Comments on: Feeding Picky Children without Wasting Food

By: Creating a Happy, Healthy Relationship Between Your Toddler and Food — PhD in Parenting

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 04:33:55 +0000

[...] Hannah (@mominisrael) from A Mother In Israel writes about food at Cooking Manager. A couple of years ago, she wrote a post on preventing food issues, which detailed her mother’s approach to feeding their family. She followed it up with a second post, answering a reader’s questions, on feeding picky children without wasting food. [...]

By: Julie

Julie — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 16:07:03 +0000

Cecilia, we were just not allowed to leave the table till we’d eaten all from our plate. My mother’s a lousy cook, which didn’t help. Even now (age 43) I don’t like red meat, a lot to do with her cooking. And I remember it used to take me so long to eat cos I was forced to eat it – even at school lunches by the time I’d finished eating, the canteen was empty. And my parents never took into account that maybe some of the time I wasn’t that hungry.

By: LeahGG

LeahGG — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 11:10:38 +0000

I have to say that I distinctly remember being on the other side of a situation like that once when I was six. I was never a picky eater. I’d say that 95+% of what crossed my plate was eaten without complaint.

One night, my dad served ONLY big bowls of okra stew. I tried it. I gagged on it. He refused to allow me to eat anything until it was eaten. I tried to eat it 3-4 times and gagged on it because it was so bad. It was a personal vendetta for him because he’d made it. My mother finally kept shalom bayit by telling him I’d eaten it when he was out of the house (and dumping it).

(She also admitted that it was really bad, but she was able to get it down)

A child has a right to dislike one or two foods. To this day, I don’t eat okra or eggplant. Other than that, I eat pretty much everything that’s put on my plate. I wonder if I would have been willing to try okra again if I hadn’t been traumatized as a child (I’ve tried eggplant a few times over the years, but the flavor is very strong and I don’t care for it).

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:41:38 +0000

Cecilia, thanks for your reply. It reminds me of a story from the series One of a Kind Family. The family grew up on the Lower East Side, and one day one of the sisters decides she doesn’t want soup. She ends up not eating until lunch the next day when she decides to eat the soup after all. I don’t think there is anything wrong with your mother’s method, I just couldn’t follow through with it myself.

By: Cecilia

Cecilia — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:56:26 +0000

I find it interesting that so many parents allow their children not to eat what is served at dinner. My mother also served dinned with individual plates of food for each person (very healthy/lean portions) and you were required to eat all of the food on your plate. If a child decided not to eat what was on his or her plate, my mother would wrap the plate in plastic wrap and serve it to you for breakfast. As punishment, you went to bed hungry. She also refused to re-heat the plate in the morning. However, I would wake up so ravenous that I was grateful for the cold leftovers. It sound harsh, but with the method, all of the children in my family quickly learned to eat and appreciate what my mother prepared for dinner. Going to bed hungry is not fun & we all learned our lesson after one or two times.