Probably the weirdest thing for me was a lunch supervisor who decided I had to eat liver when that was part of lunch in the small rural primary school I went to.
It always had the texture of a rubber ball and the flavour of stale vomit. So I would be made to sit and look at it on my plate instead of going out and playing with the other kids, for about 30 minutes, once a week.
I wasn’t a picky eater (we didn’t have much money, so that was my main meal of the day, I was always hungry), that was literally the only thing I didn’t want to eat. Other kids weren’t made to eat all of their lunches.
I remember her being really angry about it and standing over me the whole time.
Sometimes adults forget that taste and texture are often perceived differently during childhood. Some things that I eat as an adult, my kid self would be completely grossed out by. And vice versa.
I HATED milk when I was a kid. I just found the taste and texture to be weird. As an adult, I don’t drink much of it but I don’t hate it anymore.
Thing is, if you’re permitted to never to eat anything you don’t like, you’ll still be eating like a toddler at the age of 34. Your tastebuds will never develop if you only eat chicken nuggets.
Although milk does have an odd texture and taste and plenty of people dislike it all their lives, so that’s fair. I actually went off it when I grew up.
I’m not sure that’s true. There were lots of foods that I couldn’t eat as a kid without vomiting. I learned to like a broader variety of foods as an adult by experimenting at my own pace (and learning to cook for myself).
Okay, look, as a parent, I can tell you you have to tread a fine line. If you don’t “force feed” your kid (specifically, aren’t allowed to leave the table or eat anything else), they’ll end up eating nothing but chicken nuggets, fries, mac & cheese, and apples. That is not a balanced diet.
However, forcing them to eat absolutely anything and everything is extreme, too. I don’t like everything. I wouldn’t want somebody to force me to eat mushrooms.
So at any given meal, they can choose one and only one thing they don’t like and don’t have to eat. And I do try to avoid giving them things they obviously don’t want to eat (not even going to try putting broccoli on their plate even though it’s delicious).
Plus it’s a sliding scale: if I could get my 3-year-old to eat, and it wasn’t junk food, I was happy. When he turned 5, he had to start expanding his food out a bit (turns out he’s basically vegetarian except chicken nuggets, but he loves cucumber, carrots, salad, oranges, apples, etc because we made him eat them for a bit). Our 11-year-old, hoever, is expected to eat what we eat (minus spicy or overly spiced things, kids’ palates are different), but can make small exceptions. If she’s like “I don’t like any of this,” that doesn’t fly, though.
All that to say “Force feeding kids is so fucked up” is ignoring a lot of necessary nuance.
My philosophy is that a kid won’t go hungry with various options of healthy food in front of then every day if that’s what they’re used to.
They will eat what their bodies need as long as its available to them.
It’s when kids are used to eating lasagne /pizza/ burgers constantly that they becomes less interested in veggies.
I take myself as an example, I’m often not hungry at 8pm, but if you lut lasagne in front of me I’ll eat everything.
If you put chicken & veg in front of me I won’t, but 2h later before bed I’ll eat it all because then I’ve actually become hungry
Yeah, some kids need persuasion in order to eat a more varied diet, so that’s probably where the thinking comes from, but like anything if taken to extremes it becomes abusive.
Now I’m middle aged and have developed a bunch of food allergies, so I’ve been forced into picky eating :-(
IMO how you persuade them is buy just limiting the stuff they get too much from.
If you just had a huge lasagne, you’re not going to feel like veggies. But if you had chicken & rice then you’ll have space for veggies.
(flawed example, but you get the idea)
Probably the weirdest thing for me was a lunch supervisor who decided I had to eat liver when that was part of lunch in the small rural primary school I went to.
It always had the texture of a rubber ball and the flavour of stale vomit. So I would be made to sit and look at it on my plate instead of going out and playing with the other kids, for about 30 minutes, once a week.
I wasn’t a picky eater (we didn’t have much money, so that was my main meal of the day, I was always hungry), that was literally the only thing I didn’t want to eat. Other kids weren’t made to eat all of their lunches.
I remember her being really angry about it and standing over me the whole time.
Force feeding kids is so fucked up.
As a kid I hated pizza for some reason, my parents wouldn’t let me leave the table till I finished my pizza.
Sometimes adults forget that taste and texture are often perceived differently during childhood. Some things that I eat as an adult, my kid self would be completely grossed out by. And vice versa.
I HATED milk when I was a kid. I just found the taste and texture to be weird. As an adult, I don’t drink much of it but I don’t hate it anymore.
I hated milk too, and MUCH later on in life i learned I’m lactose intolerant. Neither parent noticed because they also didn’t drink milk.
Thing is, if you’re permitted to never to eat anything you don’t like, you’ll still be eating like a toddler at the age of 34. Your tastebuds will never develop if you only eat chicken nuggets.
Although milk does have an odd texture and taste and plenty of people dislike it all their lives, so that’s fair. I actually went off it when I grew up.
I’m not sure that’s true. There were lots of foods that I couldn’t eat as a kid without vomiting. I learned to like a broader variety of foods as an adult by experimenting at my own pace (and learning to cook for myself).
Okay, look, as a parent, I can tell you you have to tread a fine line. If you don’t “force feed” your kid (specifically, aren’t allowed to leave the table or eat anything else), they’ll end up eating nothing but chicken nuggets, fries, mac & cheese, and apples. That is not a balanced diet.
However, forcing them to eat absolutely anything and everything is extreme, too. I don’t like everything. I wouldn’t want somebody to force me to eat mushrooms.
So at any given meal, they can choose one and only one thing they don’t like and don’t have to eat. And I do try to avoid giving them things they obviously don’t want to eat (not even going to try putting broccoli on their plate even though it’s delicious).
Plus it’s a sliding scale: if I could get my 3-year-old to eat, and it wasn’t junk food, I was happy. When he turned 5, he had to start expanding his food out a bit (turns out he’s basically vegetarian except chicken nuggets, but he loves cucumber, carrots, salad, oranges, apples, etc because we made him eat them for a bit). Our 11-year-old, hoever, is expected to eat what we eat (minus spicy or overly spiced things, kids’ palates are different), but can make small exceptions. If she’s like “I don’t like any of this,” that doesn’t fly, though.
All that to say “Force feeding kids is so fucked up” is ignoring a lot of necessary nuance.
My philosophy is that a kid won’t go hungry with various options of healthy food in front of then every day if that’s what they’re used to.
They will eat what their bodies need as long as its available to them.
It’s when kids are used to eating lasagne /pizza/ burgers constantly that they becomes less interested in veggies.
I take myself as an example, I’m often not hungry at 8pm, but if you lut lasagne in front of me I’ll eat everything. If you put chicken & veg in front of me I won’t, but 2h later before bed I’ll eat it all because then I’ve actually become hungry
Yeah, some kids need persuasion in order to eat a more varied diet, so that’s probably where the thinking comes from, but like anything if taken to extremes it becomes abusive.
Now I’m middle aged and have developed a bunch of food allergies, so I’ve been forced into picky eating :-(
IMO how you persuade them is buy just limiting the stuff they get too much from.
If you just had a huge lasagne, you’re not going to feel like veggies. But if you had chicken & rice then you’ll have space for veggies. (flawed example, but you get the idea)