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February 17, 2010
Sherri Meyer, MG Registered Dietitian
You would think that being a mother who is a dietitian that I would have the patience to tolerate and understand a toddler’s typical “food jags”. A food jag is a term commonly used in child nutrition that describes when a child will only eat one or a few food items, meal after meal, day after day, with blatant refusal of all other foods. My patience was tested this past week as my son Oliver went head-first into one of these “jags” during a trip to see his Grandparents in Ohio.
His usual staples - yogurt, applesauce, and peas - were all met with screams of “NO!” He only desired cereal and toast and it was all I could do to get him to sit at the table for an extended period of time.
When we finally arrived home in Virginia I was dreading dinnertime knowing that he would refuse whatever I had prepared. However, a short order cook I am not and it was either eat what my husband and I were enjoying or eat nothing at all. This does not always result in a pleasant mealtime, but at least I am not at the stove cooking a second meal for a toddler or putting chicken fingers or hotdogs in the microwave. So imagine my surprise when Oliver requested “mush” (cereal, bananas & milk), agreed to try grapes and apples (he normally refuses all fruits) and happily accepted a big bowl of green beans from his Dad (and ate two more bowls). For dinner, he even ate pasta with clam sauce including the clams still in their shells. In fact, he seemed happy as a….. well, you know.
Just as I was ready to write Oliver off as the champion of poor eaters, he surprised me. This is not an easy task, as it is often frustrating to offer healthy foods that your child continues to refuse. But after weeks of offering fruits, he is finally starting to accept them as having a place on his plate (though he doesn’t necessarily eat them). The “moral” of this story is continuing to expose your children to healthy foods, even if they don’t necessarily partake in them. It has been shown that the average child needs to be exposed to food up to twenty times before they may accept them. At some point they may surprise you, just as Oliver did to me. I am sure if I was writing this blog tomorrow, I would probably have a different story but for now I will relish that my son was actually a healthy eater today.
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