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Any parent who consistently provides their child with only chicken nuggets or whatever created that problem. If a child is willing to starve themselves to death before they eat anything else, then that child should be in a hospital. To cater to that type of sickness only makes it worse.
I have a kid who would eat nothing but junk if allowed. We call her 'Sugar Baby.' She LOVES sweets, candy, cookies, etc. If there is any in the house at all, that's ALL she wants. So I hardly ever buy junk food.
Kids do tend to have simpler taste buds. I remember as a child, my mom making a whole buffet of food for Thanksgiving, and I would make myself a sandwich instead. The same thing with my own dd, if I spend hours in the kitchen cooking a gourmet meal, she'd rather have oatmeal, cereal, or a PB sandwich. I make her try things, but she has her preferences, and although I refuse to cook two separate meals, she's free to eat cereal instead of what I cook. I find it odd that the things she doesn't like at home, she'll go to someone else's house and love it. But honestly, I don't really worry about what she eats and what she doesn't. She eats enough to survive, and I do make sure she doesn't stuff herself full of junk.
[quote=no kudzu;21833141]My daughters and I were watching 4 Weddings on TV the other day and there was a 23 y.o. woman who proudly boasted she only ate chicken fingers and fries, pizza, cinnamon buns and mac and cheese. My girls were appalled. this bimbo actually munched on a plate of chicken fingers and fries at her own reception and special ordered the same as a guest at another wedding.
How does this happen? Do you blame her parents? How unhealthy can anybody be and to be so flippant about it is even worse. Could she even sustain a pregnancy with that kind of diet and won't she pass it on to her own kids?
I don't know why this has bothered me so much except that I take great pride in the variety of our family diet and I know my children will never be considered so immature and spoiled as this girl.
How does this kind of thing happen?[/quote]
I don't know. I can't wrap my brain around it at all. Not only did I grow up eating a HUGE variety of foods, but I have always cooked a HUGE variety of foods for my family. Unlike those "picky eaters", I get horribly bored with the same ole same ole, as do my kids. I mean, for instance, we will eat a lot of chicken, but we use it in so many ways. We not only like to change up the ingredients, but the way it's cooked as well. We are all extremely adventurous and like I said, would get terribly bored having the same things over and over again. See? I don't get it? LOL
WHO CARES? Stop forcing your "healthy eating" values on everyone else.
If someone wants to eat McDonald's ... fine. If someone wants to eat candy ... fine. If someone wants to eat tofu with vegetables ... guess what? That's also fine. Just leave people alone and let them be. Stop using government agents to inspect kid's lunchboxes, stop forcing your values on everyone else.
Last edited by JustJulia; 02-15-2012 at 08:42 AM..
Reason: Deleted inflammatory comment - this is not P&OC
WHO CARES? Stop forcing your "healthy eating" values on everyone else.
If someone wants to eat McDonald's ... fine. If someone wants to eat candy ... fine. If someone wants to eat tofu with vegetables ... guess what? That's also fine. Just leave people alone and let them be. Stop using government agents to inspect kid's lunchboxes, stop forcing your values on everyone else.
The child in the second, more recent scenario will die if she doesn't change her diet. The question was "what should the parents have done?" not, "what should the government and schools do?"
WHO CARES? Stop forcing your "healthy eating" values on everyone else.
If someone wants to eat McDonald's ... fine. If someone wants to eat candy ... fine. If someone wants to eat tofu with vegetables ... guess what? That's also fine. Just leave people alone and let them be. Stop using government agents to inspect kid's lunchboxes, stop forcing your values on everyone else.
I don't see the big deal if the person is picky. She is an adult and uless I read it wrong, it was her wedding. Let her eat what she wants.
I am extremely picky and only eat a handful of foods. I've never liked meat, even as a child. Even as my parents tried to "force" me to eat it by not letting me leave the table until I ate it. Guess what? That didn't make me like meat, it made me dislike meat more. I vowed to never do that to my kids. I encourage them to try something that they don't like but it is not forced on them. They either eat what is in their plate, or they don't. They don't get special meals if they don't like something. Like another poster said, on thanksgiving my youngest often has a roll for dinner.
As a very picky eater growing up, I can attest that my mother TRIED to get me to eat outside my comfort zone, but I refused. She is an amazing cook but I just preferred my very limited palette (growing up the only veggies I would eat were potatoes, celery and iceburg lettuce).
I remained a picky eater until I got married at age 27.
Now I eat several veggies, with brussel sprouts and parsnips being my two most favorite. I also eat carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, okra, sweet potatoes, and spinach (creamed).
I still refuse to eat peas, corn, cucumbers, mushrooms, beans of any kind, asparagus, and peppers.
I'm also not a fan of ethnic food - although I LOVE Indian food.
Usually it happens slowly. And because the parents make slow and tiny concessions that build up over time.
Parents for example often feel their child needs to eat _something_ at every meal or they will keel over and die - or they have failed as parents or some such.
So what I have seen happen often - the parents put something healthy in front of the kid - the kid does not eat it - the parents panic and go "Oh dear well they have to eat _something_" and then rush off to get the Fish Fingers or Nuggets or toast of whatever. Just to have _something_ in the kids stomach.
And then the child might even get a dessert after it despite having refused the original offerings and scoffed on some cheap substitute instead.
Whereas in all but extreme cases if you simply put the food down - take it away uneaten or eaten at the end of the meal - only offer dessert to a child that has eaten what was actually given - do not offer between meal snacks when a meal was not eaten - and do not offer substitutes or alternatives for any refused meal - and do not allow them to over indulge in liquid intake to soon before meals that will inhibit appetite - the children tend to sort themselves out.
Hunger and common sense win in the end.
Do I "blame" the parents? Yes and no. For the most part there is no hand book on parenting. "Blame" is the wrong word for me. Even the worst evils in the world can come from good intentions. The best Villians on television or in literature are not the wantonly and mindlessly evil ones - but the ones who reached evil through a series of steps that seemed morally right and correct at the time.
Similarly "Blame" is not the right word here. The parents of many children who are not eating right likely made decisions, tiny ones that added up over time - all of which really seemed the right thing to do at the time - and they ended up as baffled as you are seeing where they ended up.
My sister implemented pretty much the solution I described. Her daughter actually refused to eat for nearly 2 days on it before she cracked and wolfed down a meat and two veg dinner. She has not been a problem since.
Sister however says it was so hard to do. She tells me that if her daughter had not broken the day she did - then SHE was about to break and give in.
Thankfully not all cases are that extreme. The kids get the message pretty fast usually.
Some people are very picky eaters by nature. They can't help it. It has nothing to do with how they were raised. Extreme pickiness is a recognized eating disorder.
When I was a kid I could only eat 2 or 3 things. My parents were "old school" and expected me to eat what was on my plate or not eat. I didn't eat, and grew quite underweight. Even as an adult there aren't many foods I can eat (it's more than 3 now though lol).
I spent most of my childhood hungry... thankfully my pediatrician intervened and my parents relaxed a little.
But to this day I'm so used to hunger that I sometimes go long periods not eating.
I can assure you though that my pickiness had nothing whatsoever to do with my parents, it's just that food tastes different to me, than to other people, apparently.
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Not only did I grow up eating a HUGE variety of foods, but I have always cooked a HUGE variety of foods for my family. Unlike those "picky eaters", I get horribly bored with the same ole same ole, as do my kids. I mean, for instance, we will eat a lot of chicken, but we use it in so many ways. We not only like to change up the ingredients, but the way it's cooked as well. We are all extremely adventurous and like I said, would get terribly bored having the same things over and over again. See? I don't get it? LOL
