Boy likes to pray over our meals, and one of his most memorable prayers recently included asking Jesus to "help Kate from making me eat all the yucky stuff."
It's not like I'm feeding him Brussels sprouts and creamed spinach!
I don't like to label kids, but most of the world would call Boy a picky eater. Let's go with "we're learning to try new things" (and not force ourselves to throw up at the dinner table if we don't like something). Seriously.
So we have a few rules around meals in our house:
1. What is served for dinner is for dinner. You don't have to eat it. But there will be no other food until the next meal. (We plan a small variety of sides, including his favorite carrots and broccoli, so that if he doesn't like dinner, we know he's getting some nutrition.)
2. Everybody tries two bites of everything. Small tastes are fine.
3. If you don't like the taste, the fastest way to get it out of your mouth is to swallow it.
And my personal favorite, added just for Christmas Eve when I needed an extra card to play:
4. If you puke at the table, we will assume you are too sick to open presents, and we will go directly home. (Followed by "don't think I'm kidding" and a firm "do you understand me?" I sound like my mother.)
By and large, his least favorites seem to be:
Meat products of any kind, especially if hidden in gravy, except hot dogs and hamburger patties (ground beef doesn't fly).
Noodles, even mac & cheese
Peanut butter
So, you know, that pretty much disqualifies 92% of my menu options.
But his favorites:
Cheese pizza
Carrots, broccoli & ranch (hardly a meal, but whatever)
Quesadillas
Hot dogs
Jam sandwich (I sneak peanut butter in - a tip from his last foster mom)
Yogurt (breakfast, daily)
Bananas, apples
And thank goodness he tolerates the multivitamin with iron.
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