Picky Eater
Good morning all! I have a dcb who informed me yesterday that he is "allergic" to bananas and ,"Mommy told me to tell you not to give me nanas anymore." LOL He has NO food allergies but is a picky eater who barely eats all day-including lunch brought from home. My policy has always been that kids need to try what I serve for snack. I do NOT offer different options unless there is an allergy. What would you do? I try not to offer things on certain days a child will be here who doesn't like that snack, but I think they should be given opportunities to try them every now and again. I let dcm know in a note and included the false allergy-which is a No-No! I'm awaiting the "please give him something else" note back.
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Originally Posted by WBee: He eats. Or not. HIS choice. I don't offer alternatives and I don't require a taste or thank you bite. Either eat or don't. No snacks or extra's outside of regular meal and snack times. Easy peasy. Food battles RARELY have anything to do with food. ;) |
I do provide alternates for true dislikes but require a doctors note for allergies.
If the child ate bananas for the last year, then suddenly does not like them anymore I simply offer and move on with my life. ;) If a child dreaded carrots since infancy, and I have been well aware of it, I'd offer sweet potato for vitamin A in its place. I will not give a PBJ every day in place of a complete and varied diet. Yes, I have been asked. |
I have a child who refuses food based on how it is served. If it’s not served just so, she refuses! I don’t play that game so she either eats or not because the pickiness is unreasonable.
In your case I would have said “well your mommy did not give me a dr note to say you were allergic so I will continue to serve them to you. You don’t have to eat them” |
I have a dcm who is 4, going on 5 that is super picky. I’ve required that his parent send him with a lunch/snacks because of this. He still refuses to eat what his mom sends him. And when I ask him to eat, or why he’s not eating he breaks down in tears and says that whatever it is “will make me throw up”.
He throws up when ever he gets upset and wants his mom - not like hard crying and gets sick, I’m talking fingers down his throat, gaging himself, intentionally makes himself throw up. So, when he doesn’t eat, I don’t say anything but “we’ll try again at snack time”. For him, it’s just a game, so, I don’t play it and don’t react. But when he does throw up, I call mom to pick up - I specifically put in my contract that throwing up for any reason is grounds for immediate pick up. (Of course his mom questioned this and said “he has a very sensitive gag reflex”, I told her I don’t do throw up. Any puking and he has to be picked up, sorry.) Offer food, if the kids doesn’t eat, oh well, they will eat when they’re hungry enough is the only conclusion I’ve came up with. We can force feed, so. |
Originally Posted by Blackcat31: |
Yeah, doctor's note required for a true allergy.
If a parent sent a note making custom diet requests, and it was a face-to-face convo, I'd probably at least listen and give an attempt at working with requests, but that's only if it was really minimal. If the micro-managing kept going but wasn't toooo bad, I would discourage it by politely explaining that I'll serve at least one preferred food at each meal time, but that I haven to consider CACFP requirements, and consider everyone's tastes, and provide variety, bla bla bla. But if the parent turned into a high-maintenance person, I'd probably start pinching off convos like that. The way things normally work with me is that since I have a small group, I try to find "common denominator" foods. If everyone loves apples (like my current group), AM snack is often whole grain + apples. |
Originally Posted by Blackcat31: |
Originally Posted by LostMyMarbles: I hear this so much. I don't get it, though. What is "kid friendly". I do serve brussel sprouts. And asparagus, avocado, collards, grilled salmon, cat fish, etc. The kids are really friendly eating them. I think we accidentally create picky eaters by assuming they won't eat vegetables at all and teach them to love fast food and frozen nuggets by our own attitudes toward food. |
Originally Posted by Cat Herder: I don't think we have to serve gourmet food though to encourage adaptation to a wide variety. I always served pretty simple food to DS, and he has had a few funny habits, but honestly at this point, he makes us quinoa salad and spicy Thai peanut ginger dressing just for funzies. I'm a big believer in simple foods, whole grains and lots of of vegies though. Although, one of our favorite family outings has always been to buffets. Maybe that helped. |
Originally Posted by Mom2Two: I serve locally available produce from my farmers market and meats/fish from local farmers and fish markets. I think the perception that certain foods are gourmet is part of the problem. I used to serve fish sticks, nuggets, spaghettios, kraft dinner, Campbells soups and canned veggies exclusively because that is what I was served. Now I serve what I cook and eat, myself. I don't buy special foods for kids. |
I think kid friendly means that most kids will eat it. I serve everything under the son but only certain meals get all of the kids eating. I just recently started serving taco soup and it has been a huge hit and it contains lots of vegetables. It is not often I find a good kid friendly veggie laden meal besides spaghetti!
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Originally Posted by Blackcat31: |
Originally Posted by Cat Herder: For me to serve anything expensive, all the group needs to love it. Like orange peppers--for some reason I've had a lot of luck with dcks loving orange peppers. |
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