Picky Eaters
Is your child a picky eater?? I know mine is. Ever since my son started eating table food
he has turned up his nose at anything that looked “weird” to him. I have never thought it was a problem that my
son was a picky eater but some of our relatives did. They were so concerned that it made me worry
about it. Now that he is about to turn 8
and he is still a picky eater I am far less worried and to be honest most
parents shouldn’t worry either. Because
soooo many people voiced concern about his eating habits when he was younger I
did some research. Between the ages of 2
and 3 20% of the children in America will be labeled a “picky eater”. Being a picky eater is defined as a child who
whines about what they are served, refuses to eat foods of a certain color or
texture and eats just enough food to get in there daily suggested calorie count
for normal growth. My son is all of
these things. In my research I found that
a lot of being a picky eater has to do with the texture of food. For example some meats are easier to chew
than others. The tougher the meat the
more likely the child is to refuse this.
When my son was a toddler all I could get him to eat were hot dogs, then
eventually he moved up to chicken nuggets and for the longest time no matter
what other meats he tried he would say they were nasty or looked weird. The problem was he never complained about how
difficult they were to chew so I didn’t know this was the problem. Him being a picky eater has gone on for so
long I have learned to tune all the other “helpful” advice out. I have tried recipes you find in parenting
magazines to get your child to eat new foods and none of them seemed to work
for us so I developed my own system for feeding him. I took an inventory of the foods he liked and
I went in search of the healthy options.
For example my son loves macaroni and cheese from a box so I found the
macaroni that is either made from whole grains or even vegetables. Yogurt is another big hit with him but most
kid’s yogurt is full of sugar and artificial colors so I found the brands that
sell the all-natural version of kid’s yogurts.
The bottom line is that there is no need to worry or fear that your
picky eater’s eating habits are a
problem. As kids get older they find
reasons to broaden their food horizons and eventually will eat “normally”. I have attached below some of the articles
that I found helpful.
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