Will He Eat It?

Each day I make breakfast and dinner.  The children get to choose what they will eat for lunch, as long as a fruit or vegetable is included in the meal.  The rule goes, you do not have to eat anything that I make, but you don't get anything besides what I make.  Because we have this rule, I rarely make casseroles.  We have a meat and sides to go with it, so I know that each person will like at least one thing on the table.  It is a rare day that someone goes with just a glass of milk for dinner.

It has worked well for us, and over the years our kids have chosen to try more and more things.  The two year old is just taking a heck of a lot longer than the others did to make those new choices.

Some things we do to encourage little ones to try new things:

- dice up a fruit on a cutting board and let all of the children eat off of it

- give the children scoops of peanut butter on their plates to dip the fruit in

- put the new food in a tortilla wrap or on a stick

- eat while we harvesting from the garden (since we have an organic garden)

- if all else fails, put ketchup on it

To date, these are the only fruits and vegetables the two year old will eat:

The sweet potato must be baked and plain, the carrots are boiled, the pair must be juicy, and the banana must be free of dark spots and peeled by no one but him.

He has eaten a whole plate of green beans once, and liked mixed veggies for about 3 days.  But that was long ago. 

Until today.  Out of the blue he asked for an apple for lunch.  I immediately cut it up for him before he could change his mind and ask for a banana. 

The bite of apple had to go through a rigorous testing.

But once it passed inspection, 

victory was mine!  Well, his really.  But you know how we parents are judged by what our children will eat.  And Thanksgiving is coming.  Lots of relatives with lots of opinions. 

At this very moment I have just had a bit of a revelation.  As I write this post, I am eating lunch.  At least 5 days of the week my lunch consists of a toasted turkey sandwich, an apple, one other fruit, and some peanut M&M's.  For breakfast at least 5 days a week I eat a bowl of cereal, a hard-boiled egg, a banana, and a glass of milk.  Could it be that my two year old simply acts like me?????   It's not that I don't like other foods.  I just like a routine.  It isn't that he knows what I eat.  I eat breakfast and lunch while the kids are sleeping.  Perhaps he's not picky at all.  Maybe he just likes things to be the same. 

Guess I need to solve a different kind of problem.  Because regardless of whether he's picky or unwilling to change, he has exactly two weeks to start liking turkey.

Have a lovely, fruit-filled day!