdown since that wasn't anything I ever did for my kids, but did it because she asked me to and that's the way she fixes things for her kids. I kept saying that I was mixing everything together and she kept saying "well, can't you make it this way for so and so and then this way for so and so and then this way for so and so?"

MissPrism on Jan 1, 10 at 2:51am
Barbara_in_FL

I warn you that some people will take you seriously
I was in a local delicatessen recently and a child of about 2 1/2 pulled at her mother's skirt and said, "My olives?"
Her mother bought her a small tub of olives and the child was eating them like sweets.


I used to get olives in my Easter basket when I was little. Much prefered them to candy. I find I'm picier now than when I was little. Then I'd eat kidneys , liver , head cheese, but not now!

I was a very picky eater as a child. I hated most vegetables, which considering that my mom usually heated up canned vegetables and that was the vegetable for the day, I can't say I blame myself.

Eventually I discovered real vegetables & have been a vegetarian for a long time. So I guess you could say I'm still a picky eater as I don't eat meat. But I love all sorts of ethnic food and eat a much wider variety of foods than my parents ever did. They thought Italian food was spicy!

Kids are born with certain personality quirks. Some are born shy, others are always extroverted. You can't turn a shy kid into an extrovert no matter what you do or how you may try to punish the kid. And some kids seem to be born as picky eaters. Those who haven't been a picky eater or haven't raised a picky eater may think it's easy to get kids to eat anything if you're enough of a disciplinarian - but it's not any easier than trying to get a shy kid to become an extrovert.

I should add that my son also was a picky eater and somehow managed to grow up to be a health 6 foot tall adult who know eats all sorts of foods.

I have read that it has to do, somewhat, with taste receptors. Some can taste certain chemicals and some can't.

Same for smell. That's why some people can smell what happens after you eat asparagus and others cannot.

Actually, kerouac, that unique olfactory experience is a metabolic phenomenon. Some people have the enzyme required to break down the asparaginine in the veggie and some don't. Those that do not are readily identifiable at the urinal.

Many children become picky eaters because their parents give in to temper tantrums and pouting. I once watched a friend make three different dinners for her daughter because she didn't like each of the previous choices (none of which were the entrees the rest of us were eating!). The child's entire food world is reduced to chicken nuggets and hot dogs. Parents think it's just easier to give into the child's demands, while in the long run it makes it more difficult for everyone in the family.

I have three now grown daughters, and we had a rule - this is dinner, if you don't like it then you will just have to go hungry. Just be thankful to God that you have good food to put in your stomach. When went to Italy when they were 14, 11, and 11, we had a a much more enjoyable time because they really enjoyed all of the Italian culture, including the food.

I agree with the "many factors" take on the situation.

My kids have always been "adventurous" eaters, never turning up their noses at anything, even when very small.

While I would like to smugly take credit for it, in all honesty I can't. They were born that way - food just wasn't an issue for them.

I know parents sometimes inadvertently contribute to food issues, but I don't believe that they create all of them. I've seen too many families where one child is incredibly picky while others aren't. Even among my own 7 siblings, I have just one sister who was an incredibly picky eater as a child. Nothing my parents tried worked with her. And believe me, with 8 children, my parents certainly did not have the time or inclination to cater to her. But she remained picky until she outgrew it as an adult.

I once read of some studies on children's taste buds that indicated that some of them are MUCH more sensitive to bitter tastes, for example, than most adults and even some other children are. So I think biology plays at least some role in food preferences.

Kids aren't the only picky eaters!

My grand daughter doesn`t even want her food to touch on the plate. She won`t try anything new. She will eat a few vegetables though. Her brother will eat anything put before him and they were raised the same, so who knows?

This is an interesting thread. I'd bet my dinner that most of the comments are made by people who are not currently raising small children. My son (4) would live off fruits, vegetables, bread and cheese if I let him. We eat as a family and he has to try everything but we never force him to clean his plate. If I know that he actually likes the food but is just acting out he has to eat 4 bites.

Current child rearing thought is that as long as children are within healthy height and weight ranges food shouldn't be forced on them. Many adults and young adults have food issues. Some people believe that a cause of that is not having control over what they ate while growing up.

I think it's like any aspect of parenting. It's my job to provide interesting opportunities, give some encouragement, and then step back to let him make his own choices. And just like parenting, I hope no one is watching us for an hour at a restaurant and then making assumptions about the rest of our lives.

Seamus, I read a scientific study where people were paid to whiff the product of both types of people, and it all smelled the same to them. The people who don't smell it just can't smell it, but it is there.

It is also interesting to note that the body produces that odor long before the asparagus has even made any progress in the digestive tract. The moment the body knows that asparagus has been ingested, some strange chemical factory goes to work elsewhere and can produce, yes, "asparagus pee" within 30 minutes.

DH is always grumbling that DS is so picky.

further discussion reveals that DS's dislikes are very close to DH's when he was roughly the same age, with some of mine thrown in for good measure.

DD on the other hand will eat most things.

I pride myself that that's because of her sensible mother; DS's fads and fancies are ones he was born with!

Well as a kid, I only ate meat, would tolerate one potato and that was it. I lived on oranges mainly. When I got married I started eating vegetables in small quantities. I don't like salads very much, and if I was brave enough I would order dessert as the entree when I went out to dinner. (The only time I have dessert by the way).

Because their parents give the food choices to the kids instead of telling them to eat what is on their plates.
If a child in our house didn't eat what was being served for dinner, they could go to bed hungry.

Well then, how do you explain "picky eater" adults? Supposedly mature folks who are unreasonably afraid to try new or what they perceive as exotic things.

I'm more understanding of a child being shy about trying something they don't know, that looks or smells weird, or has a creepy texture.

What about adults with a long list of what they don't like, won't eat, never tried (and I'm not talking food allergies or being vegan or something specific like that)?

An article about this Cornell University study on taste sensitivity was in the NYT several years ago.
http://www.tastescience.com/research.html

<i>What is taste sensitivity?

Taste sensitivity refers to the intensity with which you perceive tastes and flavors. People with high taste sensitivity experience tastes, and usually smells, too, as being very strong. They are also able to distinguish individual flavors in a mixture very well. For people with low taste sensitivity, tastes, smells, and flavors are not as strong, and they come as a "package deal.".... ... We have found that children are more sensitive than their parents ...this may explain why many children are often picky eaters! Here is a graph showing the differences between children ages 3-5 years and their parents in their mean responses to PROP. The vertical scale shows the intensity of the response - the higher the number, the more intense the response. ... </i>

Which confirms my experience that parental attitudes about food are not as determinative as we might think.
My mother was an amazing cook, exposed us to and encouraged us to eat everything.
I am (and pretty much always have been) a horribly picky eater.
My son is unafraid to try anything.

One of my grandson's almost gagged if he was told to eat potatoes no matter how they were prepared. But he did and still does love Sushi and lives in rice. I bought him a rice cooker as a housewarming present when he went out on his own and he uses it almost every day. Uhm, no actually he doesn't live "in" rice, lol, he lives on rice..guess you could say the rice lives in him. He can eat it three time a day.

And his mother, my daughter, could have mashed potatoes and gravy three times a day although she likes rice also. And as a child and to this day she would rather have cocktail onions than chocolate (well except for chocolate covered cherries). When she was around two years of age a big treat was to let her eat a lemon, skin and all! She was never all that interested in desserts and still isn't.

Just the smell of cinnamon makes my son-in-law feel nauseated.

People are people and we all react differently to different foods obviously. And I feel gaggy if I happen to eat something with cilantro in it which I found out on Fodor's many others have the same problem.

I so agree with your comments, LucieV.