My Picky Kid

Here is something I've learned over the last few weeks, or rather I'm trying to come to terms with....

I have a picky eating kid.

Why has it taken me so long to realize this you ask, since my son is almost 3?  Because I have been in pure denial and hoping it was a phase.  I think I have to give up that dream and realize this is not a phase but how he is.

My sister was a picky eater growing up and we still regularly tease her about her food groups: bologna, pop tarts, & chicken nuggets. 

I literally don't remember anything else the girl ate.  It was pop tarts for breakfast EVERYDAY, bologna sandwich with pickles on it for lunch EVERYDAY, and my mom kind of catered to her at dinner.  If she didn't like what my mom made, she made her something different.

I will say I never got such special treatment at meal times, but hey maybe that's just the middle child syndrome coming out in me :)

Grant will eat cereal every morning, or on the rare occasion I buy poptarts, he will eat those.  I have tried to be the good stay at home mom who cooks scrambled eggs, French toast, and pancakes, but they are a no go in the mornings.  It's cereal or poptarts. Period.

For lunch I actually ask him what he wants rather than making something and having to throw it away and it's 1 of 3 things: bologna, hot dogs, or peanut butter sandwich, and no lie most of the time he won't eat the veggie or fruit so am I a bad mom if I just leave them off the plate at times?

Please don't answer that.

For dinner I refuse to do as my mom did and fix 2 separate meals.  I have stood firmly by this since before I had kids.  I believe in the old school way of what's on the table is what you eat or you don't eat.  Now I'm not that mom who makes you eat everything on your plate regardless if you like it.  I have a vivid memory of my mom telling me I had to try my beans.  I repeatedly told her I didn't like them (as I had tried them before and realized they were, in my opinion, disgusting).  She made me try them anyway, so I did like a good little girl and proceeded to gag and throw them up.  She never again made me try something I said I didn't like....Lesson Learned.

I do make sure there is something I make I know he has ate before and likes.  But if I catered to only the meats I know he will eat, my husband and I would be eating bologna and hot dogs every day.  He will not eat any kind of pasta because there's stuff on it.  I tried being a good mom and only putting butter and parmesan cheese (which he likes) on it, but he's smarter than that and refused to touch it.  Instead he will eat 3 pieces of garlic bread and say he's done.

He will not eat any kind of meat with sauce on it, like BBQ chicken or pork.  I have yet to figure out why the child has refused to eat hamburger patties (no cheese of course because it's gooey, heaven forbid something be gooey) and will instead eat 2 hamburger buns.  Usually if I make regular seasoned pork chops he will put a piece to his tongue and proclaim immediately that it's yucky, and proceed to eat his body weight in potatoes.

I have found that he will eat soup.  However, what soup he will eat on any given day is a mystery and trial and error.  For example, there are days he will eat 3 servings of chicken noodle soup, then the next time I make it (during a completely different week) he won't touch it.  I also made chili a couple weeks ago, which I know he has ate a lot of and likes.  However this time he decided he didn't like any of the onions or diced tomatoes that were in it. 

"What the heck?"  I said out loud, "you liked them before".

To which he responded, "no, I don' wanna eat em, I don' like em."

To which I responded by rolling my eyes (and I wonder why my son rolls his eyes all the time,  can't imagine where he gets it).

I started giving him multivitamins to try to supplement some of what he might be missing.  He's super healthy from what I can tell and is growing like a weed so I'm not overly concerned about his health.  It's just really freakin' frustrating, and I maintain the only reason he is picky is because I vowed I would not make 2 different dinner meals for a picky child.  I think he heard me in utero and he has decided to test me. 

It's so like him, haha.  Always testing me, always trying to go against the grain. 

I have yet to figure out how to remedy this situation or if I should even try. 

Ok I'm done rambling now.