I like it when my kid won't eat something I love. More for me.

Mostly though 2/3 will eat anything. They devour "adult" food.

The third won't eat meat, never has. I think it started out as a texture issue. She will eat fish, shrimp, sushi, etc. Won't touch beef, chicken, pork, fake meat that has the texture of real meat, etc.

My kids won't eat any cooked vegetables. Or salad dressing.

As far as their nutrition goes, I can't complain. The two of them will be VERY happy eating large bowls of carrots and I can't buy enough cucumbers for them. Both are thrilled with a big bowl of salad at dinner -- will go for seconds and ask to have it sent for lunch. But offer them dressing and you would've thought I was trying to poison them. No matter that there are literally HUNDREDS of kinds of salad dressing, that range from sweet, to tangy to spicy to salty to umami and can be in really any texture...

And I really can't complain about the cooked thing--nutritionally speaking--because letting them tuck into a pile of shredded raw cabbage or kale is extremely good for them... but it's really hard to cook a meal that has no vegetables in it.

As a parent, my job is to make sure they get good nutrition and get enough -- no problem doing that, but it's virtually impossible to cook any kind of interesting cohesive balanced meal for the whole family.

Anonymous wrote:I didn’t know what food you were talking about so I googled it and it looks DELICIOUS. Kids don’t know what they are missing

Yeah, it's onions simmered in soy sauce, mirin, sugar and some other stuff depending on the recipe, with chicken that has been marinated in sake over it, and after that's all cooked, eggs are quickly added. It makes a soupy delicious broth that when put on top of rice is insanely good. But the addition of the eggs can give it a sometimes less than appealing appearance and texture, especially for kids... Properly done, the eggs are JUST past cooked, and it can be a bit hard to nail that AND make it look nice.

Here's the recipe I use: https://www.justonecookbook.com/oyakodon/

It's insanely good, and the kids ate the chicken and grudgingly agreed the rice with the delicious liquid was "fine"... I don't begrudge them, I get it... but man, I wish they were a bit cooler about it.

Eggs. Or rather my 2 DCs preferred styles are opposite--one will only eat scrambled, the other strongly prefers fried or boiled. And their defense--i.e. "I do eat eggs, why is it such a big deal which way?"--has some truth, but practically speaking, it is so annoying!

Also fish. But perhaps that is not so unusual for kids.

Anonymous wrote:Soup. He's slowly growing out of it but he would 100% rather go to bed hungry than eat soup. Now he will kind of pick the ingredients out of the soup and eat them.

Will he eat a grilled cheese sandwich and dip it in soup? That's what I did as a kid -- I'd dip a grilled cheese sandwich in tomato or chicken noodle soup. No, you don't get all the nutrients that way, but it's something. I think it helped me acclimate to the flavor of different soups and now I love soups of all kinds. Though have a strong preference for soups with consistent texture (I dislike stew or any broth based soup with big chunks of stuff in it, even if it's stuff I'd eat on it's own).

Anonymous wrote:I have a kid who doesn't like pasta OR pizza!

The no pizza thing is incredibly hard because it extends so far beyond family dinner. Recently my kid asked me when people would stop serving pizza at birthday and school parties, and I had to break it to her: never. I wish I understood what it was about pizza she doesn't like but she can't articulate it. She's not a big tomato sauce person in general so we tried white pizzas but it didn't matter. She won't even eat just some pizza crust with olive oil and parmesan on top.

But she will eat focaccia. But not if I put pizza toppings on it.

Make it make sense.

Soup. He's slowly growing out of it but he would 100% rather go to bed hungry than eat soup. Now he will kind of pick the ingredients out of the soup and eat them.

Anonymous wrote:My kid with a sensory disorder and gag reflex couldn't handle textures like avocado and yogurt. He wanted crisp textures. Now as a young adult, he can eat anything but will still prefer other textures. Avocado only in California rolls! We're Japanese and they love most Japanese foods... except perhaps for natto

9:38 here, with the kid who has a sensory disorder that really limits foods. I'm really encouraged to hear your kid eats pretty widely now! That is my main fear, that my kid will wind up really limited as an adult because of her food aversions.

Perhaps for another thread, but if you have advice, I'd love to hear it. We basically follow Ellen Satter method and have been able to eliminate most battles over food and DD has good nutrition, but would love to know if you think there is anything you did that helped your son get to where he is now.

Anonymous wrote:My middle kid won't eat pizza. Weirdo.

My oldest will eat pizza but nothing else with cheese. It is VERY inconvenient to his cheese-loving family.

Anonymous wrote:There are a ton (like edamame or lentils) that I assume they won't like until later-- which is fine, I didn't either.

But it kills me that my one kid hates pasta. Pretty much any kind of pasta. I don't get it at all.

My dad doesn’t eat any pasta. I never could understand it but I think it’s a texture thing.

Spicy foods. My kids have gotten better with age. Dh and I used to use Franks red hot on everything, red pepper flakes while cooking and peppers. Something that’s helped is “hot honey”. The kids like the combo of sweet and spicy, then once they were used to that they branched out.

I have a kid who doesn't like pasta OR pizza!

Anonymous wrote:There are a ton (like edamame or lentils) that I assume they won't like until later-- which is fine, I didn't either.

But it kills me that my one kid hates pasta. Pretty much any kind of pasta. I don't get it at all.

My kid is like this. Hates pasta but willl eat an entire can of black beans and pretty much any vegetable. He’s 16 so not a little kid.

There are a ton (like edamame or lentils) that I assume they won't like until later-- which is fine, I didn't either.

But it kills me that my one kid hates pasta. Pretty much any kind of pasta. I don't get it at all.

One of my kids doesn’t like soup or salad. Thought she’d grow out of it but she’s in college now and still no.

Another kid is autistic so there are only about three dozen things he eats. The one that boggles is that he loves fries but won’t eat any other kind of potato - mashed, roasted etc.