in the last 2 weeks or so i have been trying to get back on track with eating habits of my 2 oldest children, ds 5 and dd1 3. they are reasonable eaters, with lots of food they like and will eat with enjoyment. however, they also have quite a lot of foods they don't like and can be very reluctant to even try anything new.
with ds, the big issue for me has been that he wouldn't eat fruit other than raisins and baby fruit pots, or any salad type veg. i had hoped he would just grow out of this, especially once at school. always offered, modeled eating it etc.
dd eats apples, bananas and strawberries as well as raisins and fruit pots. she will not even taste other fruit or salad. she is also fussy about certain pasta sauces, rice,cous cous mashed potatoes and again won't try new food at all. i think she is sometimes using food as a control mechanism too.
so, we had chat about healthy food, healthy bodies, about sometimes needing to practise new foods. been giving 'no' foods as tiny starter, need to be eaten before meal/activity. in two weeks they now both eat cucumber and green grapes and ds has had dried figs and bananas. not too much fuss and they both seem proud of themselves.
today was tomato day. dd1 refused point blank to even try. 'starter' was half a home grown small tomato. neither ate it at lunch-so no lunch. dd1 had 2 apples during afternoon.
teatime-ds ate tomato with big fuss, then veg curry and rice and small cake (from his party). dd1 didn't even come to table but asked and went to bed.
have i backed myself into a corner? have agreed with ds that now he has tried tomato and strawberry and really doesn't like them we will leave them for now and find another red food-tomorrow will be raw red pepper. he needs to choose a red food to add to diet.
i don't want to undermine his progress by changing rules for dd1. so, do i insist on tomato tomorrow or just drop the subject? move on to red pepper for her too?
sorry for essay!