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What did you do to broaden their spectrum of "liked foods", so to speak? Anyone been there, done that?
Edit: And if so, did the "clean your plate before you get dessert/leave the table" strategy work for anyone? Or are you opposed to that?
Eagerly awaiting responses, as I'm in the same boat. In my case, though, they came by it honestly. I don't think I ate anything but hamburgers or pizza until about age 15. I still don't eat seafood and no one will ever be able to convince me to eat it. For me, it's about texture and smell.
Same boat here, my daughter refuses to try anything new most of the time (although she has got slightly better in that respect, not sure how that happened).
I don't make her clean her plate as I really hated that as a child and it meant my meals would go on for ages but what sometimes works to get her to eat is telling her that if she doesn't eat it then my OH will (she's quite possessive so she decides she'd rather eat it than let him have it!)
I hardly ate what my mom cooked. I rather went next door to my granny and she cooked everything I wanted.
1.) If I wouldn't have had choices, I would have eaten my moms food and grown to like it. Now I do.
2.) If my mom would have tried more variations of fish or salad or whatever else it was I didn't like, she might have found one I like.
If you don't like the texture or smell of fish - there is TONS of different fish and cooking styles to find one you like. I used to be super picky, now I eat pretty much everything.
I don't think I ate anything but hamburgers or pizza until about age 15..
Almost every kid would do that if they had the choice, it sure sounds more exciting as a plate full of veggies. It is your parents fault if they gave you nasty food all the time and let you get away with it.
Eagerly awaiting responses, as I'm in the same boat. In my case, though, they came by it honestly. I don't think I ate anything but hamburgers or pizza until about age 15. I still don't eat seafood and no one will ever be able to convince me to eat it. For me, it's about texture and smell.
I don't have any kids myself, but I am good friend with a bunch of parents, and nearly all of them have this issue. Seems to be almost "widespread" among the preschool and even early grade school crowd.
To this day, I don't enjoy my mother's green bean recipe when I visit between semesters. It just doesn't taste right and I think it needs an overhaul. As comparison, the local Mom and Pop steakhouse has the most delicious green beans in my large city, with many seasonings and freshly churned butter. Sometimes it is not the food itself, but rather the recipe or the method of cooking.
Same boat here, my daughter refuses to try anything new most of the time (although she has got slightly better in that respect, not sure how that happened).
I don't make her clean her plate as I really hated that as a child and it meant my meals would go on for ages but what sometimes works to get her to eat is telling her that if she doesn't eat it then my OH will (she's quite possessive so she decides she'd rather eat it than let him have it!)
This would work for my second aunt, who has an almost 3-year-old DS, but her DD is due in January and probably won't be able to eat DS's solid food until atleast the summer.
Yep. My mom was a middling cook at best. I hated broccoli until I was in college b/c the only way I'd ever had it cooked was mushy. Then I tried beef with broccoli at a Chinese restaurant, and it was like "Oh wow, that's actually really good." That helped open the whole vegetable avenue, although there's still some I don't like (eggplants; yuck).
I had a child who had a limited menu! I wanted to make sure she ate a balanced diet though, so when she was 6 or 7 we sat down a made a list on ruled notebook paper.
She had to fill every line on the page with a food she would eat, across the spectrum of protein, starch, veggies and fruit. The agreement was that I would always prepare things from the list for lunch and dinner, but if she decided she didn't like one of them anymore it had to be replaced by something new, so there were always the same number of items.
This worked surprisingly well, because she liked lists and organized approaches.
We did this for a couple of years and by the time she was 9 her palate had improved and expanded to a larger variety. She would actually ask to taste our food in restaurants, etc. The downside is she found out she loved lobster.
Texture was my problem too, I can't eat overcooked vegetables or slimy vegetables (like mushroom, aubergine or courgette) and my mum always overcooked them or roasted them which I also hated but as an adult I love raw or lightly steamed veggies. Experimented with cooking things different ways would probably help so many picky eaters.
Hah I just remembered another way my daughter is so picky - she will only pineapple from a particular shop! She can tell by the taste if its the right one or not and if its not then she refuses but she loves the right one.
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