Kids are picky eaters and there are very few parents out there who haven’t had to deal with this. Even though it’s a hassle to convince your children to eat their veggies (or any meal they actually asked you to make for them), the reasons kids give us for why they can’t eat something can be adorably ridiculous. Like not wanting their peanut butter and jelly sandwich because it has peanut butter and jelly in it.
My Kid Can’t Eat This is an Instagram account that collects the hilarious comments kids made about, well, why they can’t eat something. Scroll down, upvote your faves, and let us know in the comments what funny reasons your kids have given you when they refused to eat something, dear Pandas.
The Instagram account was started back in 2015 and currently has more than 114k followers. Though it’s run anonymously, HuffPost found out that it’s the brainchild of mother-of-three Heather. She got the idea to make the account after having endless fights over food with her kids.
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After watching the movie "Ratatoulli" 658098764 times and asking me to make what they made 787628 times I spent hours scouring the internet for the exact same recipe from the movie and made it and now they can't eat it because a rat didn't make it
It's "too beautiful." She's crying actual tears of joy. She's 4
Because it's broken. I can't eat it because it's his. So I guess we're gonna have to put it in a raft, push it out to sea, and set it aflame using a flaming arrow Viking style. RIP Pringle. Enjoy Valhalla.
"The reasons my kids can't eat foods range from hilarious, infuriating to ridiculous. They know they have to taste all foods and are all healthy, so while I'm not seriously worried, it still drives me crazy!" Heather told HuffPost.
"I hope that other parents feel a little less alone when it comes to food drama," she added.
The My Kid Can’t Eat This account asks parents to submit pictures of the food their kids absolutely refused to eat and add a quick comment with the reason why. However, the last time the Instagram account posted a new photo was back in February 2016, so the page is probably taking a “small” break from internet stardom.
Because it's too cute. I actually had to freeze it so it could stay like this forever and he could visit it
Because it "reminds me of Snow White." I told her that if this apple really could make her sleep for several hours I would have cleaned the store out.
Because by removing the cherry seeds, I turned them into olives
Generally, there are broader reasons why kids are fussy eaters. For example, if something feels gross in their mouths of their hands, children will avoid it. But there are ways around this.
One way to get picky eaters to eat is to make sure they’re not snacking too much and are actually hungry for lunch or for dinner, according to KevinMD.com.
Because although he loves onion rings, recently learned they contain onions
Because if Honey Nut Cheerios taste like honey and Chocolate Cheerios taste like chocolate, this one must taste like the cast of Frozen and she doesn't want to eat Elsa.
Something else that works is having the entire family sit down to eat. If your child sees you eating the same food that’s in front of them, they’ll be more likely to follow your example. That also means that your child should be eating the same food that you’re eating (this is also a great reason to start eating healthier).
At the end of the day, kids are smart and you should have a proper conversation with them about food: what’s good for them, what’s bad for them. And why it’s important for them to eat their veggies!
Because she doesn't like "all the nipples." Me: You mean, seeds?" Her: No, NIPPLES."
Because he discovered halfway through that it isn't an Oreo. I never said it was an Oreo. He's crying. There is a crowd forming. Send help.
Peanut butter and honey sandwich because the honey looks like a rabbit and she doesn't want to wreck it. In her defense, it totally does.
Because there are too many spoons in the bowl. (You'll never, EVER, guess who put them there.)
Because she asked for cheese and crackers, not crackers and cheese.
Because they don't have heads. Side note: He bit all of the heads off
Grilled cheese sandwich because it has a "tail" and he doesn't eat animals
Because he doesn't like his food this fancy
Because it's cold and "tastes like you mixed a bunch of fruits together." Um, I did
Fresh carrot from the garden because it has legs
Because she doesn't like the "orange thing" on the bottom. It's her fork...
I got a new toy and spent AGES cutting the boy's lunch out. Eddie took one look, sighed, and said "You shouldn't have done that."
I would have to restrain myself from stuffing each piece up his nose…
Because she's a vegetarian. She wants chicken nuggets instead
Dumpling because, "ewww, it has toes.."
If your kid doesn't want the dumpling, I'll eat it. I love dumplings.
Because they're "blurry" (wavy).
Because they're all "cracked open like humpty dumpty" and he "can't eat things that are broken," because they might "break him." And "no one would be able to put him together again."
Kid's logic - you will never understand it but you have to live with it for a few years.
Bat pasta - they cried because they couldn't understand it wasn't real bats
She refused the yogurt I picked out for her (left) and insisted on picking out one herself (right).
To be double fair, this pic was originally posted 27 May 2015.
Load More Replies...Seriously, I've already found yogurt at the store that was expired by a week or so because stock wasn't rotated when new was put on the shelf. Of course, I didn't see it until after I brought it home. Now I look at the dates on every. single. one.
My mom didn’t notice expiration dates and accidentally bought taco shells and mix that expired 3 years prior.
That's just about having some control. Imagine every single aspect of your life is dictated my someone else and most of it you don't yet understand. You'd try to find a way to assert some control, even if illogical.
July 2015 is when it was packaged, the expiry is sometimes on the bottom.
You pay for the one on the left and let her pay for the one on the right!
Funny, the same brand spells different in French markets. In yours Dannon, in ours, Danone.
Because it's exactly what she asked for. I'll end up eating it standing over the trash like a beggar and she'll ask for it two hours from now. When I tell her it's gone she'll cry like a Directioner upset about Zayn and I hate myself for even referencing that
I hate to say this, and I'll definitely get downvoted, but a lot of these kids sound like they're either cluless or spoiled.
Because I told him it was a leg... he doesn't eat anyone's legs. He only likes wings and parts you don't name... but no legs
Because after being told repeatedly that there are peanuts in the candy, it turns out that- *spoiler alert*- there are indeed peanuts on the candy.
just a few more years and they will turn into more helpful humans beings
These are supposed to be funny, but instead I see a bunch of parents going to extremes not to feed their children but to PLEASE them while doing it. If any of these kids were actually hungry, they'd gobble up whatever given
Not necessarily. My kid went through a phase when he was a toddler where he was fine one day with what was served and the next day it was the most traumatic experience ever to be given whatever was on the menu. Guess what? I didn't make a big deal out of it, he didn't starve, and he's a perfectly well-adjusted young adult.
Load More Replies...Look again. Lots of fruit, balanced meals, vegetables, yogurt, cheese. You see what you want to see.
I think you misunderstood what I mean by "please". The refusal comes, in many of these, because of the looks (it's broken, it's a triangle, it's NOT a triangle...). I'm not speaking nutritional values.
I don’t know... I feel like these parents have probably tried everything they could and are just happy when their kids are eating SOMETHING, even if that means cutting a leg off the carrot. You don’t just go around cutting lunch into cool shapes for funsies. I remember being a right pain in the a*s when I was little, hungry or not. Seems normal.
Nope not true. I've been having ongoing food issues with my three year old. I did exactly as you said, held out thinking he would cave. Never did. After a week of food struggles all he would eat were pediasures. Then one morning he woke with his tongue out of his mouth. We ended up at two ER's (a regional and then a children's hospital) before being admitted and being seen by no less than six specialists. They found nothing wrong with him. They told me if he continues not to eat to keep giving him pediasures, so that's what I've been doing for a month. He drinks six a day. So seriously, "just hold out in food" is the WORST advice ever.
That was my mom's rules. She always said "I'm not a short order cook"
Load More Replies...That's what it was like at home for me. If you didn't eat your dinner then you didn't get snacks later, but your dinner would still be waiting in the fridge
I was raised pretty much the same way - eat or go hungry. But for me, there was no dinner plate in the fridge. It would be given to the dog and I would have to wait until breakfast. As I got older, it became eat what was fixed or take over the cooking. I even raised my son the same way. What drove me crazy were his entitled friends whose mothers would cater to their every whim. They frequently called me mean because I wouldn't order a pizza for them or fix them something different than what I had fixed the rest of us for a meal. They didn't like my eat or go hungry policy, but for some reason, they kept coming to my house at meal time.
You obviously don’t know much about kids with sensory processing disorder etc. My son would literally go to bed hungry than eat something that he doesn’t like. Most nights I have to cook 3 different meals because of my kids sensory issues and also because my hubby likes cheesy, creamy dishes and I am lactose intolerant. I prefer rich, tomato base flavours and too much tomato makes my hubby physically sick. Now if my kid complained that the bikkie is broken or it’s too cute etc then too bad, so sad. They can either eat it or have nothing.
So this is something I'm preaching about at every opportunity: please for the love of God, don't do this! I used to be punished for not eating raw fruits and vegetables as a child. Guess who turned out to have IBD? If your kid is consistently fussy about certain types of food, then consider starting a food journal and take it up with a specialist because growing up with IBD while being forced to eat food I could not digest was hell.
100% agree. Same hell story, yet it turned out Crohn's Disease later. Children instinctively know what's good or bad for them even if they can't express why.
I think the fact that you won't be patient enough to try pleasing the children at all costs might make you a better parent.
Load More Replies...Not all kids are like this. If you don't treat them like little kings and queens and bend to their will just to shut them up they won't be like this. Trust me, having a kid is amazing. My 7 year old daughter loves playing video games with me, plays on my drum set, and is great at math. That's because I spend time with her, teacher her, and am patient. She loves making dad jokes too.
How about you give that food to a shelter where the kids will grateful. I grew up POOR and would have eaten any of this because I never knew where the next plate was coming from.
The reason I ate anything (but meat after age 4)? HUNGRY. When we moved to a farm? I was the happiest kid on earth. I *knew* we'd have food! We were still poor, but at least we could manage a meal. (Even if it meant wild greens for me and hunting squirrel for the rest of the fam.)
Load More Replies...@Lara Mig, we've never figured that out either. But my mom's mother disliked the smell, taste, texture of meat, too, and we decidedit's just a genetic quirk. Quite a few in the family seem to have the same dislike of meat, without any "reason" to point to. (Beyond having to eat squirrel, which probably suffice.)
This whole list is why I can't have kids: I never want to have these struggles over what is a minor and almost petty "problem".
I remember when my oldest went through a phase where she would ONLY eat chicken (for meat, so no hamburger, steak etc only chicken) Luckily I tricked her. Hamburger - Chicken. Steak? - Chicken. Chicken? - Chicken lol. It worked great.... for a while lol
'I'm hungry, but I don't want to eat what's already been cooked.' Then you aren't that hungry. 'I'm thirsty, but I don't want to drink water.' Then you aren't that thirsty. That's how we roll at my house. No one dies from hunger or thirst and my house isn't ruled by pint sized tyrants. These were funny though, but in a 'thank god those kids are someone else's problem' kind of way.
I don't have kids, but I have a pampered a*s dog. She can go for 3 days without eating just because it's not "food she wants." Good lord she is a diva
Load More Replies...People might think I am weird coz I can’t eat certain things like Jam and yoghurt with lumpy fruity bits in. I wont eat rice, couscous, risotto, most asian noodles etc, I can’t eat pieces of onion so I have to pick it out of my food and pineapple is also a no no. These are just a few things and these are pretty much based on there texture.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who has sensory issues relating to texture. I'm also a super-taster, so I pretty much have to have things so well integrated that I can't tell the difference, or else be separate and simple. It. Sucks.
Load More Replies...Highly uninteresting that some adults don't want to eat certain foods. I had no help from my parents when I was doing my studies to become a kindergarten teacher. The loaf of bread was pre-cut and it would have to last the 7 day. I mainly eat sandwiches and raw fruits/vegetables. Had no money to eat at the restaurants and lived in a maid's room under the roof of the building. Couldn't cook anything since the electrical system was tempered, the electric plugs would break it there was too much tension. Plus there was no shower or bathtub, only a very tiny sink and a toilet. Had to wash myself with a washcloth. Well I'm still here and almost 70. Life has taught me not to be choosy. My mother would never have put up with such nonsense.
There are people with severe sensory issues. They couldn't force themselves to swallow certain foods even if they were starving. You are beung ignorant.
They could actually make her sick to eat them. My dad used to gag if he ate a pea on anything. I love ribs and chicken wings and my husband cannot eat things off of the bone. It actually grosses him out to think of it. I physically cannot eat mushrooms and I cannot bring myself to eat grits or oatmeal. The texture of them is so off putting. And while I love nuts and chocolate I cannot handle them together. The texture combination is so horrendous for me.
I can’t eat them as they literally make me gag and want to vomit just because of the texture.
It's a recognised eating disorder. Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID, previously Selective Eating Disorder) is listed in the DSM-5. It is characterised as "avoidance based on the sensory characteristics of food [and/or] concern about aversive consequences of eating."
I can't imagine why this has downvotes. It's one of the few answers that recognize that kids take time to process all the new things in their lives - and everything is new! As a child my daughter would pick individual pieces of chopped parsley out of her food, and now, in her twenties, she's a talented cook with an adventurous palate. Recognize your kid's individuality, offer healthy, tasty food, and eventually things will come right.
I'm surprised a lot of people are offended by kids not eating because of ridiculous reasons. I thought it was funny. This is stuff they often grow out of, they simply don't eat certain things because of child-like reasons. Lol, like as a kid I refused to eat beans because of how they look and their texture or corn because I hated touching it while eating. Stupid reasons because I was a kid with a narrow understanding. I look back and laugh, it didn't make my parents bad parents or me a bad kid. It was my kid logic, like wtf. I USE TO SPIT CARROTS ONTO THE WALL. Albeit I was a baby, my mom thought it was a magic trick because she always hid them in my soups and somehow I'd be able to find them and spit them out, projectile straight for the wall.
It's a moment in a child's life. Don't turn it into their whole identity as a "fussy eater". I went vegetarian at age 4, voluntarily, and was labeled a fussy eater... for eating asparagus, cucumbers, broccoli, y'know, the foods parents supposedly *want* kids to eat! (So I didn't lik emeat. Big deal. I'm still 5-10. Didn't stunt my growth.)
I have both a child and husband that are such picky eaters that no matter what they're never happy with what's cooked... Even if THEY PICKED IT! At this point I'm just like whatever, eat a sandwich and shut up!
My mom was born in Africa and her oldest brother told her not to eat the grilled steaks because they were zebra, lol! It was in 1950, by the way, and it was definitely not zebra.
I love the answers given by these children. They are creative. Children have emotional reactions to everything. For these children their answers make sense. We all have things we don't like to eat. And times when we don't want a particular thing to eat. These reasons may not be logical but in the child's mind these are how they can verbalize when we ask them why. Thus isn't about entitlement. This is about autonomy.
Wow! If you didn't like something as an adult of course you wouldn't eat it or chose to have something else! Forcing a child to eat when they are not hungry or don't like something is forming a dangerous relationship with food! It's boarder-line abuse! All of these reasons are perfectly legitimate reasons for these DEVELOPING CHILDREN!!
I was hesitant about commenting on the obvious but I really hate picky eaters of any age.
Neither of my girls EVER did this kind of c**p. They ate what they got, unless they really didn't like it (and that was rare). But I had them try it to be sure, at least one full-sized bite.
some of these are spoilt kids being way too fussy but some i agree with
These are mostly funny, but some people, like myself, cannot eat things with certain textures because they trigger our gag reflex, or hurt, or both.
With every post like this I see, I'm more and more grateful that I decided not to have kids.
Y'all are dumb. Not the parents but the people commenting. They're not making their kids entitled or spoiled by letting their kids have a treat every once in a while.
Children often get strange ideas about things that they've misunderstood because...they're children! A lot of these are just a child's misinterpretation of something they have no experience of yet. (dead raspberries) You can either try to explain or just leave it and they'll forget all about it by the next time. My daughter used to love baths as a baby, then suddenly as a toddler she started screaming whenever I tried to give her a bath. I ended up with her standing up in a shallow bath, arms around my neck, while I gave her a quick wash. I never did work out why and she was too young to explain. Bad dream maybe. It went on for a couple of weeks then she forgot all about it.
Hi everyone I'd just like to point out that these parents took pictures of the food the kids ate, most of them didn't "cater to every whim" of their children. My mother would often make fun food because she enjoyed making fun things for us.
Y'all seem to forget you were picky eaters too, as all kids are. The difference is your parents could get through listening to you cry as you begged not to have to eat it, unlike these ones. Neither option is the better or worse option, it's based in which bad part *you* focus on. So stop acting so high and mighty.
Overindulgent Parenting. My folks would just say, eat it or starve. We did not get to pick and choose menu options. This was dinner, that's it, that's all there is.
i think there are alot of spoiled first world brats and starving 3rd world ones.
All of you commenting about "spoiled children" are dumb butts. It's just kids saying cute stuff... Most of the time they only voice their opinion and then *gasp* they eat it anyway!
Learning difficulties and allergies happen in the third world too, the kids usually just end up dead instead.
So you would physically abuse a person for not eating something you put in front of them? You should never force a child to eat everything or force them to eat something they don't like. You are literally taking away their autonomy! That is abuse! I'm so glad I'm raising my daughter differently.
Load More Replies...In my line of thought, 27 years old is an adult and unless they have some sort of disability, they shouldn't be getting special treatment when it comes to food. As for small children, I completely understand the pickyness. I am sorry that my comment upset you.
I could easily point out reasons for each of these cases as to why this is logical to them. The older ones sound like a learning difficulty, the not eating broken food/food that looks like a face/too bright food/touching food is common among autistic children, the spicy fruit is highly indicative of an allergy, many of these are texture sensitivity nightmares, heavy flavours are difficult for kids to process for a while, some cases of limited vocabulary making the reasoning seem off. We're stuck with entirely incomplete stories that can have less obvious but reasonable explanations.
So if you come to our house and I offer you a roasted mealworm snack, or some yummy crickets, and you refuse to eat it, I can smack you in the face too? Or force you to eat it or starve? I'd love to see any of the abusive parents posting here try some bugs. Go ahead. Show us what an un-picky eater you are.
That's not education, that's simply a heartless and unloving way of raising children.
Load More Replies...This method results in trust issues, food issues, and kids in hospital.
What's the education part? What's the kid actually learning here, other than the fact that they're being raised by prison wardens?
Indeed, It is better to let the kid whatever he wants, just let him be a freaking brat. He will become an adult that thinks that he only has rights, no duties. Yep. Go ahead. I already raised my 3 kids. Job done. 3 fine young adults. And no, no trust issues, and no, no food problems, and they did not end up in the hospital.
These are supposed to be funny, but instead I see a bunch of parents going to extremes not to feed their children but to PLEASE them while doing it. If any of these kids were actually hungry, they'd gobble up whatever given
Not necessarily. My kid went through a phase when he was a toddler where he was fine one day with what was served and the next day it was the most traumatic experience ever to be given whatever was on the menu. Guess what? I didn't make a big deal out of it, he didn't starve, and he's a perfectly well-adjusted young adult.
Load More Replies...Look again. Lots of fruit, balanced meals, vegetables, yogurt, cheese. You see what you want to see.
I think you misunderstood what I mean by "please". The refusal comes, in many of these, because of the looks (it's broken, it's a triangle, it's NOT a triangle...). I'm not speaking nutritional values.
I don’t know... I feel like these parents have probably tried everything they could and are just happy when their kids are eating SOMETHING, even if that means cutting a leg off the carrot. You don’t just go around cutting lunch into cool shapes for funsies. I remember being a right pain in the a*s when I was little, hungry or not. Seems normal.
Nope not true. I've been having ongoing food issues with my three year old. I did exactly as you said, held out thinking he would cave. Never did. After a week of food struggles all he would eat were pediasures. Then one morning he woke with his tongue out of his mouth. We ended up at two ER's (a regional and then a children's hospital) before being admitted and being seen by no less than six specialists. They found nothing wrong with him. They told me if he continues not to eat to keep giving him pediasures, so that's what I've been doing for a month. He drinks six a day. So seriously, "just hold out in food" is the WORST advice ever.
That was my mom's rules. She always said "I'm not a short order cook"
Load More Replies...That's what it was like at home for me. If you didn't eat your dinner then you didn't get snacks later, but your dinner would still be waiting in the fridge
I was raised pretty much the same way - eat or go hungry. But for me, there was no dinner plate in the fridge. It would be given to the dog and I would have to wait until breakfast. As I got older, it became eat what was fixed or take over the cooking. I even raised my son the same way. What drove me crazy were his entitled friends whose mothers would cater to their every whim. They frequently called me mean because I wouldn't order a pizza for them or fix them something different than what I had fixed the rest of us for a meal. They didn't like my eat or go hungry policy, but for some reason, they kept coming to my house at meal time.
You obviously don’t know much about kids with sensory processing disorder etc. My son would literally go to bed hungry than eat something that he doesn’t like. Most nights I have to cook 3 different meals because of my kids sensory issues and also because my hubby likes cheesy, creamy dishes and I am lactose intolerant. I prefer rich, tomato base flavours and too much tomato makes my hubby physically sick. Now if my kid complained that the bikkie is broken or it’s too cute etc then too bad, so sad. They can either eat it or have nothing.
So this is something I'm preaching about at every opportunity: please for the love of God, don't do this! I used to be punished for not eating raw fruits and vegetables as a child. Guess who turned out to have IBD? If your kid is consistently fussy about certain types of food, then consider starting a food journal and take it up with a specialist because growing up with IBD while being forced to eat food I could not digest was hell.
100% agree. Same hell story, yet it turned out Crohn's Disease later. Children instinctively know what's good or bad for them even if they can't express why.
I think the fact that you won't be patient enough to try pleasing the children at all costs might make you a better parent.
Load More Replies...Not all kids are like this. If you don't treat them like little kings and queens and bend to their will just to shut them up they won't be like this. Trust me, having a kid is amazing. My 7 year old daughter loves playing video games with me, plays on my drum set, and is great at math. That's because I spend time with her, teacher her, and am patient. She loves making dad jokes too.
How about you give that food to a shelter where the kids will grateful. I grew up POOR and would have eaten any of this because I never knew where the next plate was coming from.
The reason I ate anything (but meat after age 4)? HUNGRY. When we moved to a farm? I was the happiest kid on earth. I *knew* we'd have food! We were still poor, but at least we could manage a meal. (Even if it meant wild greens for me and hunting squirrel for the rest of the fam.)
Load More Replies...@Lara Mig, we've never figured that out either. But my mom's mother disliked the smell, taste, texture of meat, too, and we decidedit's just a genetic quirk. Quite a few in the family seem to have the same dislike of meat, without any "reason" to point to. (Beyond having to eat squirrel, which probably suffice.)
This whole list is why I can't have kids: I never want to have these struggles over what is a minor and almost petty "problem".
I remember when my oldest went through a phase where she would ONLY eat chicken (for meat, so no hamburger, steak etc only chicken) Luckily I tricked her. Hamburger - Chicken. Steak? - Chicken. Chicken? - Chicken lol. It worked great.... for a while lol
'I'm hungry, but I don't want to eat what's already been cooked.' Then you aren't that hungry. 'I'm thirsty, but I don't want to drink water.' Then you aren't that thirsty. That's how we roll at my house. No one dies from hunger or thirst and my house isn't ruled by pint sized tyrants. These were funny though, but in a 'thank god those kids are someone else's problem' kind of way.
I don't have kids, but I have a pampered a*s dog. She can go for 3 days without eating just because it's not "food she wants." Good lord she is a diva
Load More Replies...People might think I am weird coz I can’t eat certain things like Jam and yoghurt with lumpy fruity bits in. I wont eat rice, couscous, risotto, most asian noodles etc, I can’t eat pieces of onion so I have to pick it out of my food and pineapple is also a no no. These are just a few things and these are pretty much based on there texture.
Glad to hear I'm not the only one who has sensory issues relating to texture. I'm also a super-taster, so I pretty much have to have things so well integrated that I can't tell the difference, or else be separate and simple. It. Sucks.
Load More Replies...Highly uninteresting that some adults don't want to eat certain foods. I had no help from my parents when I was doing my studies to become a kindergarten teacher. The loaf of bread was pre-cut and it would have to last the 7 day. I mainly eat sandwiches and raw fruits/vegetables. Had no money to eat at the restaurants and lived in a maid's room under the roof of the building. Couldn't cook anything since the electrical system was tempered, the electric plugs would break it there was too much tension. Plus there was no shower or bathtub, only a very tiny sink and a toilet. Had to wash myself with a washcloth. Well I'm still here and almost 70. Life has taught me not to be choosy. My mother would never have put up with such nonsense.
There are people with severe sensory issues. They couldn't force themselves to swallow certain foods even if they were starving. You are beung ignorant.
They could actually make her sick to eat them. My dad used to gag if he ate a pea on anything. I love ribs and chicken wings and my husband cannot eat things off of the bone. It actually grosses him out to think of it. I physically cannot eat mushrooms and I cannot bring myself to eat grits or oatmeal. The texture of them is so off putting. And while I love nuts and chocolate I cannot handle them together. The texture combination is so horrendous for me.
I can’t eat them as they literally make me gag and want to vomit just because of the texture.
It's a recognised eating disorder. Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID, previously Selective Eating Disorder) is listed in the DSM-5. It is characterised as "avoidance based on the sensory characteristics of food [and/or] concern about aversive consequences of eating."
I can't imagine why this has downvotes. It's one of the few answers that recognize that kids take time to process all the new things in their lives - and everything is new! As a child my daughter would pick individual pieces of chopped parsley out of her food, and now, in her twenties, she's a talented cook with an adventurous palate. Recognize your kid's individuality, offer healthy, tasty food, and eventually things will come right.
I'm surprised a lot of people are offended by kids not eating because of ridiculous reasons. I thought it was funny. This is stuff they often grow out of, they simply don't eat certain things because of child-like reasons. Lol, like as a kid I refused to eat beans because of how they look and their texture or corn because I hated touching it while eating. Stupid reasons because I was a kid with a narrow understanding. I look back and laugh, it didn't make my parents bad parents or me a bad kid. It was my kid logic, like wtf. I USE TO SPIT CARROTS ONTO THE WALL. Albeit I was a baby, my mom thought it was a magic trick because she always hid them in my soups and somehow I'd be able to find them and spit them out, projectile straight for the wall.
It's a moment in a child's life. Don't turn it into their whole identity as a "fussy eater". I went vegetarian at age 4, voluntarily, and was labeled a fussy eater... for eating asparagus, cucumbers, broccoli, y'know, the foods parents supposedly *want* kids to eat! (So I didn't lik emeat. Big deal. I'm still 5-10. Didn't stunt my growth.)
I have both a child and husband that are such picky eaters that no matter what they're never happy with what's cooked... Even if THEY PICKED IT! At this point I'm just like whatever, eat a sandwich and shut up!
My mom was born in Africa and her oldest brother told her not to eat the grilled steaks because they were zebra, lol! It was in 1950, by the way, and it was definitely not zebra.
I love the answers given by these children. They are creative. Children have emotional reactions to everything. For these children their answers make sense. We all have things we don't like to eat. And times when we don't want a particular thing to eat. These reasons may not be logical but in the child's mind these are how they can verbalize when we ask them why. Thus isn't about entitlement. This is about autonomy.
Wow! If you didn't like something as an adult of course you wouldn't eat it or chose to have something else! Forcing a child to eat when they are not hungry or don't like something is forming a dangerous relationship with food! It's boarder-line abuse! All of these reasons are perfectly legitimate reasons for these DEVELOPING CHILDREN!!
I was hesitant about commenting on the obvious but I really hate picky eaters of any age.
Neither of my girls EVER did this kind of c**p. They ate what they got, unless they really didn't like it (and that was rare). But I had them try it to be sure, at least one full-sized bite.
some of these are spoilt kids being way too fussy but some i agree with
These are mostly funny, but some people, like myself, cannot eat things with certain textures because they trigger our gag reflex, or hurt, or both.
With every post like this I see, I'm more and more grateful that I decided not to have kids.
Y'all are dumb. Not the parents but the people commenting. They're not making their kids entitled or spoiled by letting their kids have a treat every once in a while.
Children often get strange ideas about things that they've misunderstood because...they're children! A lot of these are just a child's misinterpretation of something they have no experience of yet. (dead raspberries) You can either try to explain or just leave it and they'll forget all about it by the next time. My daughter used to love baths as a baby, then suddenly as a toddler she started screaming whenever I tried to give her a bath. I ended up with her standing up in a shallow bath, arms around my neck, while I gave her a quick wash. I never did work out why and she was too young to explain. Bad dream maybe. It went on for a couple of weeks then she forgot all about it.
Hi everyone I'd just like to point out that these parents took pictures of the food the kids ate, most of them didn't "cater to every whim" of their children. My mother would often make fun food because she enjoyed making fun things for us.
Y'all seem to forget you were picky eaters too, as all kids are. The difference is your parents could get through listening to you cry as you begged not to have to eat it, unlike these ones. Neither option is the better or worse option, it's based in which bad part *you* focus on. So stop acting so high and mighty.
Overindulgent Parenting. My folks would just say, eat it or starve. We did not get to pick and choose menu options. This was dinner, that's it, that's all there is.
i think there are alot of spoiled first world brats and starving 3rd world ones.
All of you commenting about "spoiled children" are dumb butts. It's just kids saying cute stuff... Most of the time they only voice their opinion and then *gasp* they eat it anyway!
Learning difficulties and allergies happen in the third world too, the kids usually just end up dead instead.
So you would physically abuse a person for not eating something you put in front of them? You should never force a child to eat everything or force them to eat something they don't like. You are literally taking away their autonomy! That is abuse! I'm so glad I'm raising my daughter differently.
Load More Replies...In my line of thought, 27 years old is an adult and unless they have some sort of disability, they shouldn't be getting special treatment when it comes to food. As for small children, I completely understand the pickyness. I am sorry that my comment upset you.
I could easily point out reasons for each of these cases as to why this is logical to them. The older ones sound like a learning difficulty, the not eating broken food/food that looks like a face/too bright food/touching food is common among autistic children, the spicy fruit is highly indicative of an allergy, many of these are texture sensitivity nightmares, heavy flavours are difficult for kids to process for a while, some cases of limited vocabulary making the reasoning seem off. We're stuck with entirely incomplete stories that can have less obvious but reasonable explanations.
So if you come to our house and I offer you a roasted mealworm snack, or some yummy crickets, and you refuse to eat it, I can smack you in the face too? Or force you to eat it or starve? I'd love to see any of the abusive parents posting here try some bugs. Go ahead. Show us what an un-picky eater you are.
That's not education, that's simply a heartless and unloving way of raising children.
Load More Replies...This method results in trust issues, food issues, and kids in hospital.
What's the education part? What's the kid actually learning here, other than the fact that they're being raised by prison wardens?
Indeed, It is better to let the kid whatever he wants, just let him be a freaking brat. He will become an adult that thinks that he only has rights, no duties. Yep. Go ahead. I already raised my 3 kids. Job done. 3 fine young adults. And no, no trust issues, and no, no food problems, and they did not end up in the hospital.