# My 2 year old grandson is an extremely picky eater, how do we change that? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 6, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742 "2016-10-06T00:26:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/41 "2016-10-07T14:15:33Z")
I have pretty adventurous eaters. My daughter got a free dessert from a restaurant when she ordered - and ate - snails when she was six. The whole kitchen was peeking around the door watching this little girl devour slugs (she’d had them before). But even my kids don’t like everything. My son - as a teenager - just went through a no mushrooms phase that lasted a year. My daughter - the sushi and snail eating girl - doesn’t like spicy or onions. When we go out for Thai, my daughter does chicken satay - because it isn’t spicy. But we go out for Thai (and Indian - I can’t remember what she gets when we eat Indian). My son LOVES spicy. Mine became fairly adventurous because we are fairly adventurous. We modeled trying new things. We told them it was ok not to like something, but they should try it. No one is a big fan of brussels sprouts in our house, but we’ve tried them. (I have never cooked liver for my kids - I have too many bad memories of liver growing up). We also gave them permission to say no - and if they did it politely, a peanut butter sandwich to get them through - but no more dishes and by the time they were in kindergarten, they had to make their own. We’ve also, and was when they were older than your grandson, spoke a lot about picky eaters, manners, and why its important to be open. My husband spent weeks at a time in China for work and to gain the respect of the team, put all sorts of frightening things in his mouth (when I first knew him, he was a picky eater. We never ate FISH because unless it came in a can (tuna), he didn’t like it). We told stories like that, which give them kids a reason to overcome reluctance and see trying new things as brave and advantageous. The other thing that’s been an advantage - once again for when he is a little older - is that my daughter has had so much fun introducing her friends to sushi, oysters, and creme brulee (I’m shocked, but we’ve introduced three teenage girls to creme brulee in the past year). She gets to be the food expert. Mangos were another one (when she was much younger) that her friends had never had. And the buttered noodle, hot dog, mac n cheese stage still happened around two. I made sure they had a toddler lunch of whatever they were eating (rice and peas was big in my house for a while), made sure that they had fruit and vegetables (sweet potatoes, green beans, apples, grapes were all popular) then dinner was whatever we were eating. They got the opportunity to eat well once a day - and as its been said - that’s about what you get with a toddler. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/42 "2016-10-07T14:23:32Z")
[Obligatory _Calvin And Hobbes_ strip](http://economydecoded.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/our-parents-did-the-best-they-could.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/43 "2016-10-07T14:36:12Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > (missed the deadline) > > There’s a poster on another board who said “Food like your grandmother used to make!” would be a mortal insult, because her grandmother was by far the worst cook she ever encountered. Apparently this woman either boiled or roasted everything until it was beyond overcooked. Sounds like my grandmother. She was a wonderfui woman and I loved her with all my heart, but what a terrible cook. As to the OP, allow me, if I may, to offer a word of advice: TWO YEAR OLDS are babies. They’re going to be picky eaters, and they’re going to be occasionally inflexible and unreasonable and throw tantrums and just be wildly irrational, because they’re two. They live through feelings, not logic. Just go with the flow and slowly introduce new things. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/44 "2016-10-07T14:45:25Z")
> [@Sunny\_Daze](#): > > Please talk to your pediatrician. It may not be a power game. My son is autistic (note: I am NOT saying that your grandson is. NOT saying that.) Picky eating can have a lot of causes other than simply him tussling with you. Same. My son is high functioning on the spectrum but has a very limited palette (which doesn’t include a lot of kid foods like hamburgers, ice cream, baked sweets, etc). He WILL literally go without food rather than eat something that causes him sensory or negative transition issues. We deal by trying to introduce new variants – some win, most lose – and just giving him the healthiest versions of what he does eat such a buying hot dogs fresh from the butcher, pasta sauce with chopped vegetables added, squeezable pouches of the blended vegetables/fruit, fresh bananas, oranges & grapes etc. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/45 "2016-10-07T15:26:10Z")
I have 2 boys (ages 3 and 6) and our philosophy is that we don’t much care what our kids eat _today_ as long as they’ve had a reasonable variety over the course of the week. One of our kids absolutely devours breakfast and eats 5 bites at dinner, the other eats half a slice of toast for breakfast and goes for thirds and fourths at dinner. Trying to make them both eat a big dinner would just lead to frustration and argument, so I don’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/46 "2016-10-07T18:47:16Z")
A bottle of milk at bedtime for toddlers is **not** a good idea. Hopefully you or your daughter are brushing his teeth after he takes the bottle. Otherwise it’s an easy way to start tooth decay with young children at an early age. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/47 "2016-10-07T22:09:16Z")
Just leave him be. As a picky eater myself, all trying to force things he doesn’t like on him does is make him miserable and angry. Also, it’s not really your place to deal with, as a grandparent. Let your daughter deal with it or not. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/48 "2016-10-07T22:10:24Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > A bottle of milk at bedtime for toddlers is **not** a good idea. Hopefully you or your daughter are brushing his teeth after he takes the bottle. Otherwise it’s an easy way to start tooth decay with young children at an early age. My goodness, his baby teeth might fall out! ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/49 "2016-10-07T22:27:58Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > My goodness, his baby teeth might fall out! Healthy baby teeth are essential for healthy permanent teeth. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2016, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742/50 "2016-10-07T22:29:32Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > My brother Jay used to be considered a picky eater. Not only is Mom a lousy cook (and not a very good ingredients-shopper), she defines picky as “someone who doesn’t like what I like”\*. Jay might be a supertaster, he has one of the best noses I’ve encountered. > > Thankfully I became our main cook when he was still little and the things he liked fitted well with Mom’s constant dieting, Ed and Dad’s allergies, and my limited cooking abilities. There weren’t any struggles because hell if I was going to cook elaborate stuff that was likely to need some sort of adaptations when simple stuff kept everybody alive and eating happily. > > Eventually he’s become a much more adventurous eater, but he still prefers simple dishes where those of us with average tastebuds can identify the individual ingredients easily. And it better be cooked right. He’s a great source of restaurant recommendations! > > - after some 40 years of hearing “oh you’re so picky about cheese! You don’t eat any cheese!” when there are actually quite a few cheeses I like, I realized the issue: I like cheeses which you can actually taste, mainly sheep and goat ones. She thinks mozarella on pasta is better than parmigianno because “it doesn’t change the taste” (the whole point is to… aaaaargh! Nava smash wheel of parmiggiano on Navamom head!) “Mom’s constant dieting” makes it sound like there was some element of an eating disorder going on. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-2-year-old-grandson-is-an-extremely-picky-eater-how-do-we-change-that/767742.md?page=2)