My parents tried their hardest to get me to eat any melon aside from watermelon. They figured I was just being stubborn and picky and it took them several months and a few vomiting episodes to realize that melon actually makes me ill. I don't know why, don't know if there's an actual allergy to honeydew and cantelope, but to this day, whenever I eat it, my stomach almost immediately and violently rejects it.

My mom did the same thing to me with rabbit when I was a tot. She cooked one up and to me it looked like fried chicken, so I had no problem loading up my plate and promptly devouring it. I came back for seconds and while loading up my plate again, I asked why the chicken's bones looked funny. "That's because it's not chicken, it's rabbit." she said. I only paused for a second before continuing to load up the plate. It tasted good, so I figured what the heck. :D

I kind of thought that before I had a kid. It changes you somehow, and you learn you can tolerate more than you ever imagined possible.
I have similar problems with both cantaloupe and honeydew. Mostly what I find though is that eating it causes my mouth to break out in sores and my tongue to swell. I have the same problem with watermelon, though the effect is much milder. Bananas do the same thing, and almonds, before roasting, do it as well. I never really bothered to find out why it happens, though if I were sufficiently interested, I could probably figure it out, especially because after the almond is roasted, I have no problem.

Hm...this made me think: could it be behavorial? He'll eat at Mom's house, but not at ("bad old") stepmommy's house? "She's not my real mommy, so I'm not gonna eat what she gives me!"

Sorry...watched an episode of Dr. Phil today.
:D

Little Sidhe is a dream in this category. If it's even slow moving it's food. The only thing that she has rejected outright is yellow Triaminic, and that's not food. She'll even eat wassabe.

This reminds me of a story my mom tells everyone who mentions how healthfully my kids eat. She says she was riding me through the grocery store in a cart when I was about two. I was eating cottage cheese and peaches out of a little Tupperware container and an old classmate walked up to her and began talking. When she noticed what I was eating she said to my mom "Wow! How do you get her to eat that? Kevin (her son, the same age as me) won't eat anything but cookies and buttered noodles!" My mom said "Sure he will. Give him a few days." The woman just walked away and didn't say anything.

Hm...this made me think: could it be behavorial? He'll eat at Mom's house, but not at ("bad old") stepmommy's house? "She's not my real mommy, so I'm not gonna eat what she gives me!"

It's not a question of eating, but what he'll eat. The problem is she's content to let him eat crackers for every meal, and he knows it.

What I usually do is, after cooking a perfectly good dinner, I call the kids to the table and at the first peep of complaint, I get down my .45 and start waving it around in the air like a wild woman--sometimes I have to fire a few rounds off (like if we're having meatloaf) but after that--everybody settles down for some good, old-fashioned quality dinner time! ;)

That's the problem all right. Parents need to be consistent and present a united front. She's undermining everything you are attempting to acheive. Is she a remotely reasonable person? Have you guys attempted to discuss this with her? If the kid is getting delicious junk food at her place, he won't eat healthy stuff at yours.

Will he eat spaghetti with red sauce? You can hide a lot of stuff (blended cooked vegetables) in the red sauce.

Is she a remotely reasonable person?

Of course not. [tangent]I know very few single mothers (who have never been married) who are. Most of them feel guilty for the situation their children are in, and over-compensate by spoiling them, and later as the child gets older try to be their friend and confidante instead of their parent.[/tangent] She's of the mindset that "starving" him is cruel. She reasons that she's giving him wheat crackers and other fortified-type things, so he's not eating unhealthily, per se. She doesn't understand that it's his behavior that's unhealthy and that she won't be able to just change the pattern by someday deciding "ok, now he's old enough to know better."

Just wait until he's old/clever enough to wait until you're out of the room or not looking and hide food he doesn't want to eat in unlikely places, not to be found for YEARS.

*shrugs off twinge of guilt* :angel:

Man, I hope I don't regret asking, but what (or who) is susie? Sorry sucky Zippyt spelling , it should be SUSHI
This reminds me of a story my mom tells everyone who mentions how healthfully my kids eat. She says she was riding me through the grocery store in a cart when I was about two. I was eating cottage cheese and peaches out of a little Tupperware container and an old classmate walked up to her and began talking. When she noticed what I was eating she said to my mom "Wow! How do you get her to eat that? Kevin (her son, the same age as me) won't eat anything but cookies and buttered noodles!" My mom said "Sure he will. Give him a few days." The woman just walked away and didn't say anything. :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
HA HA HA HA HA HA Got to love the line "Sure he will. Give him a few days."

I finally tried sushi for the first time. Buddha roll. My asshole brother didn't tell me it had shrimp in it, and I HATE shrimp. He even went so far as to hide the tail end so he could show it to me afterwards and witness the look of horror on my face.

Long story short, he's not such an asshole after all, and I could LIVE on sushi. One of the most amazing things I've ever had. I can't wait to try something else.

Edit: Something else in the "sushi" family. I thought the clarification might be necessary.

I http://www.cellar.org/images/newsmilies/heartpump.gif sushi. Not a big fan of squid or mackerel, never tried urchin and don't plan to, but everything else is just yummy.

We used to get this dish called seafood yaka soba , basicaly any thing that was getting a little to ripe for the sushi bar got cooked up and thrown in with noodles , the kids would FREAK every time they saw me eating a squid tentical !!!!!

Sushi is great....but most shellfish is too chewy raw. Yellowtail is my favorite.

Regarding feeding picky kids...one thing that worked for a friend of mine was to keep serving them whatever they wouldn't eat at the next meal. If they wouldn't eat meatloaf for dinner, the plate would be saved until breakfast, heated up and served again. Once the kids figured out they weren't going to get something they liked at the next meal, they got hungry and ate.

I never had to resort to that but did have one really picky kid. She's 16 now and eats pretty darn well. I can only attribute that to continuing to serve a large variety and allowing her to try things when she wanted to.