Any-Mom » Try It…You Might Like It

Try It…You Might Like It

01.21.2009 | Author: MoltoMom | Posted in Pick Your Battles

I admit that one of the bigger concerns my husband and I had when deciding to start a family was what our little bundle of joy would do to our social life. Don’t get me wrong; our dance cards were never jam-packed every weekend. What I’m talking about is the simple act of sitting across a table from each other and sharing a yummy meal and some good conversation.

So when we became pregnant with our first, we were hell-bent on making sure this kid loved going out and trying new foods as much as we did, or at the very least, condition him to behave somewhat like a human being at a restaurant. I had seen well-behaved children in restaurants before – I was sure of it – so I knew that it wasn’t a complete anomaly.

After nine months of intense strategizing, our plan was to get him out “early and often”. So at four weeks old, he slept peacefully in his car seat as we enjoyed a delightful dinner, just the “two of us” in a sense, at our favorite Mexican spot. Perhaps the mariachi band was as familiar and comforting to him as my own voice, for as often as we went there while I was pregnant, because this restaurant has always been a foolproof spot for us to have an uninterrupted dinner, even as my son became mobile and vocal, a toddler if you will. He’s even been known to enjoy cheese enchiladas and guacamole when the mood should strike him. But try to get him to eat a peanut butter sandwich, and he resists (even though he likes peanut butter and he likes bread – though separately, NEVER together. Go figure.).

Considering the many different kinds of restaurants he has frequented in his three years, I wouldn’t call him an adventurous eater. In fact, when faced with a new food on his fork, his usual response is, “I don’t like it.” To which ours is, “But how do you know? You haven’t even tried it yet.” To which he repeats, “I don’t like it.” The all-too familiar toddler standoff. Where in the world do you go from there?

Which brings me to the real subject of my post today – getting my kid to try new foods. Lately, I’ve been thinking it’s all about making some kind of connection with the food he eats. Like last July, we went blueberry picking at a local orchard near our house. Before this outing, a blueberry had never graced his lips. But as he was having fun picking the berries from the bushes, he began popping them into his mouth! And he actually liked them! Nothing short of a miracle. Granted, since that day, he hasn’t been enthusiastically popping blueberries into his mouth every chance he can get, but that one time was enough to convince me that the connection was the key.

Building on that small success, we decided it was time to start involving our little one in the food we make at home. Our first undertaking was pizza. He loved spreading the sauce on the dough and sprinkling with cheese. He waited patiently for it to bake – although asking us about a hundred times if it was ready yet. (We turned our interior oven light on so that he could watch it cook, and that helped to reduce the number of questions while delighting him in the process.) The fact that he ate the pizza wasn’t very surprising, since it’s one of his favorite foods. So I guess it kind of felt like cheating. We need to delve into more challenging dishes that he hasn’t ever tried before to see if we can convert him.

To help on that front, my mother-in-law gave us The Children’s Step-by-Step Cookbook by Angela Wilkes. It’s an older book, circa 1997, but I love it for its simple pictures of each ingredient and each step of the recipe (demonstrated, of course, by a child) – a thoroughly engaging and easy to understand format for non-readers. And I love the recipes themselves. Fun and healthful food that’s not only easy to prepare, but interesting to look at and worthy of a 3-year old proudly stating, “I made that!”

Since we just received the book for Christmas, we haven’t had a chance to make any of its creations, but we’ve earmarked a bunch of recipes – stuffed veggie and cheese potatoes, a fun fruit tart, tic-tac-toe toast, star-shaped cinnamon toast, frozen fruit bars, to name a few. Add to that list tacos – another idea we had, though not in the book. We’ll see how it goes – I’m very optimistic.

I’m also curious…I would love to hear about meals that you cook with your little ones or tricks you might have for getting them to try new foods…do tell!