Our Picky Eater Now Loves Garlic
At 10, our picky eater is now eating goat, rabbit, and very strong cheeses!
Do you have a picky eater? What does picky mean to you? Our kids happily eat liverwurst, crazy strong cheeses, rabbit in garlic sauce, and a wide range of seafood. That hasn’t always been the case though.
I was born on the bayou. Growing up in a small Mississippi swamp town, I’ve never been a picky eater. Even as a kid I loved fried oyster po’boys. My wife is from Spain, and octopus and rabbit aren’t weird foods there.
Our oldest daughter has always been an adventurous eater. The first food our oldest ever ate was raw garlic mashed up with salt. I had been using the mortar and pestle, and I gave her the wooden pestle (stick) to play with. I looked up a moment later to see her licking it and smiling.
Our youngest daughter, now 10, is a different story. She’s been a very picky eater by the standards of our family. Granted, my wife and our 13-year-old love raw pickled anchovies (called boquerones in Spain), which even I don’t like, but our youngest was more of a cheeseburger and chicken nugget kind of girl. Don’t get me wrong, Whataburger and Chick-fil-A are wonderful, but there’s more to eat than that!
Young, Picky, and Safe
Young kids naturally tend to be more cautious with foods. It’s probably a way to keep them alive. Back when our ancestors foraged for wild foods, eating the wrong fruit or mushroom could get you killed. But in the modern world, not every restaurant has chicken nuggets or even a kids’ menu.
We’ve been taking our time with our picky eater. We have a rule that you don’t have to like a new food, but you do have to try it. We’ve also been very intentionally gradual. We didn’t force our picky eater to try grilled oysters with Parmesan on day 1.
Be Intentional
When she was about 5, we started to consistently challenge her to try new foods. We started with foods that she already liked, like American cheese on a cheeseburger. Then we started introducing her to other cheeses like medium cheddar and young sheep’s milk cheeses from Spain.
We gradually had her try other similar cheeses, and a few months ago, she ate an entire very strong aged goat cheese from a small cheese factory we toured last summer. Our picky eater recently complained that the food at sleepaway camp didn’t use enough garlic!
👨👩👧👦 What We’re Up To
My wife went back to the US on Saturday. The kids and I are still in Spain for another few weeks. My mother-in-law is expected to have surgery this week for gall stones. She’s 85, tough as nails, and still grows much of her own food. We’re hoping she’ll be feeling fine in a week or so.
What We’re Reading 🤓
My 10-year-old was reading us parts of Double Fudge in the car the other day. She normally loves graphic novels, but we’ve been trying to get her to love more chapter books. Mission accomplished! My 13-year-old is reading the Percy Jackson books, and I’m still not seriously reading Don Quixote. The girls go to day camp for the next few weeks, hopefully that gives me some time.
😲 Weekly Printable
For your picky eater, a printable about weird foods! 😋 or 😖
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