Food

I've checked out two blogs tonight that talked about bento boxes for their toddler aged children. They look like a neat idea and something I'd love to try out with Preston but here's the problem... my kid won't venture outside of a select list of foods. You don't know how painstakingly difficult this is for me. A person who identifies herself as a foodie, a good cook, a lover of all yummy things. I love to try new foods. I'm always preaching about trying something first before ruling it out so at least you can make an informed statement when you say that you don't like something. And here I have this kid who is very particular about food.

I have all of these great ideas for lunches and he won't eat any of them. I made the fluffiest eggs for him the other day, toast shaped like an elephant and he refused it. I made homemade mac and cheese with a homemade cheese sauce and he refused it because he won't eat pasta. My kid likes unsalted crackers, fruit, veggies, and if you can make it in to a soup he's all for it. So I find myself making soup a lot. Homemade chicken and vegetable or beef and vegetable soup only for the simple reason I know he's getting protein, veggies, and grain in a meal. Now if i separated all of those thing and put them on a plate, he would only eat the veggies. I'm seriously looking forward to the day when he will eat what we eat and I'm not making a separate meal for him.

Do you think it's wise to stop being a short order cook and only present to him what we eat? Sometimes, if we are eating something, he will come up and ask to try it. We always give it to him (if it's something appropriate) but he lets his tongue touch it and it's like if he doesn't like the texture, he spits it out (i.e. he asked for the mac and cheese so i gave it to him. He put it in his mouth and as soon as he felt the pasta, he spit it out). Now if I could somehow put it in the food processor and puree it, he would eat it. So I don't always think it's the taste, I think it's the texture. My doctor doesn't seem concerned and I have to admit that over time, he has increased what he will eat so I'm sure this is only a blip on the map but geesh!