What About Those Picky Eaters

I've had some conversations lately with some people about picky eating. Picky eaters are often criticized. My husband gets upset when this topic comes up because when our kids were little, I made our kids try all food items but if they didn't like it, I wouldn't make them eat it. I don't eat things that I don't like and I don't think anyone should have to do that. People who disagree with this approach will say that it causes pickiness and that then a person won't eat anything and that if you force them to eat something that they don't like, they will learn to like and eat anything. I have concluded through seeing and watching both ways that this isn't the case. Both my kids were raised exactly the same way. My son has always ate and liked many food items-almost anything really. My daughter on the other hand, has always ate only certain things. --Bible college helped some with that. When I was young and visiting a cousins house where the kids were forced to eat everything on their plate and all items on the table being served I too, was forced to follow those rules. As a kid, I hated rice. To me it appeared too much like maggots and my family always served it with raisins, butter, sugar and milk as a breakfast food. So, to me it looked like a bowl of bugs! I didn't care for the taste either and gagged with each spoonful. I was forced to eat it but I did not develop a taste for rice as a kid. I began eating rice as a high schooler when a boyfriend's mom made it and served it with gravy. I had never had it that way before and wasn't really wanting to try it but didn't want to offend so I did. I liked it but still had to push maggot thoughts out of my mind. Now I love rice but it has been developed through trying different ways of cooking it. Almost all people have something that they prefer not to eat because they don't like the taste or texture or whatever. It's just that some people have more of those than others. My point is that forcing to eat something doesn't make someone less picky. I know too many "picky eaters" as adults that were forced to eat everything as a child. To further prove my point, be observant the next time you go to a buffet restaurant. Everyone picks and chooses the foods they want and the foods they enjoy eating. They don't take foods that they don't like. Now, maybe someone who has learned to force down a food they really dislike the taste of can eat anything sat in front of them so as not to offend the cook but that hardly makes them less picky. I was grateful that I had a mom that almost always stuck with foods my siblings and I loved rather than fixing foods she new would have to be forced upon us. When my kids were little, I sometimes felt that relatives purposely cooked and served foods that they knew my kids didn't like just so they could complain about them being picky and not eating. 

One more thing, just because someone is picky doesn't mean that's why they are thin. I know many heavy set people that are very picky eaters and my son will eat many varieties of foods and he is skinny as can be. I know lots of examples like this. 

I say leave people alone and let them eat what they want! I do think we should be concerned about HEALTHY eating not necessarily about eating everything and anything that is set before them.