Picky Eaters

The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet. Proverbs 27:7

One of our former neighbors, a very wise woman with half a dozen kids, gave us some advice for dealing with our picky eater.

"Hunger is the best sauce," she would say.

We strive to provide our children a very low sugar and otherwise healthy diet. I don't know if its is good genetics, healthy eating, or just the grace of God, but we have only been to the doctor twice that I can remember. Thats in 10 years - for all five kids. We pray a lot and we feed them lots of apples and homemade nutrient rich whole wheat bread.

But what do you do with the kid that doesn't want to get with the program? We got the junk food out of the house (a recent guest was appalled at our lack of "snacks" in the pantry - she had to show her husband- "look at this... can you BELIEVE?" borderline child abuse).

We stopped snacking between meals (most days).

Still - a picky eater. In my mind, I am going to send him away hungry. Then he will be hungry enough to eat monkey brains at the next meal. ... but then I cave... I gave him my yummy homemade roll last night because that was all he was eating. I really wanted that roll - it was the last one, but he was so pitiful. I hope that held him over until breakfast. He didn't complain, but he had LOTS of watermelon for dessert.

He has gotten better over the years. He knows that he can't have anything except what is being served to the rest of the family, so he has (on occasion) ventured out and discovered a new thing or two that he could (would) eat.

We started on the little kids while they were too young to complain. They will eat anything - they never got to choose.

Maybe hunger is the best sauce.