"It is a well-established fact that when you want a child to eat, they will not. I did not always know this. Before I became a parent, I labored under the misconception that the rules would not apply to me. That a child's refusal of perfectly good, perfectly healthy food reflects some deficit in child-rearing, and naturally would not be a problem for me, a professional food writer, whose love of food is in fact genetic."
"When my daughter was three, she unexpectedly became a viral internet sensation after a noted social media personality spotted her ham-fisting a pickle at the farmers' market, devouring it in the manner of an ice cream cone. The comments cooed what a good eater she was, that "Pickle Girl" was their "spirit animal," and so forth. Lies! I screamed in my head. All lies!"
"Getting her to eat anything (pickles aside) was a daily struggle, and one doctor even suggested that I stop feeding her anything but red meat in an attempt to get her weight up. I smiled to that woman's face and privately refused, instead dosing everything my daughter allowed past her lips with copious amounts of butter and oil."
"Nearly four years later, her eating habits have mercifully improved. But there was no lightning bolt that changed everything, no moment that she thought to herself, "You know, I actually don't want my mother to contemplate hurling herself into oncoming traffic every time I reject another homemade dinner.&"
A parent expected a child to eat well, believing refusal would reflect parenting deficits and that a food writer’s genetic love of food would expand a child’s palate. The child instead became known online for eating pickles, while eating most other foods remained a daily struggle. A doctor suggested feeding only red meat to address weight concerns, but the parent chose a different approach, using butter and oil on foods the child would accept. After nearly four years, eating habits improved, without any sudden moment of insight or dramatic change that resolved the ongoing conflict over meals.
Read at Bon Appetit
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