Whatever happened to, “When they’re hungry, they’ll eat”?
Admittedly, my mother catered to small quirks: She strained my brother’s orange juice, and picked the lima beans out of his mixed vegetables. When she made potato salad, my grandmother’s was without celery (her dentures), and my father’s without mayonnaise (he had a bad experience once). But I also grew up well before chicken tenders and fruit leather.
Same here. However, my mother was OK with us asking her after the fact not to make X or Y again (e.g., liver, boiled tongue).
with three kids -
DW/we never (that I recall) made/provided anything other than “dinner’s ready” to accommodate quirks.
otoh, we never insisted the kids ate x,y,z - our approach was “you don’t have to eat all of it, but you do need to taste it.”
my grandmother would stay with us - she&I were fond of (fresh calf) liver & onions - and the kids were into it big time, because . . . they didn’t “know better”
fast forward to the mid-80’s, living in Germany . . .
watching kids devour ‘fisch fest’ portions on bamboos Y-grill sticks . .
. . . you have never seen a StrammerMax disappear so fast as the 13 & 11 year old managed at a Davos peak ski resto . .
at home they were “gooey eggs on toast” at altitude, they were ‘any more?’
early 90’s . . . while house hunting with family in tow (corporate re-lo…)
did dinner at a fabulous local Italian joint,
offered up a share of my calamari to our ~10 yr old, who slurped it up ‘with vigor’ -
she asked, ‘what is this?’ and I replied ‘oh, it just like chicken’ -
walking out to the car . . . she piped up ‘Dad, that’s was really not chicken, yes?’
she now lives on Long Island and routinely orders/scarfs up calamari ‘en masse’
it is not a thing about taste, it is a matter of having positive exposure to all-kinds-of-stuff without icky overtones.
proof? when was the last time your kid called you up Sunday morning to ask about “Heh Dad, how do I cook scrapple (like you did)?” for me, that was two weeks back . . .
It’s interesting to me how this author’s argument seems to have evolved over the years. In 2018 Zeit was arguing that variety and abundance were the reasons for pickiness, and her forthcoming book was more innocuously subtitled, “A History of Children’s Food.” Now she’s focused blame on hyper-palatable processed and given her book a sexier, more provocative subtitle.
I find some of her examples cherry picked (the little girl spooning up baby crabs). There are a lot more factors at play in selective eating, I believe, than she identifies.
Only a few times did I run afoul of that. I still have PTSD from pimento cheese. I was anything but picky, but that stuff literally made me gag. My mom loves it and decided that was the hill she was going to die on. It didn’t end well.
I am so damned happy that my dairy allergy means I never have to argue about that vile sh*t ever again.
if i came into the house and smelled chitlins cooking i would ask if i could eat at our neighbor Steve’s house. the answer was always yes as long as Steve’s parents were okay with it, which they always were.
OTOH, if you’re talking about the spread that came in juice glasses, that was a standard lunch spread for my sandwiches when I was in junior high.
My mom has always made it from scratch…right down to grating the cheese. I refused to eat it, but I think fresh is hugely different than the jarred stuff.
My first ex loved it too. He got the stuff put of deli tubs from the grocery. But then…he ate Miracle Whip.
I think it’s so cruel when parents force kids to eat things they hate. I feel as long as they like some things, they don’t have to like EVERYTHING!
My father wouldn’t eat liver nor hot dogs yet he tried to force me to eat lamb and overcooked frozen broccoli. I’d gag at the dinner table and still he’d insist.
Same in my family…
As far as throwing away food, I won’t do it. I keep an eye on our perishables and will turn them into some type of meal. I’ll then freeze same into appropriately portioned freezer bags (for nights when I don’t feel like cooking).
In my paediatric training I was taught that breast-fed babies are exposed to a wide range of taste sensations from birth as the composition and taste of breast milk changes with different foods that mothers eat. But formula fed babies only get one taste until they are weaned. This is hypothesised to be one of the reasons why some kids might be less inclined to explore a wide variety of tastes. I haven’t looked to check if there is any literature to support the hypothesis that breast-fed babies might grow up to be less fussy about food in later life.
My folks didn’t do that, for the most part, happily. This was the odd exception.
I agree wholeheartedly that it doesn’t teach a lesson…it just creates a weird relationship with certain foods.
I was raised on formula but I was born into a Greek foodie family, FWIW. I am less of a foodie than one of my cousins. Try It, You’ll Like It was doctrine at our home.
My cousins who were breastfed by an Irish American from Philadelphia are all really fussy eaters! FWIW. LOL The youngest was the most spoiled by far. She would get her own plain pepperoni or cheese pizza at home after the family ate regular topped pizza at a pizzeria. At 16, she only would eat boneless chicken breast (no chicken on the bone, no dark meat), and would make a scene if things weren’t going her way. Their mother is a fairly fussy plain eater.
This family did not raise their children to be polite and eat what has been prepared for them by an elderly relative.
I, on the other hand, was raised to not make waves if a relative has prepared food for you.
Of course, we are all special cases.
Having now actually read the article I shared 
, her conclusions about the kiddie food industrial complex (see Uncrustables and other abominations) playing a major role in dumbing down kids’ palates certainly makes sense.
Just another way in which the lowest common denominator and chasing profit ruin shit.
i had a great grandmother who burnt/overcooked everything. you figured out how to swallow the edible parts and keep moving the inedible part around the plate until the meal was over. “i’ll help clear the dishes” was part of the routine to get the remains to the trash without much notice.
Memories 
I can understand turning down food that was burnt, raw or expired. or hiding food, spitting it out, etc.
I had an aunt with poor eyesight due to severe diabetes , and I remember spotting a cooked caterpillar on cooked homegrown broccoli on my plate. (I didn’t eat the broccoli, but I ate the other stuff on my plate) Another visit, a decade later, I compromised and ate meatballs she prepared when I had been a pescatarian for 18 months when I was 23, (not really due to a belief ), mostly because I was the only one coming for lunch and I didn’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t eat meat. Then the next week, a cousin prepared moose steak and venison sausage without asking if I had restrictions pr preferences, and I choked that down, as well.
I realize guests with strict dietary restrictions would not be doing this. It was also my fault at 23, for not letting the relative cooking know that I had a food restriction a few days in advance.
I always ask about food preferences and restrictions before preparing dinner for others but not everyone does this, esp not 80 somethings in my family. 
This 16 yo cousin was turning down chicken cooked by a good home cook, after asking the home cook to make chicken but not specifying she wanted boneless chicken breast (I have told this story before , it has become a grudge ) where the other 12 people at the table were eating what was prepared. This was insisting she had to eat a specific frozen pizza, instead of picking toppings off the pizza the other 6 people were eating at the restaurant that was chosen. She wasn’t autistic . She was a spoiled Millenial child, spoiled by her relatively spoiled Boomer parents. She is a mother now. I don’t travel anymore so I have no idea if her toddler is a fussy eater or not.
There are a number of studies who support this hypothesis (and the pediatrician we worked with had the same opinion). Here is just one example
Unfortunately, not all women are able to breastfeed.
That’s true but also many women who could breastfeed don’t want to do it
Any statistics / source to back that up?
