Postby dizzyduster » Fri Aug 10, 2012 4:42 pm
This idea might help, let's hope! I told my two year old, in all honesty, that I didn't think he was old enough to eat a globe artichoke because they were fiddly. I explained that he'd have to dip each leaf into a balsamic vinagrette then bite his teeth together half way up each leaf and pull down the fleshy part, eat it and throw the upper part of the leaf away into the bowl on the table. Once he got to the prickly, hairy bit on top of the heart he'd have to do something different (I demonstrated) and then he could eat the heart sliced up with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. He asked me how old he would have to be and I told him that I thought about four or five years old. He never liked being told he'd have to wait until he was older to do anything and this stood true when I told him he wouldn't be able to ride his bike without stabilizers when he was two and half and he proved me wrong then too. Globe artichokes became his favourite supper and his brother's too. Whenever they said they didn't like something or curled up their noses at the first taste of a new food, I'd apologise sincerely to them and say "Whoops, mummy's fault, you are absolutely right, I think you have to be a couple of years older to like this ....." These words guaranteed that they'd eat whatever it was infront of them unless they genuinely didn't like it and then we waited a little while for their taste buds to develop. They ate gherkins, olives, mussels and oysters and all sorts of other 'grown up' foods whilst still very young. Another clue is to never stand over them whilst they eat. Put their food infront of them and never make any reference to it. Go and do something completely different in a nonchalent fashion and if you collect the plate with nothing having been touched a bit later just pick it up and ask if they want to get down and have they had enough? Don't appear to be worried or stressed at all. We lived in France when they were tiny and they loved the plate of antipasti we'd share at the beach so I used to make their meals at home in a similar way with very small helpings of variety of tastes on their plates or on a chopping board to make it look like the brasseries we went to. We would ask restaurants to not go down the Children's Menu route and just bring the boys a couple of empty plates because they'd be eating food off our plates and if we needed to order more adult dishes we would. So they never ate ridiculous Children's Menu food which is normally pretty awful. We used to go soft fruit picking and foraging for food in the autumn so they learnt about food from its source and they'd find apples growing on trees and potatoes underground and not visa-versa. This awareness of food delighted them so I'd buy very young tomato plants and herb plants from the garden centre that were theirs to plant in the garden or on the window sill and they'd have to look after them and then cook with them. They would mix the pancake mix or scrambled egg and add their own herbs and soft fruit. A guarantee that they'd eat fruit was to get them to slice and cut up a variety of fruits, banana, pineapple, whole grapes and thread them onto a wooden stick or chop stick. It's good for them to learn words whole, half and quarter for when they come to their maths lessons too! Using the scales is great also. The boys would love the colours and try to make the most beautiful stick. The fact they'd done it themselves and they had ownership of the pudding was a guarantee they'd eat it and as they'd liked their fingers all the way through the making process, I knew they loved the taste too. I think the relationship with food from gate to plate is important for some kiddies and you might just find it helps you get over this trying period. Good luck!
