Comments

Posted by jennyberm

Parents who are picky eaters definitely transfer those prejudices onto their children. Parents can also encourage picky behavior by "allowing" their children to be picky, i.e. making separate meals or only making "kid-friendly" food. BUT kids can also be picky all on their own. Cameron used to eat everything when he was 1 and 2 and then started getting picky at about 3-1/2. Now, at almost 5, he is super picky. I think his pickiness has rubbed off on his sister - she won't eat anything called "dinner" - but, then again, she's never eaten as well as he did. She was a picky 1 yr old too.

So, in a nutshell, I think kids are going to be picky either way - it's a personality thing as much as anything - but parenting choices can make it much, much, much worse. Even though *I* think my kids are picky, they aren't compared to most kids. :)

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Posted by pixmum

I agree with everything Jenny said. Plus, I'll toss in some color commentary:

I was a horrifically picky kid and just stopped being picky when I married Preston, who called me "dull" in my eating. My world was strictly Argentine (which is exactly like Italian, but with chunks of meat tossed in, LOL). Boy, that shocked me enough to start trying ALL kinds of food. Because of Preston, I thoroughly enjoy yummy eats from all sorts of menus: Japanese, Indian, Mexican, etc. As a child, though, I wouldn't touch anything green or yellow or orange, and I'd end up eating a bowl of cereal after everyone ate dinner. Nice, eh?

Now that I'm grown up (and that Preston done learned me to eats many thingies), I am so NOT going to repeat that with my children. They never get a kids' plate when we eat. That is, we all eat the same food. You don't like it? Try a bite. Still don't like it? Fine. But you stay there at the table with all of us and do not get anything else to eat. No separate menus. I'm not a restaurant. ;-)

(I've known picky eaters who marry picky eaters, though, and BOOOOOOY that's no good. The kids get even pickier, and eating at their homes is Dullsville.)

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Posted by mamma1420

Yes, if the parent allows the child to hear/see their eating choices. I child who hears Mommy say, "I don't want have any zucchini, I've never liked it" is going to think Mommy has a good reason not to eat zucchini and this may even transfer into all "green" vegetables.

No, because sometimes it is about taste buds maturing. "When I was younger, I ate...." things I don't now.

I wanted to stop by and say hi, I'm a WTM user as well! There's a forum for classical homeschoolers that I created, here's the link www.classicalhomeschooling.forumup.com I hope you'll come check it out!

I'll starting my dd in first grade (grammar 1) next month or in August. She went to public school for kindergarten. It looks like you've had a lot of fun with Brennan! Great pictures. We can compare notes about first grade...

Jessica

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Posted by authorDonna

Parents define how a child eats. If parent inhale their food, children see that behaviour and follow it. If parents are junk food lovers, typically children will follow suit. Be careful however to understand the value of knowing blood typing and its tendancies toward chemical balance with certain foods. I am an A type as are all of my family. My grandmother was an O. O's are typically meat eaters because their blood and body chemistry has a higher acidic level and therefore can breakdown the high proteins in meat. She insisted my mother eat lots of meat because it was good for her. Unfortunately, it began a cycle of poor digestive problems finally ending in blood disorders that almost destroyed my mother's legs. The trait was passed on to me and our daughters. When we all adopted the A type diet, an agrarian diet, our disorders cleared up. My grandmother didn't know any better and was very healthy because she ate what her body needed. It took much medical research and a very smart medical doctor to figure out what had happened. Yes, parents have a very big impact on their children's eating habits and we have to be very careful in how we direct them. Have a great day.

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