Posted on 10/11/2007 3:59:30 PM PDT by 68skylark
A WEEK’S worth of dinners for young Fiona Jacobson looks like this: Noodles. Noodles. Noodles. Noodles. French fries. Noodles. On the seventh day, the 5-year-old from Forest Hills, Queens, might indulge in a piece of pizza crust, with no sauce or cheese.
Over in New Jersey, the Bakers changed their November family vacation to accommodate Sasha, an 11-year-old so averse to fruits and vegetables that the smell of orange juice once made him faint. Instead of flying to Prague, Sasha’s parents decided to go to Barcelona, where they hope the food will be more to his liking.
And at the Useloff household, young Ethan’s tastes are so narrow that their home in Westfield, N.J., works something like a diner.
“I do the terrible mommy thing and make everyone separate dinners,” Jennifer Useloff said.
All three families share a common problem. Their children are not only picky eaters, prone to reject foods they once seemed to love, but they are also neophobic, which means they fear new food.
But for parents who worry that their children will never eat anything but chocolate milk, Gummi vitamins and the occasional grape, a new study offers some relief. Researchers examined the eating habits of 5,390 pairs of twins between 8 and 11 years old and found children’s aversions to trying new foods are mostly inherited.
The message to parents: It’s not your cooking, it’s your genes.
The study, led by Dr. Lucy Cooke of the department of epidemiology and public health at University College London, was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in August. Dr. Cooke and others in the field believe it is the first to use a standard scale to investigate the contribution of genetics and environment to childhood neophobia.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
there’s just one problem. seems that half the children drop dead after they are in the same zip code with a pb sandwich
I was a picky eater. My children are not. I make fresh veggies (my family used canned. blech) My children know if they don’t like something, that’s all we’re making.
With my kids we can't keep produce in our house long. My children are like little locusts.
not even in a box or with a fox or on a train or in the rain?
I think your comment raises a point that I haven't seen from others yet -- are girls much more prone to being really picky eaters? Your comment, and my personal observations, seem to say "yes." I wonder if this is related to later in life, when young women seem to be more prone to being vegetarian/vegan, and much more prone to eating disorders also.
I have 3 grown kids. My oldest was the pickiest but after marrying a guy who is a great cook will eat just about anything. My youngest was never really exposed to baby food. I was fed up with buying it and “mushed up” pretty much everything we ate. He’s 32 now and I don’t think there is anything he won’t try. He swears that his son is going to be fed the same way.
My oldest grandson is a pretty good eater but his 4 year old brother,who started out as a baby eating everything, eats almost nothing. If we try to introduce something new, he vomits. If he could he would live on French fries and mac and cheese(as long as he thinks it comes from Chilli’s.It is so frustrating but he’s built like a bull and his brother is as skinny as can be. Go figure.
I was at a friends house one afternoon when her young son came home from school and he was begging for salad. I would have fainted if my boys did that.
I thought more commenters on this thread would talk about cultural differences -- the way some parents now (especially the type of well-to-do liberals who enjoy subscribing to the NY Times) seem to overindulge their kids in ways that seem to cause problems like picky eating.
The difference between not liking one food, and being so picky that a parent has to make a different meal for everyone sitting that the table are worlds apart, of course.
I got food poisoning once eating bbq chicken. I refused to eat bbq for a decade, probably. I absolutely love it, now that I have mentally dealt with the situation. But for years, the smell of bbq sauce would make me so ill.
Interesting comments — thanks.
Now I am something of a neophile, wanting to taste as many new foods as possible, and constantly changing recipes and trying new combinations.
This neo-experimentalism and lack of culinary rigidity has not endeared me to my family.
No to creamed spinach, never, never, never!!!!!! The site, smell and taste make me want to mega-hurl. Oh, and two more mega-hurl mentions: Blue Cheese and Chickens Feet./Just Asking - seoul62.......
No one has commented on one question that's on my mind -- if a kids eats just noodles and french fries, isn't that a dangerously unhealthy diet? Doesn't this put the kid at risk for health problems?
Of course, even picky eaters don't eat only noodles and fries -- in my experience they probably also eat breakfast cereal (sugar) and chocolate (more sugar).
Stupid of a mother to do that! My 4 children sat down to dinner every night and stayed till they ate. Otherwise they got nothing else.
New foods required ‘a bite’ to see how it tasted. They also had to ask to be excused from the table.
My Father may He rest in peace - made me consume that creamed spinach, and I absolutely hated it and to this day - I will not eat it./Just Asking - seoul62........
That sounds like my own upbringing. But that seems to be out-of-fashion with lots of people now.
blue cheese is one of those things...I once had a bag of buffalo potato chips and I smelled like blue cheese the entire subway ride home. It was not a very comfortable experience...
Lightly sauteed spinach with olive oil and garlic is delicious. Not to mention most veggies brushed with olive oil and grilled outdoors!
[But that seems to be out-of-fashion with lots of people now.]
Yes, and it is a big loss for them and they don’t even know it. That’s when the family gathered and discussed what was going on in their lives. It drew them together.
Lol, tell me the ‘good things’ that are in fashion nowadays.
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