by Anne Newsome
Hello, lovely Scrumptious Moms!
I’m excited to share with you today a story that may be all too familiar, involving a famous comic strip character. Can you guess who this story describes? [Don’t you peek ahead!]
The setting: The dinner table. It’s about 6:00 pm, and he plops down, takes one look at his plate and asks, “What’s this disgusting stuff?” His mother, not missing a beat, replies, “Spider Pie.”
Immediately, the entire atmosphere in the room changes. The young boy begins devouring his food, and his parents are happy to enjoy a nice, quiet, relaxing meal.
Sound familiar? Any ideas who this is?
If you guessed Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes, you are right! Calvin is a notorious 6-year-old worst-case- scenario picky eater. He is also spunky and stubborn. These three traits are not the parent’s dream combination in a child! It can make for some stressful battles of the will between child and parent.
Calvin’s parents, as illustrated by the Spider Pie story, learn to cope with his meal time behaviors in a way that may give us some insight into one way to handle our own picky eaters! Psychology. Perhaps it’s time for me to break out the college textbooks and refresh my memory.
We have tested this technique in recent days with our son. You’re going to love this. If you have not listened to Valerie’s program yet, The 5 Pillars of the Scrumptious Life, be sure to plan some “me” time soon to listen to it. If she doesn’t mind, I will give you one of them! Pillar Number 4 relates to the importance of drinking enough water! This topic is near and dear to my heart for a number of reasons, but reason #1 being my SON!
My son is my oldest, 6-years old, and has battled eczema all his life. The doctors describe it as “severe dry skin”. I got to thinking recently that he does not drink much, apparently living in a constant state of dehydration. This made me wonder if something as simple as drinking more water might help.
I tried giving him a cup to keep with him during the day when he’s at home to encourage him to drink more throughout the day. That didn’t work very well. So then, I got to thinking about an interest he has: Racing! He is constantly wanting to race.
So one morning after my husband and I woke him, I asked them to come into the kitchen. He was like, “What are we doing?” I said, “We’re going to have a water race.” He said, “A water race?” I said, “Yep. And whoever drinks all their water first WINS! But you have to be careful not to drink it too fast and choke on it. Okay?”
His eyes lit up. He was determined. We each had a different amount of water, based on size. Guess who won? Daddy! I was shocked. Not really. It’s just that he doesn’t drink a lot of water either. I told him he was getting more next time. Until it becomes more of a challenge for him, we are adjusting his
water serving accordingly!
Tip #1
So think about things your kids really enjoy and how you can work that into meal times or other goals you have for them. You may be surprised at what works and what doesn’t. And if your home and family dynamic are anything like ours, what works one day will not work the next. These precious ones sure do keep us on our toes, don’t they?
Tip #2
Another big tip is to try things prepared a variety of ways. A recent experience we had with this was with cauliflower. Such a healthy vegetable, but of course, the first few times we served it, neither of our children really cared for it. Took a few bites and wanted nothing else to do with it. So I asked my husband to try roasting it. Success!
This is important to try especially if you were unable to lay a good foundation early on in your child’s life. I created a Squidoo lens on this topic, if you are a new, expecting mother or know any who might be looking for or need this type of information. Our son is adopted so we had no control over the earliest months of his life. We have learned a lot in our efforts to help him get good nutritious foods for optimal health (he was severely malnourished when we traveled to bring him home) and to develop healthy
eating habits.
I have enjoyed so much sharing with you today, and if you ever have questions about any of the recipes you are trying with your family or about cooking techniques, feel free to submit a question through our Ask The Chef forum! We would love to serve you and your family’s culinary/recipe needs.
Anne
About the Author
Anne Newsome is a Wife, Mommy to a 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter and an Author. She and her husband, John, a Chef trained by the prestigious Johnson and Wales University Culinary Arts program, have co-authored What to Cook for Dinner for Picky Eaters to share recipes, tips and resources they have found most helpful in addressing the picky eater phases of childhood. You can visit their website, Flayve.com, for more about handling picky eaters and for additional ideas for good recipes to try with your family.
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