Hi there,
I have a 3 year and 4 month old boy and a 1 year and 4 month old girl. We all have very very different food preferences and I really struggle to find meals that suit us all. Recently I found that I was thinking all the time 'Oh he won't like that, I can't cook that, how can I make a meal he'll like out of the ingredients for this thing that the rest of us will eat.' I realised suddenly that this was of course ridiculous and that he will have to compromise too. I sort of snapped and decided that I would not let my whole shopping/cooking/eating thing be dictated by any one of us, esp my 3 year old. So I am TRYING to start by thinking 'What would be a nice meal?' and then work out something that might be tolerable to DS from there.
The variety of food he will eat doesn't really worry me - he like pasta, rice, sweetcorn, broccoli, salmon, tuna, olives, bread, cheese, virtually all fruits - so I'm not actually worried about nutrition. I'm just tired of what feels like a food tyranny.
Obviously I don't actually want to be cruel to him so when I made omelette the other night (which he doesn't like), I made sure it came with chips and peas. But I (and DH) did insist that he try one tiny bite of the omelette before he could have pudding. It was awful. Much genuine tears and screaming and 'I don't like omelette!' and so on. Eventually had the tiniest morsel while sitting on my lap. Again tonight with fish (he loves salmon but this was white fish - I even called it white salmon) and cheesy potatoes (he loves cheese and fried potatoes but it was the unfamiliarty).
However, it does appear that he finds trying certain new foods actually quite traumatic and I don't really know whether to persevere with making him try stuff. I think he might be a supertaster (DH almost certainly is) although he might also just be 3! It seems to me that the approach we are taking now is not going to make him actually like the food (that is so obvious now that I have written it down!). But what do I do if he only wants the sweetcorn and then wants pudding? My 1 year old gets what she is given and I give her pudding regardless but the age thing is quite a big difference in development and expectations at the table and so on.
Btw, I have explained that I have to cook for lots of people and not just him, and said that I didn't want to upset him but that we all like different things and we all have to try new things sometimes. I asked him what he thought we should all do if I had cooked something one of us didn't like and he said, 'I have a good idea, Mummy! Change it!'
So - to force the issue? or just leave the food on his plate and give him pudding whether he eats it or not? Or some other clever plan?
Thanks everyone, sorry if I'm really boring.