From a grown up picky eater

One would think that a boy who hated vegetables and loved greasy foods would never fall for a dietician. Well, it happened.

My name is Grant, and while I've progressed a lot from my childhood fits caused by the mere presence of greens, I still regard the majority of vegetables as "icky". Then my wife entered the picture. She had grown up eating fairly healthy and then got her degree in dietetics, so needless to say vegetables are now taking a greater place in my diet, whether I want them to be or not.

While I have grown and matured from where I used to be in my eating preferences, it's still rough sometimes to find things I like to eat.

What I've noticed is that there are a near infinite amount of blogs, books, and articles addressing the issue of picky eaters.  Ranging from fun recipes to near mind control they all claim to be the great fix for the picky eater. But what I find to be lacking were these very things written by picky eaters.  The writers of these books and articles talk about living with and cooking for the child with the selective palette, but what happened to the voice Of the picky child?

My hope with this blog is to shed a little more light on what happens in the mind of the picky eater. I want to show why is it that the tricks work, and why things may not work out as well as they did for the author.

So to close my first blog post, I would like to offer what is in my opinion the most important thing to apply when working with a picky eater. Be patient. Now, when I say that I don't even necessarily be patient as you work through different recipes and techniques. You might do everything right and still end up with a child that refuses to eat his broccoli, but that's ok. A child who doesn't like carrots is not a sign of a bad parent nor a bad child. Let them grow up and eventually on their own they may develop a love for the foods they once despised.

I mean, when I was younger I refused to eat potatoes in anything other than fry or chip form. No matter what recipe was tried I wanted nothing to do with them.  But then I grew up. I went off on my own and actually lived in Argentina for 2 years, where I learned to not only eat potatoes, but wholeheartedly enjoy them. Now I eat mashed, boiled, and baked potatoes whenever I get a chance!

So really, don't stress too much about it. Just let them learn to love different foods on their own time.