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[quote=Anonymous]I am still a picky eater.  It is not a choice and it is not fun.  Coercion only makes mealtime a battle.  Being forced to try new food only makes me more anxious about eating, period.  The worst was when I was living with relatives who literally would not feed me anything that I could eat.  And I say *could* because it’s genuinely not a choice.  I was SO hungry, for days.  But the thought of fondue made with uncooked chicken was literally as palatable to me as eating your liver in an oil fondue.  I couldn’t do it.

There are two people in my life who have helped me expand my palette.  One is my college roommate, who later became a chef.  She didn’t take it personally that I wouldn’t try food she made.  She knew I wasn’t choosing to be rude.  What she did was cook me foods that were safe for me, and she built bridges to new foods.

For instance, I had never eaten a kidney bean or any bean for that matter.  Just the idea of it exploding in my mouth as I chewed it would make me feel like retching and break out in a cold sweat.  I would as soon eat my own eyeball.

But she knew I love potatoes, and she showed me the beautiful white fluffy inside of a large cooked kidney bean, presenting it like a baked potato, explaining that it was a very yummy white carbohydrate like I love in other forms, just smaller.  I tasted the white stuff and loved it.  And when I finally ate a whole bean, it was while imagining it as a teeny tiny baked potato.  They’re now one of my favorite foods (which sucks because I’m trying to stay low carb).

If the pickiness is texture based and full of anxiety…you’re not going to win this battle.  There is no point fighting.

As for “catering” to your child…isn’t your job to see that he is fed daily?  Make sure that he is fed.  That means serving him what he will eat.  It’s your job to prepare a meal for him as much as for your spouse and other child.

Making sure kids are fed doesn’t mean you are indulging pickiness, as if it is simply brattiness.  It is feeding your kid.  Make sure there are safe, edible foods at every meal.  [/quote]

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