apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

This is a terrific book--full of humor, common sense and good usable recipes. We are having the chicken-spinach
meatballs tonight.

Our now 18 mth old started off great, trying anything we gave her. She is gradually becoming more and more picky (with veggies more than anything). She also does not like to eat the same things two days in a row, even things she likes. Strange. Maybe more flavors will help (I'm not the best cook) Thanks for the find.

While it sounds like a very nice family cookbook, I think that it is unrealistic to hope that your child won't go through a picky phase just because you have introduced them to a wide variety of foods.

That picky phase is an evolutionary form of protection -- it kicks in just when children are old enough to wander off, and it is what protected cave-toddlers from eating poison berries.

Our daughter is a case in point -- she was a very adventurous eater as a child, even enjoying spicy foods. Then, around 3, she became very, very, picky. Now, goat cheese and tomato sandwiches are her favourite, and we are slowly making inroads with other foods (although this week she decided she hates ham, and at age 5 is already declining meat on ethical grounds -- we tell her that when she starts eating beans, then she can be a vegetarian, but not until then).

Our son has been picky since we started weaning him. His food repertoire hasn't expanded much, despite my culinary efforts. He hated bananas until 14 months, and the only vegetables he eats are those that I conceal in tomato sauce. Apart from berries, oranges and bananas, the only fruit he consumes are in yogurts.

I keep trying, keep cooking, but some days you really feel like throwing in the towel, and just serving macaroni and cheese... (home made with maybe crushed tomatoes hidden in the sauce).

I think this is an issue quite unique to America. Of course, there're picky eaters everywhere, but having traveled quite extensively globally, I think it's safe to say that American kids are typically not very adventurous eaters.

Growing up in Hong Kong, we eat whatever our parents eat. There's no kids' meal on the menu. You eat what is offered to you or you starve.

My husband is a chef & I was a food writer for many years. We eat quite a variety of food & cuisines. Now our 5-year-old son eats almost everything we eat. He even likes spicy food such as curries and salsa. His favorite snack at the moment is Indonesian ginger candy, and his favorite dim sum are BBQ pork bun and chicken feet.

My experience is that just let the kids eat whatever you eat. Kids like to do what their parents do. They'll try the food if they saw you enjoy it. If they don't like something, don't force it. There're plenty of other foods for them to try. Just relax and enjoy!

This might not be the place for the question but I always hear "Have the kids eat what you eat" or "eat with your kids"---I fully expect to do this as they age but right now I have a one-year-old. I work and my husband works. I come home with the kiddo and make him his dinner and usually don't get a chance to eat with my husband until 7:00 p.m. which is way too late to feed the baby. On weekends we can do other meals together but dinner is almost always split during the week. In fact, he's usually eating as I'm fixing dinner. Not sure how others work this out with a little one . . .

My first one is not here yet, but I was relieved to find out from my mom that my sister and I did go through I picky phase. We've always had such broad palates that I was afraid we were some sort of fluke, but apparently sticking to one's guns and insisting on a bite of everything and no special meals got us through that phase fairly quickly. I think I would have been shocked at the idea of eating something other that what my family was having for dinner.

Jensational - that's a really good point. One of the advantages (trust me, there are lots of disadvantages too) of my husband and I both working from home is that it makes family meals fairly easy and our son eats his 3 main meals of the day with one or both of us. I do have many friends who also don't get home from work early enough to eat with their one-year olds and, it could be a coincidence, but their kids are already picky eaters. I must admit that we have not been very good lately with getting dinner on the table early enough and we've all been eating at 7 or 7:30 (occasionally later) which is later than we'd like for our son, but he doesn't mind if we give him a snack beforehand and he goes to bed fairly soon after dinner.

With all due respect to the "stick to your guns" crowd -- just wait until you get a picky eater with no appetite and who doesn't grow.

We were desperate to get our son to eat, and he wouldn't. For most of his life, he has been at the 3rd percentile on the growth charts -- that is, 97% of children his age are bigger. (he was weighed and measured last week and we learned that at long last, he has made it into the 6th percentile! Woohoo! Now, only 94% of kids his age are bigger!)

Believe me, if you get a child like that, you will cater to their likes and dislikes. (doctor's orders!)

(And don't try that strategy on a cat -- a cat can come down with fatal irreversible liver damage after only 3 days without food.)

When they were under 2, we often didn't eat with ours because of the work schedule. We still insisted on variety and lots of fruits and vegetables, but it was hard because they ate so early.

After 2 years old, they eat what we eat, although we have backed off the spice a bit (we keep a lot of hot sauces at the table.) I have found that it ebbs and flows...picky for a bit, voracious for a bit. A little encouragement and the promised of 3-4 m and m's at the end of the meal works wonders!

I cannot express enough how much I disagree with CMcB:

"I do have many friends who also don't get home from work early enough to eat with their one-year olds and, it could be a coincidence, but their kids are already picky eaters."

My two year old eats just about everything and yes, I don't get home early enough to eat with her daughter. But I cook everything myself and when I don't the food from a wide variety of ethnicities/cuisines. I do not use sweets as bribes.

I think we working moms have enough guilt in our lives.

as a mother of a 14 month old boy - I understand full well that prepping special foods for him does not work and bcs he is at a stage where he wants to pick food with his own hand pureeing and feeding him does not work. So he eats with us and loves it. It gets tricky when we eat a big salad, but he eats most everything.

I was excited about this book because my 2 year old is a picky eater, but as I have read through the previous comments all I can say is wow. There are some very judgemental people posting here. Your superiority complexes regarding toddler eating habits are truly laughable.