Tried to get him to eat a noodle
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| Thu, 08-11-2005 - 2:01am |
I just thought I'd let you all know...I decided to give Nathan something he likes for dinner, but insist that ONLY people who eat at least one noodle and a maple baked bean will get a cookie later on. So, he ate a bowl of Koala Krisp (an organic, brown rice version of Cocoa Krispies) and a little bowl of Mandarin oranges for dinner and refused the noodle and bean. One of his favorite foods is plain vermicelli, but this noodle was a rotelli. He wouldn't touch it. He sat at the table and quietly wiped away a tear of disappointment. He insisted he didn't want a cookie later on, but in a cranky POed way. He stayed in a disagreeable funk until bedtime.
As I was tucking him in, he said he couldn't sleep because he needed to eat something. In the end, I gave him whole wheat Ritz crackers with a little Nutella on them, and milk. Not exactly tofu and broccoli, but a fairly acceptable snack, I suppose. He perked up and went to sleep in a decent mood.
The thing that is so weird, although not surprising, is how adamant he is about not trying a different shaped noodle (forget the bean). He loves vermicelli, but if I accidentally buy spaghetti, which is a micron thicker, he won't eat it. That'll send him into an abyss of despair. He'll go off by himself and just do nothing at all except sit and be sad. Really. It's not like I'm asking him to put sauce on the darn thing. Sheesh.
Oh well. I'm sure glad to have you guys on this board! :)
Evelyn

Actually, it sounds like you did fabulous. He may not have wanted to try that one new thing, but already made some healthy changes. A bowl of healthy cereal and fruit for dinner is a great choice. Crackers for the snack (for some reason I have no idea what nutela is). Good choice as well. Doesn't have to be tofu and broccoli. Heck my kids won't eat tofu either. They are picky so I work within thier pickiness.
Good for you! Good for you for sticking with the no cookie rule too. Often kids will test it out the first few times and break our hearts, but even though you say you usually whimp out, you stuck to it.
Baby steps and you have already made a few.
Renee
my boys will not eat any shape of noodle except spaghetti! it must have the same sauce as always and it needs to have ground beef NOT meat balls or anything else. This is the ONLY meal that all my children will eat. but if I change it one little bit NO ONE will touch it!
I totally feel your pain and wonder why the shape makes such a difference? The girls will eat other types of noodles, why not my boys?
Betsy
Well, I don't have to worry about the "pasta shape" thing.....my Nathan DOESN'T EAT PASTA!!!!! YEAH!!!!! Ok, but I do understand about the pickiness though. Nathan will only eat certain brand names, and he likes chicken...but lately he won't eat chicken strips ONLY chicken nuggets!! He changes his likes and dislikes every so often. I still don't know the actual reasoning of all of this, but it makes sense to him! And he'll eat garlic bread (the stick shaped kind), but not the loaf kind. Tastes the same, but he feels that there is a tramatic difference. I've tried discussing this with him, questioning his choices, but it just leads to a huge, long battle!!! So I don't question him that much anymore. It just all makes sense in his head!!
And I agree with Renee, you did a great job Evelyn!
Michelle
Ahhh, here is one place I am very lucky. My kids will eat nearly anything italian. sometimes a couple of them (Mike and Emily) have a bit of a cow when I make pasta with cut up tomatoes and fresh basil (they like the smooth sauce not the chucky they say) so then I will put olive oil and parmesan on theres. Cait won't eat sausage but will now eat the sauce the sausage was cooked in.
But they LOVE raviolli, lasagna, rigatoni, spagetti, pinwheels, etc, etc, etc.
Hubby is 1/2 italian and his mom is new york italian. If they didn't eat all italian food they would starve, lol. I grow my own tomatoe plants and basil. Cait isn't a fan of bruschetta but will eat nearly everything else. If it doesn't have garlic in it, I am not sure what to do.
Between the garlic and red wine that goes through this house, DH and I should never have heart trouble.
Renee
Evelyn,
ITA with the others that you are off to a flying start. Nathan tolerated having the noodle near him, right? That's a great first step. For a long time, Peter would not tolerate a vegatable at the same *table* at which he was eating. It took a long time just to get a veggie onto his plate!
So the next step for you, may be to have the noodle closer, or to have him touch or smell the noodle. After that, maybe try to have him taste a *tiny* fragment of noodle, and so on. Remember to praise him lavishly for any tiny moves he makes in the right direction.
The first few tastes were the most difficult for us, too. Eventually Peter grew to understand that he was off the hook if he just *tasted* the new food and he did not have to eat any more if he didn't like it. We could *tell* him that till the cows came home, but he didn't beieve it until we walked the walk a few times.
We have the pasta shapes problem in this house, too. It is strange. It took about 3 years for me to get both kids to eat mini raviolis. One day I will try them with full size or (Heaven help me) round ones, but I pick my battles!
Keep up the good work and don't be discouraged if you do have a little setback. It is a long process, and there will be good days and not-so-good days.
-Paula
visit my blog at www.onesickmother.com
Evelyn,
Cassian has similar troubles with different shapes of pasta. He will only eat angel hair pasta with a particular sauce I buy that has mini meatballs in it. A few mos ago, he did manage a few bites of lasagne, and if his Dad puts it in his mouth, he might eat a bite or two of Amy's brand mac and cheese. I think the pasta pickiness is very much a texture issue or just novelty in and of itself for a lot of our kids. Pasta is really a pretty slimey food anyway, so I'm often surprised that Cassian will eat it at all, as he doesn't like slimey textures.
Anyway, to get Cassian to try new foods, we have a little routine that is much like Paula described. We insist that he lick the food or put just one bite in his mouth. This is all he has to do the first time he tries it. The food usually comes out of his mouth on trial one. After this, we encourage him to do a second try, unless he is freaking out about it, and we make the second try fun by cheering him on. We coach him to chew the food on the second try. He often chews and then swallows one small bite at this point. After this, Cassian usually gets a treat for trying a new food, and we give him lots of praise. Lately, he has started to do this on his own - - he actually put a baby carrot in his mouth last week, bit off a small piece, and then chewed it a little before spitting it out.
Cassian will also occasionally try a new food if it fits in with a role he is playing. Telly on Sesame Street has a song about making a sandwich with cheese, baloney, lettuce, and mayonaise, so Cassian wanted to try making this kind of sandwich and eating it one day. He didn't like it, but hey, he actually ate 3 small bites! Elmo's World had a show about Bananas, which motivated Cassian to help make and try banana pudding, banana bread, banana smoothies, banana pancakes, and fried plantains. He liked everything except the plantains, but he helped cook and then tried all of these foods. So far, watching Veggie Tales hasn't had a similar effect on his interest in eating the green stuff, but he does eat a pretty healthy diet.
Suzi