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Why is it that so many children are described tenderly as “picky eaters?” Why are so many parents afraid to try out new foods and new types of dining experiences on their kids? And perhaps most important, why is it that people automatically assume that all children want to eat standard, mundane kid-fare like French fries and hot dogs, all the time? Nancy Tringali Piho in “My Two-Year-Old Eats Octopus: Raising Children Who Love to Eat Everything”
Nothing green/nothing spicy/ nothing mixed together/ nothing new… any parent of young kids will tell you that the list of “NOs” at the table can go on and on. How did this start and, more important, can it be prevented in young children, or improved even if they are a little older?
Getting your kids to eat the foods you want them to eat is not so much an issue of nutrition, or fancy cooking, or even a psychological battle-of-wills, as it is a simple issue of taste. Many kids become Picky Eaters because we don’t expose them to enough variety in their foods, early and often enough in their young lives. The concept of ‘flavor’ is something that can be taught!