My Picky Eater

I posted on Instagram recently that I need help with my son’s eating habits these days. I have received some help via emails. Apparently nobody wants to use the comment box below the articles. 😀 Here is what I have learned and I want to share one book recommendation.

The book one of my readers mentioned was:

You can order it here. After reading the book I must say I started some changes in our food/feeding department at our house. Here is what we are working with as far as food goes. My son eats:

Fries, Pasta, rice but only plain, grated Gouda cheese, oatmeal cookies, apple sauce, apple juice, bread, popcorn

This is it folks. Did this list freak you out? Is most certainly makes me uncomfortable. He never eats what I cook and he literally pushes the plate away. So you can understand my frustration sometimes when I stand in the kitchen to prepare a healthy lunch and I am the only one eating it. For days…  My plan is for a couple of days now to just not give him anything unless he comes on his own and says he is hungry. No more frequent snacking on popcorn or oatmeal cookies. For some reason, even when he doesn’t snack he is not starving when it is time for lunch or dinner. So weird. In the book Le Billon describes how she and her family (husband and two daughters)  left Canada and moved to France. Canada, well, I would have stayed hahahah but France is not bad either. 😉

Here are the rules:

Well, and does it work with my son? Nope!

I do schedule the meals. We do eat together and he knows that we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. We are not always home but I try to stick to a routine. I even tried to put a table-cloth in front of him when we eat at home to make the meal a sort of ceremony. He plays with the cloth for half an hour. :/

I do not reward, bribe or punish my son with food. Never have! He is still not eating my food though.

Eat your veggies? Well, I do. I give him the same food I have and he pushes the plate away. I don’t focus on him anymore in telling him constantly to eat. I just leave him sitting next to me and watch him from the corner of my eye. He plays with the food; I take it away. Think variety? Believe me, I tried so many veggies, fruit, you name it. Nope, nada! He used to like bananas at some point – unfortunately not anymore. I even tried putting some grated cheese on top of broccoli. Fuhgeddaboudid! Rule # 6: You don’t have to like it, but you do have to taste it? See explanation above. Not happening. I mean I cannot force him, or can I? I simply take his food away without saying too much. It really seems the more I freak out about food, the less he wants to eat. Like he is doing it on purpose, you know.

Slow food is happy food! I do get that one. Whenever he does eat something HE loves (see list above) he takes his time.

So, what do you all think of this? Does anyone out there have any suggestions or at least similar problems with their kids? Do you agree or disagree with the rules? Now that my son only eats a handful of things I have freaked out about cooking lately. I just don’t know what to prepare anymore. I don’t want to waste food. I don’t necessarily cook for myself and eat the same food for three days. I end up eating homemade wraps with salad, tomato, cheese etc (Recipe will follow because it is really good; or I buy Sushi once in a blue moon). I appreciate any input. Please let me know what you think in the comments below. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart. 😀

Foot Note: Anna Burkon won’t like this but my son LOVES these:

At least it says “organic” on it, right? 🙂 Anna Burkon shared this article in German recently on her Facebook Page. Okay, to clarify: I give him those only when we are outside and not all the time. I know that these squeeze thingies probably have never seen an apple or fruit! At home I make my fruit smoothies for him that he tolerates occasionally.

Thank you for reading my blog.