I sort of wonder if my observation that children start out eating anything, and then get fussy, is actually a result of starting to go to preschool and watch other kids refuse to eat things–like Kalhoun just said.
Or SmartAleq. You know what I mean.
Actually, I’m just proud of myself for finally figuring out that we’re supposed to bold usernames.
I’ve always wondered if it’s the other way around- if many kids prefer bland food because they are always fed the items you see on the kids menu. Once my kids were eating table food, they ate what my husband and I were eating. Sometimes I’d we’d make theirs less spicy, but they still wanted some of ours and frequently liked it better. If we went to a restaurant, we let them order whatever they wanted- and it was almost never from the kid’s menu. Servers looked at us like we were nuts, but before my children went to school they liked a wide variety of non- kid foods such as buffalo wings, crab, lobster, tripe, chicken cordon bleu, fettucine alfredo , dim sum, sushi, salmon, broccoli- you name it and at least one of my kids will eat it
I loved spicy food as a child - my parents tell stories of me eating alarming amounts of horseradish and hot cinnamon candy when I was two or three.
I still adore spicy food above all things, though my enthusiasm for cinnamon has waned. I am, however, a very picky eater, and have become more picky over time. I started out pretty easy going (so they tell me), but when I was three I stopped eating hamburger, and it’s been downhill from there.
As far as I know becoming an insanely picky eater was a natural evolution for me. I have issues with the texture of a lot of foods, and once a particular food squicks me out I have a hard time convincing myself to try it again, so my list of acceptable food is ever-diminishing.
My kid (6yo) loves chips and spicy salsa. However he just made the connection that what’s spicy going in may be spicy going out.
He was not a happy camper. 
My 21 month old son loves all sorts of strong flavors. Salsa, chili. . . the kid will eat roasted coffee beans straight from the jar if we don’t watch him.
THen again, we’re not the type of parents who tell him “You won’t like that”; if he asks for a bite of something, we usually give it to him and let him decide.
I have one of each, a year apart.
My son will snack on pepperocini, eat Pad Thai, wasabi peas, and has since he was old enough to eat solids. At eight, he’s slacked off the spice a bit.
My daughter thinks tacos (Minnesota tacos) are “too spicy!!!”
It isn’t like she didn’t have a chance to eat wasabi peas, too, at a young age.
I’ve always wondered if there is an invitro component - he’s Korean, likely his birthmother gave him kimchee mainlined. My daughter is bio - I’ll eat spicy foods, but not a lot, and don’t really remember eating a lot of spicy during pregnancy.
I discovered those cinnamon candies when I was two. Those were the best 
I also loved olives, the saltier the better, but on the other hand, I was grossed out by a lot of “kid food” – white bread, bologna, hot dogs, that sort of thing.
Well, I think in any cuisine you can make bland food. But if the parents eat mainly spicy things, their kids will do the same.
One of my coworkers, who is from southern India, has fed her son from the family’s dinner since he first showed an interest in solid food. He’s 3 now, and eats spicy food every day-- spicier even than I could take. His mother has also done the same over her entire life.
Count me in as a little tacker who ate chilis. However, my brother, at two or so, once grabbed a small purple chili out of the cupboard thinking it was a sweet, and ended up drinking a hell of a lot of milk to soothe the burn. He was not very well after that and blames the chili. He still eats spicy food though.
My nephew loves hot food. He doesn’t have very many words yet (he signs but doesn’t talk) but he does know “HOT” (which his two year old face says as “HAAA!”. He love curry, thai, buffalo sauce, etc.
Some people’s chemistry is just different. Stuff my nephew eats burns my tongue.
Charlie (8 yo) was eating eating salsa before he could eat the chips. He was about 9 mos old and stuck his hand in a bowl of salsa, I figured I’d let him taste it and that would teach him a lesson. Nope! He loved it.
We’ve always had him eat what we are eating when we are at home and we sometimes eat very spicy foods. He loves Indian food, chili, etc. It’s so cute to see him eating his spicy foods, sweating at the heat and drinking milk…he knows water won’t do the trick.
My almost-two-year-old boy eats everything I give him (except mushrooms). He has a clear favourite in spaghetti and lasagne and the like, but he also likes Indian and Mexican and whatever else we eat. I’m not easy on the spices when I cook.
Why do you think that I’ve started shopping at Giant? 
While some kids just naturally eschew spicy food, I think many don’t ever get exposed to them and eventually they just stick with what they know.
My daughter has always enjoyed spicy foods. In utero she responded well to hot wings and vindaloo, and after she came out, she enjoyed my milk after I had spicy foods. There were times as an infant that she smelled of hot wings because of the spices that come through the milk. Her first solid food was a lemon. Her second was baked pumpkin. To this day, she enjoys spicy foods and loves to eat vegetables and strongly flavored foods.
When we go out, we never order off the bland kiddy menu, but rather either share our meals or, more usually, order her an adult entree. It would be cheaper to get my daughter the chicken strips or hot dogs or mac and cheese off the kiddy menu, but I don’t serve her those things at home!
What I am most pleased about though, is that she doesn’t declare “I don’t like that!” even when she doesn’t like something, which is fairly rare. We server what turned out to be a rather distasteful chicken dish once (failed experimental recipe) and she tasted it, and then just did not eat the rest, after pushing it away from the other food on her plate. I could not blame her for that as the sauce was nasty, not spicy, just odd.
Of course there are parents who seem to actively teach their kids to eschew spicy foods. They announce loudly that their child doesn’t like this or that* and don’t give them a chance to taste anything but what they think will be accepted. I think this is a big mistake. Just because little Toby doesn’t like your tuna salad or whatever doesn’t mean he won’t like mine. I thought for years that I did not like vegetables, but I came to realize that I just did not like vegetables as my mother cooked them. Same with tuna salad. I find it quite tasty without all the boiled egg in it.
*Note: I am not talking about parents who loudly declare allergies or dietary requirements, I am talking about preferences.
My parents vowed that I was weaned from mother’s milk onto Tabasco sauce. I can’t recall not eating spicy foods.
Obviously a lot of kids in other cultures grow up eating things Americans think kids aren’t “supposed” to like. The theory I’ve heard (from Jared Diamond I believe) is that kids will eat just about anything they’re given when they’re very small but they get very picky at about 3 or so…for the basic reason that kids old enough to run around on their own and ate things they haden’t been fed before, well, didn’t live to pass on those genes.
Interesting idea, I just thought I’d put that out there.
My daughter is Three and a half and still willingly eats new things.
Now there’s a kid with some balls! Kudos to him…
Reverse psychology at work?
Maybe it just happend to be to his liking.
From little tykes you can expect the unexpected!
I remember when my son was not quite a year old, he found his way to some salsa and chips I had sitting on the coffee table.
He took the first chip put it in the salsa and then put it in his mouth. He immediately starts to cry. While he was STILL crying; he then proceeds to take another chip and repeat the whole process. Each time he would take a chip he would cry a little more.
After wiping the tears away from my face from laughing so hard, I tried to take the chips and salsa away from him. To which he vehemently objected. So I let him have at them.
He’s 8 now and he can eat spicy food that would send most normal adults flying to the moon.