The Pickiest of the Picky.

Make no mistake about it, we have picky eaters in the Sias house. I am not talking about rejecting the occasional vegetable. Rather, I can name all of the foods that Billy will eat on two hands -- banana bread, fruit, yogurt, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, peas, hot dogs, buttered noodles, grilled cheese sandwich, and Chicken McNuggets (ONLY from McDonalds).

Now, you might be saying to yourself, that the list could be worse. Of course it could be. It can always be worse. But this list is the product of YEARS of forcing him to try new foods. Not an easy task. Once we made him try a piece of grilled hamburger. The tantrum was so dramatic, that John actually got the video camera out. I started to feel badly that we were laughing at him, but then I remembered how ridiculous he was being. He only ate the bite of hamburger after I suggested that he dip it in applesauce. At one point in his young life, Billy would only eat three things: (1) Bananas; (2) Banana Bread; and (3) Pop Tarts.

To make matters worse, Billy is a Puker. Yes, a Puker with a capital P. By this I mean that he forces himself to puke if you make him try something new. For example, one day I made him try carrots. He was adamant that he would only have one. I told him he could not get down from the table until he had two. He ate the second, but it didn't stay in his stomach for very long and I had a huge mess to clean up.

TJ is more adventurous than Billy. The problem -- as goes Billy, goes the house. If Billy won't try it, neither will TJ. If Billy doesn't like it, neither does TJ.

Enter Charlie. As he first started table foods, Charlie would eat nearly anything from avocado to pinto beans. Then, as the days passed, it appeared that Charlie was feeding the floor more than himself. Exasperated, I began to make the same mistake with Charlie that I made with Billy: I handed him a pop tart.

Recently, I spent some time with a new friend from Billy's preschool while the kids were in class. She mentioned that she makes a blueberry puree and mixes it into pancake mix to boost the nutritional value. Pish, I thought. That would never work in our house. First of all, the pancake would be blue. I could only imagine Billy's reaction. Let the tantrum or worse, puking, commence. Then I got to thinking. Maybe blue pancakes wouldn't work, but what about more disguised nutrition? Years ago, my mom bought me the Deceptively Delicious cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. I decided to open it up.

Now, there is not a single recipe in that book that Billy would eat. But, the section about vegetable purees was very interesting. Would the kids notice if I put some sweet potato puree in their buttered noodles? It wouldn't change the color or the texture. Would they notice if I snuck some cauliflower puree into their grilled cheese? What's the worse that could happen? Billy would puke? Been there. Done that.

I decided it was worth a try. And, you know what, IT WORKED. Now, instead of just having noodles with butter, they have whole grain noodles with sweet potato puree. To Billy's credit, he did ask what the "orange" was in his noodles. John quickly answered that it was just part of the noodles. Billy was satisfied with the answer and kept eating. Similarly, instead of having frozen Eggo pancakes, they have strawberry and sweet potato pancakes. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, these required a Hershey Bar bribe for Billy, but he tried them and, shockingly, liked them. The bribe was not necessary because of what was in the pancake but because it was a slightly different color.

I've pushed the boundaries a bit further with Charlie. I am learning that he loves brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg and will eat a lot of things with those flavors, including oatmeal, butternut squash and mashed sweet potatoes. I am also learning that he likes fruit a bit better when it is covered with sugar (really, who doesn't). I recently went even further on a limb with Charlie after messing up an entire batch of vegetable beef soup (Note to self, do not put rice into the soup and then cook it for four hours.) The flavor of the soup was great. The texture left a lot to be desired. I decided to put the whole thing in the blender and see if Charlie would eat it. He did! Gone are the days I can just put avocado and cheese pieces in front of him and expect him to eat. But, with these new flavors, it seems the floor is less hungry and Charlie is getting more nutrition into his belly.

Every family has their "thing" they have to deal with. Some kids have trouble listening. Some kids have trouble sleeping. Our kids have trouble eating. I need to remember not to become complacent because, no matter how much the kids like them, pop tarts and banana bread are not a healthy dinner. I also need to keep my ears open. Like my dad always told me -- don't reinvent the wheel, just keep track of the things that work for other people, and put those ideas to work for you.