Winning the Food Fight: Dealing with Picky Eaters  Do you have a card carrying, all out picky eater in your family? Do you keep a stock of Cheerios and hot dogs on hand for those “nightmare” meals? (We knew one family that always fed their three-year-old Spaghetti-O’s™. They had more cans in their pantry than I’ve seen on a store shelf.)
Most family’s have food battles with their children, at least once in awhile. In all of us, young and old, cells within the taste bud have a limited life span and new taste cells continually develop. The olfactory system, or smell, directly affects our taste buds. Our mouths start watering when we smell fresh cookies baking. A child’s taste buds will gravitate toward what they know, and what they’ve been trained to enjoy. So as they’re little taste buds are maturing, here are some ways to win food fights:
- Encourage your picky eater to try everything on his plate. Introduce one new food at a time. Remember when he was a baby and he rejected his sweet potatoes at first, but then a few days later gobbled them up? Kids are the same way. They may “hate” a food at first, but after several times decide they love them. What food did you loathe as a child, but enjoy as an adult? We all have personal taste.
- Make a rule that your children must try everything on their plates. Now this doesn’t mean an itty-bitty bite, but several so they can make a true decision. Be reasonable. Not many adults like mushrooms, so don’t expect your kids to—which by the way is one of the foods I curled my nose up to as a child, but love now.
- Don’t overload your child’s plate. If you mound their plate and expect them to “clean it up” then of course they will resist, and learn to overeat. Listen to your child when he says he’s full. If you limit sugary snacks and provide nutritional meals, children will naturally adjust their food intake according to their energy needs. Our youngest, Josiah, would go on what I called “feed.” He would eat anything that didn’t eat him first. But then he would have a period when he didn’t eat much at all. Invariably within a week or two I had to buy him new pants because he had grown another inch or more.
- Occasionally call rank. Most of the time we didn’t make the kids clean up their plates or make an issue of trying new foods. But when they tried to manipulate, like saying they were full, but then wanted dessert, we made sure they ate more.
- Watch for food allergies and intolerances. Allergies involve the immune system and can cause serious symptoms and even behavior issues. Food intolerance is an adverse reaction to a food like lactose. Don’t diagnose this on your own, especially allergies. Our picky eater complained that certain foods caused his mouth to hurt, and often they were foods he liked. When he was a baby and nursing he often had thrush. The doctors said I had yeast infections and it came out in my breast milk. But as Joshua grew older and still had problems, I knew that couldn’t be the cause. When he was little I watched for allergies, but there were no other symptoms, and since he was our picky eater, I often thought he made it up.
In his early teens, deep crevices formed on Joshua's tongue and finally around sixteen, he was diagnosed with having a “topical allergy,” meaning his immune system didn’t react internally, but on his tongue and mouth. Recently, I met someone with the same problem, who said it was called a “geographical tongue.” It’s not life threatening, but annoying at times. But imagine how I felt that I had even made Joshua try certain foods. Today Joshua is still a bit picky, but he does try new foods and at least puts on a good show. He knows what foods to avoid that irritate his mouth.
- Make dinner time family time. We made dinner time a priority and made sure that everyone was home for dinner. Our picky eater wrote a song (Here at the Table) about the joys around our dinner table. We actually had food real food fights at times. I cringed everytime my husband started one, but still joined in. Making dinner time a place of memories, sharing, and fellowship, took the edge off. Kids have less time to think about not liking their food when they are engaged in conversation with their parents.
Spiritual Food
Teaching children contentment in what they eat directly coincides with teaching them to partake of the spiritual food you put before them. If you train them to enjoy having a daily quiet time from early on, they will continue to crave spiritual nourishment. Practicing spiritual disciplines feeds their souls.
Recently my husband Timothy and I were discussing Joshua’s pickiness. We both agreed that, while he’s still a little picky, and aren’t we all in one way or another, that he’s more particular about the spiritual food he partakes. As a teen he worked hard not to be influenced by his peers, but spent many hours alone with God or his family, while his friends were partying. He recognizes the things that would cause deep crevices to form in his heart, soul, and mind and avoids them. Now as an adult, Joshua is feeding his two young sons spiritual milk. Timothy and I rejoice that our son, though he battled with be a picky eater, has chosen to do the Lord’s will.
"My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work (John 4:34).
© 2010 Carla Williams
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