My favourite line from the ones above 'I remember what a great parent I was before I had kids...' Good luck mum, you are going to need it.

People freak out about what kids will eat. I know several kids who have never eaten off the kiddie menu and happily eat what their parents are having. NOT ONE of these parents ever did anything different. These parents don't have garbage like Kraft dinner in the house. They don't buy preprepared frozen anything. When they go out to eat, the kids can pick what they like off the menu and no one drops dead because there aren't any chicken fingers at the French restaurant. ...///.... ONLY American parents feed their kids garbage instead of adult food. That's twisted. Having spent a lot of time in France, I have to say that whenever I see a kid melt down in a restaurant, it's with an American family.

Most of the world doesn't even understand the concept of a "kid's menu", because the kids eat what everyone eats, period. Here in the West we are doing our children a disservice by kowtowing to their whims of addictive, carb heavy, sugared up instant gratification meals. It pains me to see kids live in such a culturally diverse area and have never eaten anything other than McDonald's and fried chicken fingers. Speaking from personal experience, I know a 12 year old that won't eat anything other than macaroni and cheese, bean and cheese burritos and Top Ramen. And I mean that quite literally. He acts like trying a new food is like being tortured and everyone lets him get away with it. He's probably going to be diabetic before he enters high school. https://nationalpost.com/the-kids-menu https://blog.asha.org/2014/07/03/three-reasons-why-kids-get-hooked-on-kids-meals-and-how-to-change-that/

That's a lot of fuss over a mom who hopes her kid won't prefer chicken fingers and mac and cheese to more wholesome food. Naive, but really not worth the backlash.

cant believe all these moms feed their kids so much c**p. That's child neglect in my view. Surely they can figure out a way of ensuring their kids get the nutrition they need.

While I disagree with the people claiming that ALL childs will be very selective about food at some point, the problem her is that she imposes on her (very young) child how he or she should behave. The key to any healthy diet is to do it because you want to – and it should be a pleasure. But it fits to the "start solids next month". Actually, the baby will start solids when he or she is ready for it. It is extremely important to be educated about nutrition. It is equally important to not be ideologic about this.

American people are fat and this is the main reason. You start eating junk food at young age and eat it regularly instead of it being a treat once a month or so.

Back in the day you ate what was cooked for the entire family, the advent of "children's menus" are recent. Picky eaters are not the innate, rampant child phenomenon parents make it out to be, its very much a created problem in the Northern hemisphere. Western food culture and parenting has made every kid a "picky eater" dulling down their palettes and treating kids like they are physically incapable of eating "adult" food...here's and interesting write up is anyone is interested https://nationalpost.com/the-kids-menu

I remember when we ate what our parents put in front of us because that's what they happened to be eating and we didn't have a s**t hemorrhage about mac n' cheese or grilled cheese because mom wasn't going to f**k around with special meals. Call me old, but damn. What's wrong with the kid dealing down with what s/he's going to eat, instead of negotiating with parents.

Honestly, I get one aspect of why she wants kids' menus to burn in hell; the food on them is always crappy; chicken nuggets or a baby burger or mac n cheese. If they actually bothered to put better quality; like maybe grilled chicken and rice or something? noodles? soup?

Younger children (5-8 months) give us a false pride; we see them actually eat tomatoes or scrambled eggs and we think we're in for an easy ride. Then, they develop more distinguished taste buds, I guess, because soon it's pasta. That's it. We created the rule; you must eat 3 bites of everything on your plate. It took away the fighting and complaining because there was an actual rule. If a tantrum started, we just finished when it was over. My son still doesn't like a lot of foods, but he eats what he needs to.

I don't get it. Your kids eat what you give them or they don't eat...they learn very quickly to eat what is placed in front of them except for special occasions. My sons got whatever they wanted on Fridays but other than that they ate whatever I cooked...

is this a cultural thing? a country thing? when I was a child I never had junk food options to begin with, if I refused to eat my mom would take the food away and I would go play and when I asked her to give me food later she would just reheat the food I refused to eat in the beginning, no junk food options, no special menu options either. It seems that nowadays parents take the easy way out, giving them junk food because it's easier for THEM not for the good of their kids.

oh the memories of raising kids...love all the comments in the post, but yeah, the favorite one was 'I remember what a great parent I was before I had kids' i didn't have illusions about raising (starving?) mine, but caught on quick and learned that they WILL eat when they get hungry. the not wanting to eat at all was the hardest for me

My child never ate from a children's menu - its garbage. Children are perfectly capable of eating the same things we do - parents need to get a clue. In many countries, e.g. Foodie France there is no such thing as a "childrens menu". Teach your child to eat properly. Its a nightmare taking many of my daughters friends out to a restaurant now they are older as they have never been exposed to anything on the menu and won't eat anything. Ridiculous.

It's evolutionary right that kids refuse to try new food. Every new food may be a threat. It's unknown and seems wierd for a child. So before you make them try something forcefully (which they won't without tantrum or someting like that), let them play with it: to touch, to smell or even to crash and squeeze it with fingers etc. Eventually you will succeed without force: something potencially dangerous will become well-known and they will try to taste it on their own will. :)