When did your kid-food-liking kid start becoming an adventurous eater?

[Anonymous]

My kids are typical kids, they'll eat stuff like broccoli and peas if prompted, but mostly they have typical kid tastes -- they like things plain, fairly bland, and familiar -- pizza and mac and cheese and chicken fingers. Many kids I know are similar.

Yet so many young adults I know are self-proclaimed "foodies", eating avocado toast and poke bowls and whatever the latest food trend is. Of course they take pictures of it.

So if you've got an older child who became adventurous, when it happen? Or were they always adventurous?

[Anonymous]

Avocado toast and poke bowls are foodie trends from like a decade ago... I know that's not terribly helpful, but if you literally just mean mainstream chain food vice actually trendy/foodie food, you might be surprised by what your kids will try now if presented like it's no big deal. My 5 and 3 year olds will eat avo toast because it's guacamole on bread. They'll eat certain kinds of poke bowls because they're smoked salmon with toppings, but it's definitely not their preference. If you keep exposing your kids to food without making a huge deal out of it, it will get more and more normal.

[Anonymous]

I never gave them a choice. Whatever was served for any meals was all there was to eat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never gave them a choice. Whatever was served for any meals was all there was to eat.

Same.....but then they just don't eat...

[Anonymous]

In my experience, with boys, puberty makes them so hungry that they're motivated to try more things.

It could be the same with girls, but I only have boys, so most of the kids who have been coming to my house for years and letting me see their eating habits, are boys. My own picky eater is my youngest kid, and he hasn't hit puberty yet, so I'm still waiting and hoping.

[Anonymous]

Adventurous from the start.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adventurous from the start.

Your picky eater was adventurous from the start? That doesn't make any sense.

[Anonymous]

Mine tends to try stuff when she becomes aware that her friends are eating them. We went out with friends, and their kid loved calamari and didn't want to share his, so of course, she wanted some too. Another wanted to go to dinner at a Japanese place, so she could eat Sushi, so now mine loves Sushi as well. Although the kids aren't supposed to share food at school, they definitely do, and that's when she started asking me if I can make her dumplings, or Ethiopian food. She's now 9, and she's been doing this since she was 6 or 7. We are definitely at a point where she is willing to try whatever we're eating, although she may not like most of the new stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I never gave them a choice. Whatever was served for any meals was all there was to eat.

My son threw up every time you eat something that he was adverse to. So you’re telling me you would’ve forced your kids eat their food and throw up each meal?

[Anonymous]

Mine flipped a switch around second grade. He’s now in third and literally just asked me to buy seaweed to replace his Doritos at snacktime.

Almost 6 year old eats about 4 things.

[Anonymous]

My DH was instrumental in turning them around when they were little. They had to taste but if they did not like it, he gave them a bowl to spit it out. At first it was a game, but later their palate changed. Also, my kids LOVE eating out in fancy places.

[Anonymous]

Middle school. It was progressive slowly trying certain things for example he loved olives he hated bagels with cream cheese but eventually found out there was cream cheese with olives which then he was able to tolerate then slowly he was able to tolerate just cream cheese. That’s just an example of how it was progressive.

Just recently he was at a pediatricians appointment he’s 16 years old and the doctor asked him if he ate fruit and he said no. The doctor said well why don’t you just try to eat an apple twice a week and my son says when I eat apples it makes my mouth tingle. My son had never told me that before he just said he didn’t like apples so apparently my son has a raw fruit allergy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Adventurous from the start.

Your picky eater was adventurous from the start? That doesn't make any sense.

humble brag. Probably weren't picky eaters at all to begin with!

Being a picky eater isn't the worst things in the world. Just because your kids are adventurous eaters doesn't mean you are perfect parents or that you kids are perfect.

I wasn't a picky eater and it wasn't because my mom forced me to eat what was given. I just liked food! So to the pp don't pat yourself too hard on the back. It might bite you in the future on something else!

[Anonymous]

I was a super picky kid until I started sports in high school. Then I was hungry and actually wanted to eat dinner without being forced. I gradually tried more and more foods throughout college and my 20s. Peer pressure helps.

[Anonymous]

My kid is average as in not picky but not super adventurous either. This oast summer a kid at camp had chicken parm for lunch wrapped in foil. She described it to me without knowing the name, so i made it once and she had it last time we went to an Italian restaurant instead of the usual buttered noodles. I made chicken caprese tonight for dinner and she ate it. She is 7 and is more willing to try stuff now than a year ago. She has alwats loved avacado though so we gave tbat on toast with an egg on top about once a week.