My 7 yo sounds like your 5 yo, Heather. She loves romaine lettuce–plain and in salad, munches it like a rabbit, as well as spinach and pretty much all healthy foods. She passes up dessert without batting an eye. I wish I was more like her!

Your question on picky eaters is a good one. I’m beginning to think my mantra is start young, because I haven’t had any picky eaters…yet. I’m talking “really picky”. Middle daughter doesn’t like potatoes, for instance, so I just serve up a little bit on her plate when we’re having some. Dh and I have observed picky adults that are picky to the point of rudeness so this is something he really can’t hack, and he’s quick to prevent it in our kids.

So going way back, my girls only were fed breastmilk for the first 6 months of their lives. No infant cereal even. And I nursed toddler exclusively till she was 8 mos old before introducing baby food. We stayed with one kind a week, before intro-ing another, etc. Sometimes it would come right back out, and I’d cajole it right back in. I probably wouldn’t buy it very often after that, but I didn’t avoid purchasing it completely. I had another older mom tell me that waiting as long as 8 mos would not only keep food allergies at bay, but also give my kids time to develop a better palette or aptitude for real food.

As they got older, I never cut their crusts off their sandwiches, or did other what *I* consider “frivolous” catering to their whims. On occasion, when something’s for dinner that they’ve not tried, or that they really don’t like, we require them to try it w/o making a face, etc, but we don’t require them to gorge on it, or take a normal portion.

As 1-2 year olds they’d be used to having their apples peeled, and sometimes would wrinkle their nose at graduating to eating them with the “skin” on, but I never let it become an issue. I’d say something like, “You’re a big girl now, and the peel is good for you!” (I wash the pesticides, etc. off with GSE wash) They might gripe the next two times, but they knew I wouldn’t budge.

Things like that. Anybody else have any good tips?

We have dinner with my parents most Sundays and Mom usually has it on that channel, and it is absorbing — if we had satellite I would probably never leave the house between HGTV and AMC. Ooh — I like A&E, too. Then there is the Discovery Channel.

“Thats kind of how I look at TV, it is junk food for the soul, and should only be viewed in moderation.”

My five year old says the same thing “junk food isn’t good for our bodies and tv isn’t good for our brains…but it’s okay to have a little“. She’s pretty health concious for a 5 year-old — I can get her to taste and/or try just about any activity if I suggest it would be good for her body.

And using that as a jumping off point: (sorry for stealing your blog Mary ) How do you guys handle picky eaters? Do you require a certain amount of food be eaten or are they allowed to pick and choose?

I’m so glad you took time to comment, hope you come back!