Victory on the Food Homefront

Attention!

We interrupt these travelogues to announce an important breakthrough in our long battle to get our kids to eat foods outside of the 5-10 items they have decided they like, few of which include fruits, vegetable, protein, or FLAVOR!

Like lots of things in life and parenting, the key was in going back to what my parents did and just copying it. I've told my kids several times that my parents used to make me sit at the table until I finished my dinner. I hated it, and by the time I ate it, it was cold and yucky, but I ate it.

When we had a new family in our branch over for dinner Sunday and I watched the mom Bobette do the same thing with her kids and it worked, it occurred to me that maybe this isn't an outdated cruel and unusual approach to the problem after all. As Margaret said a few months ago, "You know what the problem is, madam? You need to force them."

So on Monday night with Rich there to back me up I declared a new Cutler Family Rule. You eat what's on your plate or you stay at the table all night. It was ugly. Weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. But after about 30 minutes, Isaac ate the dill vegetable salad, white beans with garlic, fennel & rosemary, and garlic bread. I think he secretly even liked it. I must have said fifty times, "I'm not asking you to like it. I'm just asking you to eat it." After about an hour and even more crying and pleading (from parents and child) and even a little mercy ("I'll take a big bite if you will"), Russell finally ate his too. Miraculous!

The bad news is that later that night when we went upstairs to bed where the kids were already asleep, I smelled the all-too-familiar-these-days smell of vomit. I went in the boys' room and searched everyone's bed and found Isaac lying in a huge puddle of vomit. Yuck! Was it eating all that food he hadn't eaten in years? Luckily in the morning he concluded that it was the cookie dough he ate yesterday when I warned him if he ate it it might make him sick. Phew! Turned out to be passing, which was a relief since he just got over a nasty stomach bug.

Tonight the kids were surprised that I hadn't forgot about the new family rule and the menu was even less kid-tempting. Lots of yummy Indian food, all of which I don't even know the names for, but spicy pinto beans, fried okra (the Texas part!), an Indian fritter of sorts and white rice ended up on their plates. Again, weeping and wailing, but not quite so much! I didn't have Rich to back me up this time, but I did my best to be cheerful and kind about the whole thing, and sure enough, they both cleaned their plates in the end (after 1.5 hours for Russell!). This time, Isaac even admitted that he actually liked everything he ate "but not too much." And Russell said, "I'm starting to like spicy food."

Victory! Those of you who were lucky enough to spend large parts of your summer with us know that this issue of horribly picky eaters in our family has been a great source of stress for us. This is probably what everyone thought of as the solution as they saw us struggle but were afraid to be too bossy or nosy. You should have said something! Anyway, I've been praying for help with this issue, and my prayers have definitely been answered.


In a week or so I'm going to serve Isaac some fruit at dinner and see if we can have another miraculous breakthrough for our fruit-phobic cherub. Once I tried bribing him to eat a strawberry and he tried as best he could but he gagged every time he tried to chew and swallow it!