To think fussy eaters are unique to developed countries?

[spokette]

My family hail from a poor village in Jamaica and food fussiness is unheard of because children eat what they are given because so many of them may still only have one or two meals a day. That is also the experience of my friends from other developing nations

This food fussiness malarky appears to me to be unique to the developed countries because children have lots of choices plus many of them tend to snack between meals.

My mother, who grew up in Jamaica as one of 10 children with a widowed mother and no social security network and would often only have water to drink as an evening meal cannot comprehend this phenomenon either.

I bet if a lot of the fussy children (I'm referring to those without medical issues) had to regularly go without food like millions of children in the underdeveloped world do so every day, they would soon eat what they were given imo.

Harsh but true.

I am sure that it is true and it is sad that so much of the world's population do not have the choice that we take for granted. On the one hand it means that many children in developing nations are malnourished because they have no opportunity to have a rich and varied diet with all the requisite nutrients that their little bodies need, and on the otherhand many children from developed nations have so much choice and opportunity to eat different nutritious foods that they are able to develop "taste preferences" that can only result from never encountering true hunger. If I could change anything I would wish that most children in the world would have the opportunity for the latter situation rather than the former, though.

I am liking TBGP's hypothesis actually.

In your OP you say "they would soon eat what they were given".

I think the "what they were given" is pretty crucial.

true, bluebutterfly, and the very recent abundance of food is something that our primitive 'taste preferences' for fat, sweet, hi-cal etc is something that's hard to programme out.

so maybe BGP and spokette are both right? it's what's on the table that counts.

Bluebutterfly, even with the range of choice in developed nations, many children are actually malnourished because they do not eat a varied and nutritional diet because they survive on junk and snacks, sadly.

BGP - thats kind of the point I was trying to make about mince potato carrot yoghurt (I forgot bread). There's not much to be fussy about (and still DS managed )

Meant to add, consequently they do not develop a palette for real food.

LOVE that photo of you and ds stading at the door,kewk. i take it you've got a framed version somewhere?

YANBU but YABWrong - I concur with WelliesAndPyjamas

Stayed with a family over a big festival holiday (think Christmas or Thanksgiving - everyone goes home to their family, eats a lot, drinks a lot, gives and gets presents) and met several children who refused the exciting treats and meat dishes and demanded bland nursery food instead.

Yeah, spokette you are right and it is absolutely shocking that we take our food abundance so much for granted that children in wealthy developed nations are malnourished - I don't really disagree with anything that you say. Perhaps the option is to keep our children's diet as simple and nutritious as possible and if they don't want to eat the food in front of them, don't give them anything else...

it's palate, spokate...

where was this, mrsb?

So, I wonder, is the answer to assume that at some point, your child will only eat three familiar foods - and to make sure that you utterly agree with all foods your child consumes, for fear he will fixate on the three crappest?

Nepal

TBGP - actually that is probably an approach for ensuring that children do only eat nutritious food, but it is actually easier said than done in reality. My almost 4 year old loves chips - he only gets them when we go out to eat at a restaurant (once in a blue moon) but that doesn't stop him asking for them almost every mealtime...

oh i'd love to go there, maybe i will one day. i know it's not the same, but there was a brilliant doco series A Year In Tibet recently, just wonderful.

Issy - I did keep ds's diet pretty much to meat potato etc for a few motnhs and just introduced new foods one by one (avocado first becasue I was desparate to fatten him up!) [smug emoticon]

Actually that was becasue I was so clueless about everything that I just fed him what I knew he would eat!

Aitch sadly its very low res and therefore doesn't reproduce well.

Exterminaitch, thanks!! I was thinking about doing some painting with the twins later when I wrote it

oh that's a shame, kewk. it's stunning of both of you.

lol spokette, no worries, i hesitated, but i got to make a stupid joke about your name at the same time so couldn't resist.

My aunt in Jamaica, adopted a 2 yo boy who had been abandoned and was malnourished. He could not get enough food and ate everything like it was his last meal. It took a long time for him to realise that he would receive more food at the appointed time.

very common spokette even if they aren't malnourished. Notsure that proves they aren;t picky just that when you are starving anything will do. The minute you aren't starving if you are inclined to be picky you'll revert to what you like best.

My father was a very picky eater during the war but wasn;t as an adult.

Ah interesitn gthen as DS also ate like a garbage diposal unit for about three months but doesn;t seem to have a problem now with eating enough and knowing when to stop. I think its luck!