How I tackled my fussy eaters!

As I sit across them,watching them eat, I thank God for how good they are at the table. But there was a time, a time from what feels like a long ago, when I almost cried at every meal time. When eating food seemed like a chore more than anything. Every meal would take an hour and sometimes more. And then one day it all just flipped over....
Well not really- that would be a fairy tale. But as I look back on our long lunch and long dinners, I realized that there were several things that helped the kids become better eaters. Being small built, I do not expect them to gobble down a whole lot. But the only thing I want for my almost four and six year old is a healthy appetite with plenty of variety and a good serving of everything from the food triangle.
When I hear parents complain about how their kids do not eat or are slow eaters I am so tempted to advise. But every child is different and here is how I tackled my fussy eaters

Eat on their own
At about 2 years, my second one, Z was a very poor eater. She was way below her weight on the pediatrician weight curve. In addition feeding her was a pain! Its not like she spat her food, which is something I see a lot of kids do, but she just took it in and pushed it to one side of her mouth, let it settle in the cheek and waited at least an hour before she swallowed it. I realised soon that yelling at a 2 year old only made me hoarse. Trying to force more food only made the process longer and more annoying. I tried to make the food watery/ soupy so that she would just drink it up from the spoon. But that was really not the solution.
For more of this blog ... visit mycity4kids.com tackling my fussy eaters

Nature or Nurture

I used to be a very fussy eater most of my childhood, into my teens and up to about 22/23 years. I hated fruits … few vegetables … and fish. I loved potatoes in any form. Being a 'Malayalee', I even hated the 'scared' vial  of all 'Malayalees'... coconut milk. Somehow I guess being far away from home …. I grew to being non-fussy and eating everything anyone offered me. I even acquired taste for sushi … which is a long journey for someone who hated fish!

Suresh on the other hand...was, is and I think will be a fussy eater. When I met him he wouldn't eat certain vegetables (beets, spinach …) and certain dishes cooked a certain way (anything deep fried was always accepted). After 7 years of marriage when we were about 8 months into our first pregnancy, I warned Suresh 'If your kids watch you being fussy … they wont eat anything.'

As a deal of entering into fatherhood, I made a pact with Suresh. He had one vegetable he could absolutely refuse to eat. Everything else in any form … he HAD to eat.

He choose 'Beets'.

Interestingly beets was among the first few veggies I tried on Isaac along with baked yam and broccoli. See that list as everything Suresh hates. Isaac  loved yam in its baked form and would eat all veggies put in front of him. Watching him eat broccoli one day and just about resisting gagging an exasperated Suresh declared 'He is not my son!' 

Interestingly Isaac did not take much to potatoes and rice. I guess he is not my son either! 

Suresh is so finicky that if I give a plate of food to feed Isaac or Ziva, he will carefully keep aside the veggies he does not like and not feed it to Isaac or Ziva ... like he will feel the taste in his mouth if they eat it. You will see a carefully arranged row of peas .. loved by Isaac and Ziva .... hated by Suresh at the corner of the plate.

 

So where did the taste bud come from. It definitely was not nature … was it nurture. Just offering Isaac everything and trying out new things!

Welcome Ziva and she is a step ahead of Isaac. While Isaac is a little hesitant about trying new things, probably because he is scared of spices, Ziva will taste anything. She will even annoy Isaac with 'Isaac taste … taste Isaac'

She is a small eater (small meal sizes) and a slow eater … but she is an 'everything' eater! She is definitely not my daughter!

Nature or nurture?