A few weeks ago while driving the kids out to lunch (Indian buffet, no less) my wife and I each had an Altoid. From the back seat, our 2 1/2 year old son asked for one. We told him he would not like it, but he insisted, so we gave him one. He prompty ate it without any complaints. Yesterday we were eating wasabi-covered peas, and he asked for one. Again, we told him he might not like it, but he insisted. Again he ate it, without even making a “yucky” face. Then he asked for some milk, drank it, and ate 2 more peas. Is that at all unusual? I’ve got no idea, except that I didn’t start liking such things until I was MUCH older; like in my 30s.
I liked that kind of stuff when I was that little. I was an adventurous eater, so I’d pretty much try anything. I do know of at least a few Doper kids who also like like spicy foods (Whybaby, IIRC, among others).
I have no cite, but i’ve heard that fast food is generally bland because children overwhelmingly prefer bland food to spicy stuff.
I don’t think it’s all that unusual. My 2 1/2 year old nephew will eat anything you give him, and does not seem phased at all by spicy foods. Of course, at that age there might be some digestive repercussions - i.e. diarrhea or a belly ache, but I can recall dousing my food with Tobasco as a small tyke with not too many ill effects.
His tastebuds might not have developed fully yet, so the extreme spiciness just doesn’t register with him. As long as there isn’t any negative effect to the stomach, let him indulge.
Many children go through this phase when they will eat all kinds of things you wouldn’t expect a child to eat–my favorites were Dijon mustard by the spoonful, and pickled beets. **WhyNot ** has talked about how much WhyBaby likes spicy food, right now.
Enjoy it while it lasts–very soon, this openness to flavor is likely to shut down. I, for example, haven’t eaten a single pickled beet since before I started preschool.
I actually have twins. Once I had the girl, aged less than one year, with me on a grocery shopping expedition. She’s sitting in the little kiddy seat on the back of the cart, and she’s situated such that she can reach into the basket and pull things out to play with. We get to the checkout and I see she has gabbed a piece of ginger root, chewed a hole in the plastic bag, and is gnawing on the raw ginger. Yeoch!
Though it’s clear from this thread that there are exceptions, this is certainly true. Take a look at the children’s menu in most restaurants - it’s full of the blandest stuff imaginable, regardless of what the adult menu has. I’ve wondered if this is some kind of evolutionary thing - preventing kids from inadvertently poisoning themselves by making sure they won’t eat anything that tastes too pungent.
My 2 1/2 year old son seems to like it. He will chips and salsa like its going out of style. Of course he brings the chip to his mouth with a weird arm twist that dumps salsa all over him, but he still ends up eating a lot of it.
Foods that are hot in temperature completely freak him out. We have to actually put our fingers on the food to show him its not hot on occasion.
My brother loved jalapeno peppers when he was a toddler and ate them by the ton. Now, at 28, he thinks tomato sauce on pizza is too spicy.
My daughter’s a year and a half old, and she can’t get enough of spicy food. She highly amused the waiters at an Indian restaurant this summer by scarfing down papadum after papadum.
Yep, her favorite shopping trip is to Costco, where she cons the Sample Ladies out of buffalo wings by the snootful! She also likes jalapenos in her mac and cheese, and in her au gratin potatoes. She loves Indian, Thai and Mexican foods, but not, for some reason, Ethiopian (which was a dismal failure, much to my disapointment.)
Her speech therapist (who sees a lot of pre-verbal kids for eating troubles) tells me that it’s not uncommon for preemies, especially those who have been on a vent, to *prefer *spicy foods over bland ones. Something about their oral needs being for greater stimulation than normal. Other signs of this are overstuffing her mouth (check), being one of those babies to stuff any random item in her mouth (check) and also being slow to say “L” and “T” sounds with the tip of the tongue (check).
My experience with other toddlers is that if you catch them young enough (before 2, generally), they like strong flavors, but if you wait too long, you’re stuck with “too spicy” complaints for years.
As long as the diaper changes don’t go from ‘necessary chore’ to ‘Dear Og In Heaven! What the Hell have you been eating, kid!?’ complete with peeling wallpaper, I say let them enjoy.
The kids’ menu is a purely cultural phenomenon, and a bad one.
Does anyone know the facts on the development of tastebuds? I’m prepared to believe that a two-year-old doesn’t have the full complement.
Huh. What about cultures where the kid grows up eating nothing but spicy food and thus likes it from the beginning?
Actually, a little research seems to indicate the exact opposite. Newborns have a complete set of functioning tastebuds. I guess the kid just likes hot food!
Is there such a thing? Many cultures have cuisine that includes spicy food, but are there any where there is nothing but spicy food?
My kid, since he was about two (now 6) has always liked altoids and spicy food. Just keep milk around, so if he hits something extra spicy, you can put out the fire. Milk kills the burn best.
My kids were pretty much exclusively breast fed for the first nine months or so, but when they started asking for regular people food I didn’t make them anything different, so my daughter’s first “real food” experience was with chili and my son’s was spaghetti–neither of which are bland when I make it… The only objection was when the face goop level got to the eyes and stung, I’d mop them off and they’d be back at it in minutes. They grew up with a wide variety of foods, never went through the fussy phases and had only minimal food objections–my son to this day is not a big fan of avocado, but I never made him special salad that didn’t have it in, just allowed him to segregate the avocado on his plate, and usually someone else would volunteer to take his. To this day they both overwhelmingly prefer strongly flavored food and will try anything once, so I figure it’s all good.
I really think kids need to learn to be fussy eaters!
Kid Kalhoun was the adventurous type, too. He ate anything and from a vry young age.