Last year I wrote about being the character Sam of Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. I was just reading the book, in celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday, to my youngest son the other night. Then last night had a moment where I felt like I was again Sam-I-Am. My youngest is now seven years old and until a couple of weeks ago, broccoli was one of his favorite foods– not just one of his favorite vegetables, but of all foods. Until two weeks ago that is; now he’s decided he no longer likes broccoli. No, he hates broccoli. My logo is of him eating broccoli with a huge smile on his face. If he hates broccoli, I think, I’m done for. But I remember what my mother said she learnt from Dr. Spock (not the Klingon Dr. Spock, but the baby book author that was popular in the 60’s & 70’s). She said kids will go on “jags” eating nothing but one food until they suddenly no longer want that food. I’m hoping this broccoli dislike is temporary.
Anyway, my youngest is already my pickiest eater by far. Well, when I made dinner last night, I took the vegetables I was going to use for a stir-fry and instead made a pasta dish. It had garlic, shallots, green onions, broccoli, purple cabbage, shredded carrots, shredded cauliflower, zucchini, sugar snap peas and chick peas with a little olive oil and stock. Number Two cried a bit at first then added ketchup (a trick a friend told him about and I said he could try), took a couple chickpeas out and ate most of it. My eldest ate all of it and declared it delicious. My youngest son refused to taste it. Wouldn’t eat a bite. I just said he wouldn’t get anything else until he ate it… or at least tried it.
Fast forward an hour or so. Youngest son is in the bath, probably with dessert on his mind. I brought the pasta dish in to him and said, “Just try it, try it and you may see.” He did without fuss and then requested I heat it up. Of course I obliged and then proceeded to feed him in the bath (yes, I fed him like when he was a baby) with no train, fox, mouse or car in sight. He even said he liked the broccoli “with the pasta” though he didn’t eat every piece and he asked to not have to eat the chickpeas (he loves hummus but not whole chickpeas). The other thing he tried which previously he said he disliked was zucchini. I explained that he might actually like it if he gave it a chance. Immediately he said he didn’t but as he chewed and then swallowed his face softened and he said he did actually like it!
He liked it!
I was so happy he ate so much of his dinner that he’d originally refused to touch with a thirty-nine-and-a-half-foot-pole. It seems like I had the Sam-I-Am touch again.
Don’t give up; sometimes you just have to catch them at the right moment — like when they are hungry enough to not fight you on it and they will actually try something new or healthy.
