Picky eaters...

Chatty Cathy said:

Been thinking about picky eaters again....

I have two children (many years apart). DS was the first-born - and when
he was a "toddler" we had little or no access to seafood or shellfish,
with the result that he never had much of either. To this day, he
dislikes anything remotely "fishy". He will eat almost anything else,
tho'. OTOH, our younger one (3 y/o) has been exposed to many kinds of
food, including seafood/shellfish and she seems to like it all.

I have noticed it with a quite a few of my friends - both with them and
their children as well - they seem to like what they grew up with and
are not all that keen to try anything that could be termed "strange food".

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to
try something "new" when they are adults?
--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy - just curious about other people's experiences.

Because of my own rearing and intense dislikes of many foods (especially
cooked green veggies), I had one rule for my DS, and that was he had to
give anything served an honest try and taste. He'll soon graduate
university in December (knock on wood!), and he eats everything and
anything served by anyone. OK, some foods are not meant to be eaten
like well-done steaks and other burnt and ruined foods. But then, DS is
a product of divorced parents and has always had to deal with many
different styles of cooking and foods between the two households (and
several step-mothers), so he's learned to adapt and make do.

So yes, I do agree with your premise: Children exposed to different
cooking styles and foods are more willing to experiment with their
palates than are kids who never were.

Sky

Chatty Cathy said:

Been thinking about picky eaters again....

I have two children (many years apart). DS was the first-born - and when
he was a "toddler" we had little or no access to seafood or shellfish,
with the result that he never had much of either. To this day, he
dislikes anything remotely "fishy". He will eat almost anything else,
tho'. OTOH, our younger one (3 y/o) has been exposed to many kinds of
food, including seafood/shellfish and she seems to like it all.

I have noticed it with a quite a few of my friends - both with them and
their children as well - they seem to like what they grew up with and
are not all that keen to try anything that could be termed "strange food".

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to
try something "new" when they are adults?

There could certainly be some truth in that. I cook mostly from
scratch and use a wide variety of ingredients, including some that are
a bit "exotic" in our part of the world. Our youngest always ate
whatever we were having and she has very catholic tastes when it comes
to food. The oldest, who was raised on packaged stuff and fast food by
my husband's ex, is unadventurous when it comes to food, to say the
least. And the youngest kid's friends are the worst. ;P I've learned
to order pizza when we have sleepovers.

Regards,
Tracy R.

Chatty Cathy said:

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to
try something "new" when they are adults?

In general, yes, I think you're right, and there are anthropologists who
note the truth to what you say, too. It's a cross cultural trait that
adults tend to view as weird and disgusting foods that they didn't see
adults eating when they were a child.

On the other hand, the exceptions are hard to miss. My boyfriend and
his sister were reared in the same household by the same parents in the
same city with the same access to foods. That is, it was their mother's
home cooking from start to finish. They're 3 years apart. He loves to
try ethnic restaurants and will often order the weirdest thing on the
menu just to try it. His sister is even pickier than her parents,
refusing to eat as an adult many of the foods that would have been
normal to her as a child, foods her parents would have encouraged her to
try.

That's one example. I can think of countless more.

--Lia

Julia Altshuler said:

On the other hand, the exceptions are hard to miss. My boyfriend and
his sister were reared in the same household by the same parents in the
same city with the same access to foods. That is, it was their mother's
home cooking from start to finish. They're 3 years apart. He loves to
try ethnic restaurants and will often order the weirdest thing on the
menu just to try it. His sister is even pickier than her parents,
refusing to eat as an adult many of the foods that would have been
normal to her as a child, foods her parents would have encouraged her to
try.

That's one example. I can think of countless more.

My wife and I are both pretty adventurous when it comes to eating food and
trying to recipes. My oldest brother his wife and one of his sons are
pretty adventurous, but the other son is a very picky eater, to the point
where it is a PITA to have him for a meal because he is so limited,
compounded by his childish reaction to not having what he likes. Another
brother and his whole family are generally easy going when it comes to
food, though I could not get them to try calamari or smoked eel. MY
youngest brother is the pickiest, but still not a major problem. So in one
family we run the gamut, from those who will try just about anything to
those whose weekly food consumption could be limited to 5 different items.

Chatty Cathy said...

Quoted message said:

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to
try something "new" when they are adults?

I am wondering if the sense of smell might be keener than taste in infants so
even great smells from the kitchen could be creating food memories that could
come in handly later when they can also taste and the brain goes "Ding! Ding!
Ding! I remember that aroma and it even TASTES great too!"

Or not,

Andy

"Chatty Cathy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Been thinking about picky eaters again....

--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy - just curious about other people's experiences.

Okay, I'll bite.

True story 1): I'm walking down the street in Portland, OR, about six
months after after Sept, 11th. It's 10:30 in the morning and I'm on-foot in
an industrial section of the town on the east side of the Columbia river. A
small, dark man - who I can only describe as 'swarthy' (ie, he had a 5
o'clock shadow at 10 in the morning) steps-out of a door wearing a white
apron and a fold-open signboard. He sets it up as I walk past and I see
'Syrian restaurant' and a bunch of squiggly arabic writing. I take about
five steps, turn around and walk into this little hole-in-wall on the heels
of the swarthy fellow.

He looks startled to have large white guy in his restaurant. I reach
behind me. He looks suddenly afraid. I take out my wallet and lay a twenty
dollar bill on the counter. The conversation goes sort of like this:

"What you want?"
"Lunch"
"You know syrian food"
"Nope?"
"Babba-ganush?"
"Nope?"
"What you want?"
"You pick."

He brings tea. He brings these little square, crumbly white cookies that
reek of anise - a spice I'm not fond of, but eat 'em anyway. They're okay
with tea, which is strong and very aromatic with a spice I am not familar
with. Then he brings out a platter on a little fold-up table. It's quite
literally stacked with food - and I have no idea what it is. He's
chattering non-stop, pointing-out this and pointing-out that and I'm
catching none of it. I know the flatbread and I know the cucumber / yogurty
sauce and the tasty pieces of grilled lamb. The rest - not a clue. But I
eat it all. He's watching me and I grin and occassionally give a big
'thumbs-up' and he grins back. Then when, I'm finished, he clears the table
and lays my bill on the table, along with the ubiquitous peppermint candy
wrapped in cellaphane. I start gathering my stuff - it's still winter in
Portland, so you get wet, especially if your on foot.

The swarthy fellow is back. He's got a platter, with two tiny white cups,
two little plates and a covered pot with elaborate floral patterns on it.
He sits down in the booth with me and put a little cup in front of me. One
cup of what turns-out to be incredibly strong and bitter expresso for me
and one cup form him. The he starts spooning-up what I can only assume are
stuffed figs. They are lemony and dripping with honey and incredibly,
incredibly sweet. We eat these little things and sip our expresso in this
empty restaurant. We don't say a word. Just sip expresso and eat figs.
When we're finished, he clears the table and leaves.

I gather-up my raingear and stuff and approach the counter, wallet in hand.
No expresso or tasty little treats was on the bill. He just waves me off
with a satisfied smile. I nod, thank the swarthy little man and leave.

True story 2): I've been self-employed since 1994, so my hours are my own.
Which means I'm free a lot of the time other people are at work. It's
Portland, OR again - my home for almost sixteen years. I'm at a bus-stop
and I look across the street and notice that a mexican restaurant I'd eaten
at a couple of weeks ago is closed. But a banner across the top of the
building announces a Thai restaurant has just opened. And I haven't eaten
lunch yet and I've never eaten thai food in my life. So I figure 'what the
hell' and walk across the street.

The place is empty. The mexican decour is still in-place. Same tables,
same fixtures, same dancing red and green peppers on the walls. Only later
did I learn just how appropriate those peppers were to be. There is just a
young waitress and a wrinkly looking guy in a white t-shirt with no sleeves
and a paper hat who peers at me from around the corner of the kitchen. I
sit at a booth and the young waitress brings me a glass of ice water and a
menu. The menu is in Thai with really bad english descriptions - at that
time I couldn't tell Pad Thai from crying tiger from drunken noodle and I'd
never eaten a curry - indian or otherwise - in my life. So I look it over
and then lay it on the table. The waitress approaches.

"You like?"
I shrug. She tries again.
"You like... chicken?"
I wait.
"Maybe... duck?"
I nod. I've never eaten any duck I didn't kill with my own shotgun.
"in curry? You like red curry?"
I nod. Much later I've learned the significance of this decision. I now
prefer green thai curry, but red curry was a good place to start.
"You like hot?"
I wait.
"Medium?"
I nod.

The young waitress brings a covered ceramic bowl with a spoon sticking-out
of the lid and a covered bowl of rice. I spoon out fragrant, sticky rice
into a bowl. I spoon a glistening, creamy red-sauce with huge chunks of
falling-apart meat and bright green leaves and some root vegtables over the
rice. And I eat.

With tears streaming down my face, with all my senses exploding with the
firey heat of the chili and the amazing sweetness of the coconut milk and
the taste of the chinese roasted duck, The divine talked to me that
afternoon. I saw the face of god in a plate of thai red-curry duck and I
knew that this white boy from Montana had just been born-again and as God as
my witness, I'd never eat Chinese again!

<grin>

As I sat there in the booth, people started walking by and looking-in to
this restaurant where the only customer was weeping, wiping his brow and
eating like a glutton. I pointed at my plate and mouthed 'It's very, very
good." and then people started walking-in. Shortly the place was full and
the waitress looked frazzled but grateful. I came back the next week and
there were three waitresses and two cooks in the kitchen. And the old guy
in the sleveless tee-shirt grinned his toothless grin when he saw me and
waved.

True Story 3): I'm shopping in my favorite Oriental market in Portland, OR.
All the produce is market in oriental characters so I don't have a clue to
what the hell I'm buying. I pick-up this huge bag of green 'stuff' - it's
got thick stalks and wide, thick leaves. I go to the check-out counter. I
hold-up the bag of leafy greens to the clerk.

"Is this spinach?"
"Not spinach."
"What is it?"
"NOT SPINACH!"

I take my huge sack of 'not spinach' home with me. I eat not spinach raw in
a salad. I eat not spinach braised in a stir-fry with chicken. I eat not
spinach in a soup with noodles. I eat all the not-spinach, ever stalk, ever
flat, bitterish leaf. And to this day I don't know what it was I ate.
Except that is was NOT spinach.

<grin>

And people wonder why'd I risk eating an mushroom I found growing in my lawn
and that I identifed with a key.

--
MJB

Mr. Tin's Miniature Painting Workshop:
http://web.newsguy.com/Mrtinsworkshop/

"Chatty Cathy" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Been thinking about picky eaters again....

I have two children (many years apart). DS was the first-born - and when
he was a "toddler" we had little or no access to seafood or shellfish,
with the result that he never had much of either. To this day, he dislikes
anything remotely "fishy". He will eat almost anything else, tho'. OTOH,
our younger one (3 y/o) has been exposed to many kinds of food, including
seafood/shellfish and she seems to like it all.

I have noticed it with a quite a few of my friends - both with them and
their children as well - they seem to like what they grew up with and are
not all that keen to try anything that could be termed "strange food".

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really develop
a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to try
something "new" when they are adults?
--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy - just curious about other people's experiences.

I grew up in a family where mom or dad would make the same meals on a
certain day of the week, week after week. None of it seafood either. It
did effect me until I was in my early 20's, but I got over it slowly. Now
I am always the first to try something new, and I will eat just about
anything other than fast food junk. I will go out of my way to try new
things, and always pick something I have never had when eating out. I love
to cook at home and either create something new or make dishes from around
the world. No ingrediant is too strange.

My sister, who is 1 year older than I, never grew our of our childhood food
habbits and has a very narrow range of food she likes.

Chatty Cathy said:

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to
try something "new" when they are adults?

I was exposed to very few types/styles of food as a kid. Today,
there are very few things I won't eat.

I even ate my first serving of cottage cheese (full fat, large
curd) just this last Sunday. It always scared me as a kid.

-sw

"Steve Wertz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Chatty Cathy said:

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to
try something "new" when they are adults?

I was exposed to very few types/styles of food as a kid. Today,
there are very few things I won't eat.

I even ate my first serving of cottage cheese (full fat, large
curd) just this last Sunday. It always scared me as a kid.

I don't know many people who eat it out of the container like I do :-)
Sometimes I add a dash of black pepper. Yummy stuff!

I have perhaps a different take on this.

For reasons I won't bother going into, my food childhood was one of "let
him eat what he wants" and I then had the money and freedom to choose
what I ate. The result is that now I am amazingly picky as to what I
eat. I will try new things/new ways of cooking, but only when I choose to.

Moral of my tale is to persuade kids to try stuff using foul means or
fair but without going too far, I still will not eat Tongue or Tinned
tomatoes (served on their own) basically because of memories of aunts
that were well meaning but far too strict

Steve

Chatty Cathy said:

Been thinking about picky eaters again....

I have two children (many years apart). DS was the first-born - and when
he was a "toddler" we had little or no access to seafood or shellfish,
with the result that he never had much of either. To this day, he
dislikes anything remotely "fishy". He will eat almost anything else,
tho'. OTOH, our younger one (3 y/o) has been exposed to many kinds of
food, including seafood/shellfish and she seems to like it all.

I have noticed it with a quite a few of my friends - both with them and
their children as well - they seem to like what they grew up with and
are not all that keen to try anything that could be termed "strange food".

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain foods,
say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them to
try something "new" when they are adults?

Dave Smith wrote:
So in one

Quoted message said:

family we run the gamut, from those who will try just about anything to
those whose weekly food consumption could be limited to 5 different items.

I've wondered if there could be something physical or genetic involved.
I was a picky kid. I didn't want to be a picky kid. I suffered a
fair amount of anxiety over watching socially adept classmates enjoy
foods that the thought of eating made me gag. My parents did everything
short of child abuse to make me try ordinary foods (cheese, vegetables).
I wanted to please them and was a good kid in most other
ways, but I couldn't bring myself to put foods in my mouth, chew and
swallow them.

I can think of ways my parents should have handled the power struggle
with me differently, but I can't think of why I was such a picky kid
when my brother wasn't. I started growing out of the pickiness when I
was in my late teens.

My niece is 14 now and very like I was at that age as regards food. Her
brother is like my brother in that he's open to eating a larger number
of foods. It would sort of make sense if I were a major influence in my
niece's life, but I haven't been. I'm the sort of relative who visits
and brings presents, but I haven't been feeding the kids. There's no
reason for her to know that I was picky.

Which makes me wonder if we both inherited the picky gene.

--Lia

Julia Altshuler said:

Dave Smith wrote:
So in one

Quoted message said:

family we run the gamut, from those who will try just about anything to
those whose weekly food consumption could be limited to 5 different items.

I've wondered if there could be something physical or genetic involved.
I was a picky kid. I didn't want to be a picky kid. I suffered a
fair amount of anxiety over watching socially adept classmates enjoy
foods that the thought of eating made me gag. My parents did everything
short of child abuse to make me try ordinary foods (cheese, vegetables).
I wanted to please them and was a good kid in most other
ways, but I couldn't bring myself to put foods in my mouth, chew and
swallow them.

I can think of ways my parents should have handled the power struggle
with me differently, but I can't think of why I was such a picky kid
when my brother wasn't. I started growing out of the pickiness when I
was in my late teens.

My niece is 14 now and very like I was at that age as regards food. Her
brother is like my brother in that he's open to eating a larger number
of foods. It would sort of make sense if I were a major influence in my
niece's life, but I haven't been. I'm the sort of relative who visits
and brings presents, but I haven't been feeding the kids. There's no
reason for her to know that I was picky.

Which makes me wonder if we both inherited the picky gene.

--Lia

There's definitely some truth to this, and picky eaters (I'm one!!!) are
somewhat scientifically vindicated (finally!!!!!!). Just do an internet
search - use search engine of choice - for the terms "super tasters" and
see what comes up. Some folks really are physically very sensative to
particular components of some foods. Of course this 'tack' does not
take into consideration any 'emotional' barriers to eating some foods.

Sky

Julia Altshuler wrote:

<snippety>

Quoted message said:

Which makes me wonder if we both inherited the picky gene.

You may have a valid point there. My daughter will eat foods that I
don't like, but DH does, and vice versa. However, her maternal
grandfather is a big "foodie" - I cannot think of anything offhand that
he won't cook or that he dislikes (not even cabbage!) - so she may have
gotten some of those genes from him too.
--
Cheers
Chatty Cathy

Skyhooks said:

There's definitely some truth to this, and picky eaters (I'm one!!!) are
somewhat scientifically vindicated (finally!!!!!!). Just do an internet
search - use search engine of choice - for the terms "super tasters" and
see what comes up. Some folks really are physically very sensative to
particular components of some foods. Of course this 'tack' does not
take into consideration any 'emotional' barriers to eating some foods.

That is an interesting theory, but there are lots of theories around and
not all of them are valid. I would be more inclined to believe it if picky
eaters would actually try things, but most picky eaters will not even give
new things a taste to see if they like it, and so many of them can't even
tell you what it is about something that they don't like. Our tastes change
as we develop. A lot of young kids like [censored] and bitter things like dill
pickles and beer until they are 2-3 and then they reject those things.
Later on they start to like them again.

Some of the picky eaters I have known have strange reactions to foods. One
woman I worked with did not like any kind of sauces or gravy. A few months
ago I mentioned a co-worker who was really upset with his wife because she
served him mushrooms. He was going back for his fourth helping of Beef
Stroganoff before his son told him there were mushrooms in it, and he
freaked out that she would dare to give him mushrooms when she knows he
hates them. Obviously, he didn't hate them. He just thought he did. Then
there was the neighbour's kid who liked only hot dogs with salt and pepper
and Kentucky fried chicken, or my nephew who won't eat anything red.

Peter said:

"Steve Wertz" <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I even ate my first serving of cottage cheese (full fat, large
curd) just this last Sunday. It always scared me as a kid.

Quoted message said:

I don't know many people who eat it out of the container like I do :-)
Sometimes I add a dash of black pepper. Yummy stuff!

I drained the liquid from it and used it for cole slaw. Then I
used this stuff on the curd:

"McCormick Salad Supreme"
http://www.mccormick.com/productdetail.cfm?id=6390

-sw

Chatty Cathy said:

Been thinking about picky eaters again....

Anybody else think that if children are not "exposed" to certain
foods, say between the ages of 2 and 6 y/o, that they will never
really
develop a taste for it, or that it will "take some doing" to get them
to try something "new" when they are adults?

I don't really know. I was exposed to all sorts of things when I was a kid.
I was snacking on artichoke leaves dipped in lemon/butter by the time I was
8 or 9. Seafood, you betcha. Cabbage and all manner of green veggies
(broccoli, asparagus, etc.) Corn on the cob. Squashes, summer and winter.

But I didn't develop a taste for certain things (peas, for example) until I
was an adult. The first time I tasted fresh peas I was out at a restaurant
with a friend who was buying dinner; green peas came with the meal. Rather
than be rude I took a bite. And was *astonished!* Wow! These are good! I
now routinely buy peas, fresh & frozen. Mom always bought the yukky mushy
canned ones.

I don't like carrots, though. They are too sweet for my taste but I add
them to pot roast, stews and pot pies. I eat around them. My lovebird,
Peaches, adores carrots 🙂 I still can't stand raw vegetables. It's mostly
a texture thing.

Jill

jmcquown said:

C
I don't really know. I was exposed to all sorts of things when I was a kid.
I was snacking on artichoke leaves dipped in lemon/butter by the time I was
8 or 9. Seafood, you betcha. Cabbage and all manner of green veggies
(broccoli, asparagus, etc.) Corn on the cob. Squashes, summer and winter.

But I didn't develop a taste for certain things (peas, for example) until I
was an adult. The first time I tasted fresh peas I was out at a restaurant
with a friend who was buying dinner; green peas came with the meal. Rather
than be rude I took a bite. And was *astonished!* Wow! These are good! I
now routinely buy peas, fresh & frozen. Mom always bought the yukky mushy
canned ones.

We were expected to at least try whatever was served. Two of my brothers
took a stand on the issue of peas. I never did understand what there was to
dislike about peas. I always liked them. I even like canned peas, which I
think taste more like fresh peas than the frozen peas do.

Quoted message said:

I don't like carrots, though. They are too sweet for my taste but I add
them to pot roast, stews and pot pies. I eat around them. My lovebird,
Peaches, adores carrots 🙂 I still can't stand raw vegetables. It's mostly
a texture thing.

I will eat limited amounts of boiled carrots but I am not crazy about them.
I prefer to eat them raw or roasted. I agree that they tend to be too sweet
for me. Oddly, roasting seems to bring out the sweetness, but they are
still good.

Quoted message said:

And people wonder why'd I risk eating an mushroom I found growing in my lawn
and that I identifed with a key.

I love the stories and thank you for them, but I'm not sure they're
related to cooking up mushrooms you found in your backyard. I mean,
there was every possibility you might not have liked either Syrian, Thai
or not-spinach food, but you weren't really risking that the cuisines
might be deadly, were you?

Decisions of this type are a matter of weighing cost, risk and benefit
for ourselves. For me, the possibility of enjoying a tasty and cheap
mushroom doesn't outweigh the risk of having it kill me. I'm fully
aware that I take other deadly risks daily, but they have more benefits
for me.

Which brings me to the unknown: How great a possibility is it that a
backyard mushroom is deadly? Leave benefit out of it for a moment.
Anyone know? Are we talking struck by lightening chances? Plane crash
chances? Car wreck chances? How common are deadly poisonous mushrooms?

--Lia

Skyhooks said:

OK, some foods are not meant to be eaten
like well-done steaks and other burnt and ruined foods.

Margarine.

Quoted message said:

Sky

--Bryan