3 BIG Boyscout Bites!

My parents bought organic before organic was cool. It was the late 70's and early 80's, so they were probably still living a little bit of a hippie lifestyle. They had a tomato garden, they purchased granola and such from a local coop. They always prepared the "weird" stuff, that no kid actually likes and often cooked in their wok. Tabbouleh and carrots were offered for a snack and as a child, none of my friends ever wanted to eat dinner at our house. "ummmm....I think I hear my mom calling me. I better go...". I openly coveted my friends' lunches. A thermos of Spaghettio's and an oatmeal pie? Wow, I'd think, her mom must REALLY love her. When I told my mom I wanted something sweet, she'd say "have an apple" (interestingly enough, this is now what my husband says to me). They were adamant about at least having us try the food. If you didn't like it, that was fine, but how do you know unless you try it? "Take 3 BIG boyscout bites!" was their response when my brother and I protested the latest offering. Never mind that I wasn't a boyscout. Apparently my grandma used that line with my dad and it just stuck.

When I was in high school, I remember going into one of the condos my parents managed to start the laundry after someone checked out and I found a box of mac and cheese they'd left in the kitchen. Jackpot! I promptly starting boiling water so I could prepare this delectable culinary masterpiece. It's my first real memory of ever eating the stuff. I'm pretty sure my parents never bought it. It wasn't even the creamy pouch kind, just the fluorescent orange powdery stuff, but it was divine and I savored every last bite. I used to love to spend the night at a friend's house, simply for the food. I remember my friend's mom always had ice cream sandwiches from the Schwann's man, and for breakfast, they had sugar cereal, like Lucky Charms and Cinnamon Toast Crunch. It was such a treat and I took a long time deliberating on what I was going to eat because I knew I wouldn't be getting it again until the next time I spent the night.

We lucked out with Wyatt when it comes to eating. Although he's starting to develop a little bit more of a taste for sweets, he still seems to prefer the healthier stuff. He devours almost all veggies and fruits and loves meat and cheese. We have often found ourselves saying, "Wyatt, finish your cookie and then you can have more broccoli." What kind of pseudo-world does this kid live in?

The best food advice I received in regards to feeding kids is "You control what they eat and when, they control if and how much." I refuse to be a short order cook. I always make Wyatt at least try what we're having. If he really doesn't like, I won't force him to eat it, but I'm not making anything else either. I never remember my parents saying "oh, you don't want stir fry? No problem, I'll make you some chicken fingers". We sat there until we ate, or we went to bed hungry. I'm not smug about Wyatt's eating habits. I'm not sure it's anything specific we've done, just more a matter of his personal tastes. I recently started Hadley on solid foods and have yet to find anything she really likes.

I started with the old stand by...rice cereal. She responded by shuddering, gagging and promptly ejecting the lumpy mass with her tongue. In her defense, it does taste like cardboard. I could barely stomach it just to taste if it was too hot, so I don't think I'd be wolfing it down either. I decided to move on to something else, trying veggies so she didn't develop a taste for the sweet stuff right out of the gate. The response was pretty much the same. Who knows, she may decide she only wants to eat croutons or something (if your kid only eats croutons, I promise I'm not judging), but I will just keep trying to introduce new things and hope that she develops half the healthy eating habits of her brother. If memory serves (even if it doesn't, I just look back on the blog), it seems that her brother wasn't wild about the green stuff either at first and he's a veggie fanatic now so I think there's still hope.


How many times can you possibly put the same bite of food into a kid's mouth? Did she actually swallow any of it or did it just kind of evaporate after the 7th time I tried to scrape it off her chin and force it back in her mouth?