Food Wars!

Yes, I understand. My all-time fave is that my son will eat anything tomato flavored, but not an actual tomato. What is that about???

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I think I was a very strange child, I ate everything I was given and asked for more. I loved trying new things. I can’t remember back when I was a toddler, but my mum tells me I was like that then as well. When I was older, there were things I wasn’t keen on and didn’t enjoy but I ate them anyway.

My brother, on the other hand, was much more fussy, didn’t like trying new things and lived on pasta covered in butter, and sausages. I think part of it may have been the fact that I didn’t have a choice. I ate what I was given or I went hungry, and there was no snacking between meals either. Mum wasn’t as harsh on my brother and she allowed him to have a plateful of spaghetti and butter while the rest of us had nut loaf, or whatever it was. He also used to eat fat. We found that very odd. If we had bacon or lamb, or beef, anything with fat on, he would ask for the fat that we didn’t want. And he was always very underweight, he still is (perfectly healthy though), so eating fat had no impact on his size.

These days, he’s fine with food and doesn’t fear trying new things. I’m the same as I always was, my only problem is trying not to overeat.

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Sometimes I wonder if I have an alien child. I was blessed/cursed with a child who eats everything (minus spinach and onions) and asks for food all.day.long. She eats decent sized meals, but still always asks for food.

And those gummy vitamins? Red are her favorite ones.

Momisodes’s last blog post..Low Low Low

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I discovered a phrase that has helped me through this.

“I don’t care. Eat it anyway.”

My kids continue to be astounded by this. She DOESN’T CARE?????

Mine are old enough for this, though. I have blocked out their toddler years. It was too scary. Cue my mother-in-law freaking out because I found that my daughter would eat pureed peas if I put a teaspoon of sugar in the jar.

I mean, this is the same lady who wanted to give her bacon and gravy to help her with her constipation problem when she was 6 months old. Like a teaspoon of sugar is a big deal.

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Yeah, I’ve decided that it’s all good. My middle son only likes a handful of foods, but fortunately those include carrots and leaf lettuce (without dressing), as well as cheese pizza and hot dogs. And he could eat grapes and apples all day long. Now they even make “white wheat bread.” How do they do that, anyway? But hey, if it gives them a little more nutrition and they’ll eat it, why not? I remember a girl growing up who never got to eat sweets at home. She would come to slumber parties and literally STUFF herself with junk food until she threw up. Can’t say that’s a healthy way to live either!

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I’ve given up winning against my son. He seems to know when he needs something (like right now he’ll leave steak or powdered donuts languishing on his plate to eat broccoli, cooked or raw). He’s the healthiest child I’ve ever met and my 15 month daughter (who adores cheese and meat) is, too. My son is also a master forager and can somehow materialize food in his room if we send him to bed, his dinner uneaten.

I still wrangle with my daughter but that’s because (at size 4) she insists she’s fat. And I want her to eat *something*.

(And when I was a kid, there was no eat or go hungry – there was only eat or you’d never leave the table. I had siblings that vomited at the table over food. I’m still scarred.)

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I need to email this post to all the mom’s who give me their sanctimonious looks when I discuss my 8 year olds eating habits.

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If you promise that will work, then tonight’s menu and every night forthwith: asparagus, spinach and broccoli.

We’ll call it, “Operation I Want to Eat Alone.”

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As younger kids, my daughters were always very adventurous eaters. Now one is a vegetarian and the other’s favorite is red meat. Over everything – brocolli vs. leg of lamb, chocolate vs. carmel, they must differentiate… The carnivore only likes fresh spinach – will not eat it in quiche, pizza or anything else that would make meal time easier. Brats!

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Were you at my house this morning? The kids argue with me every single day about which color vitamin they want! It’s to the point where I actually hide the vitamins to avoid dealing with it.

I’ve learned to not sweat the whole food thing anymore. It’s just not worth the fight. I figure they’ll eat when they’re hungry and if they want the good stuff, they know they have to eat the fruits and veggies first. Simple as that. I wish I had figured that out a long time ago.

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After having read this, I feel much better. And now I understand my mother’s love affair with Tiger’s Milk bars. I will say this — when it came to sneaking wheat germ into our food, she was the master.

The Lawyer Mom’s last blog post..Keeping You Current and Wonky

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You really can’t fool them. Once I tried putting ground liver on my spaghetti sauce, I ended up eating spaghetti for a week. They knew! And hubs didn’t help me because he too dislikes liver.

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I totally agree with you. I have yet to meet a child who’s under nourished!!

My son loves tuna but hates fish!!

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OMG, that last part is hysterical! But so true.

Ah, the food battles. I have finally given up. I serve healthy food at meals, no special orders. If you eat nicely, you can have snacks. If you don’t, no goodies.

Hhhmmm, I have noticed that on no snack days, my kids are knocking on the neighbors’ doors. Not such a bad thing, right?

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I agree. Food should not be a war. There is no need to forbid any type of food. Forbidden food is more desired. There’s no need to stress over the amount of food that kids eat, either. Kids will eat when they are hungry.

Mom’s last blog post..Make Believe

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My younger daughter hates anything that comes in green. She acts like I am trying to poison her with it. I make a lot of broccoli (the only green thing she will eat) and just hold my breath otherwise.

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Food wars kind of remind me of the the middle east, I don’t believe there will ever a solution where everyone is content. And mother’s right, you can’t fool a toddler.

Moderation and common sense are the only way to go. With the size of my family, someone is not happy any given night of the week. I think overall I’ve had it easy, I just don’t think it’s a subject worthy of laying down the gauntlet for.

I am guilty of putting a spoon full of ice cream in my 9 month old son’s milk to persuade him to take a bottle when I went back to work. As mothers, we do what it takes.

the Mayor’s last blog post..The New Normal

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My kids are generally good about most veggies, stubborn about many kinds of meat, and definitely get some fun, unhealthy treats, yet they still love playing at the neighbor’s house. However, I think that has more to do with the neighbor never agreeing to let her son come and play in our yard.

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Ha, I suddenly feel better about the lack of leafy greens in my children’s diets. Actually they love leafy greens slathered in ranch dressing, it’s a victory of sorts. My kids love the red gummy vitamins by the way, ship your leftovers to us, we’ll dispose of them. I can always trade you for the green.

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I totally agree. If my toddler wants to drink his dinner (ie milk), I’m cool with that. My job is to present option, his job is to eat. If he doesn’t want to eat everything I make, that’s cool, but I’m not going to make a totally different dinner for him, either. So far it’s working great. He’s healthy, happy and every meal isn’t a battle.

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I think natural instinct can out perform intellect any given meal time. Kids can smell unappetizing food right around the time you prepare them. It has nothing to do with their tastebuds but more with their sense of smell. It’s kind of a defense mechanism that repel them against stuff that they’d basically refuse to indulge in had they been in a position to prepare their own food. It’s in the family of the defense mechanism that will repel them from ugly guys and fat chicks 15 or so years from now.

So I agree with you, if you are worried about basic nutrition, milk and vitamin supplements gives them more than enough of those. I think regular meal times are for simple supplemental nutirition.

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I don’t think I’ve ever stressed when my son didn’t want to finish his plate. Probably because as a child, food was forced down my throat whether I wanted it or not.

My sisters force their child, but I didn’t want to take that route. My son does take the multi-vitamins. He has enough energy to run a marathon, so I guess he’s healthy.

When we have a get together for supper, my nephews are always forced to sit at the table (sometimes for over 1 hour) until they finish their plate. I always get a look from my sisters when I allow my son to walk away from the table eating only 3/4 of the food.

You raise your kids and I’ll raise mine sis.

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I’ve got 2 girls who were exactly as described pretty much through toddlerhood. Would eat anything. Then they discovered they could make a choice. So with the 3rd I thought, ok, I’ll just enjoy this part where she loves all food. No. From the minute I started feeding her real food, 7 months, she has spit and thrown and puked at her discretion. She won’t eat things based on color alone. Feck. Whatever. Meanwhile the 5 y/o will go hungry for days boycotting the meals and the 10 y/o is cooking all of her own meals because she has decided to go vegetarian. Whatever, obviously husband and I are being fed and that’s the whole of my defense for CPS.

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