Okay, this may be trivial, but I’m totally stumped.
I have a ten year old son that is totally unwilling to eat any sort of soup. He also balks at stews, gravy, etc. Pretty much anything with a liquid component.
I just don’t get it. It doesn’t matter if all of the ingredients are things he loves, in gestalt form, he hates it. At first I thought it might be a mechanical issue- he’s a lefty that keeps trying to be a righty, so he’s not particularly dexterous with either hand, and I figured he just had issues with working a spoon. But that doesn’t seem to be it. He seems to be disgusted with the very idea of soups.
And some of you may know, I consider my wife to be an excellent cook, and myself to be certainly better than average- the dishes we make are quite greedily consumed by his 13 and 2 1/2 year old brothers.
It gets very frustrating, especially as we move into the colder months, as well as cold and flu season. We always seem to have a pot of something on, but he will just turn up his nose at it. He’s sick now, and for a guy raised with the ‘sickness ritual’ of soup, vapo-rub, and robitussin, I am about to go mad over this particular eccentricity.
Has anyone ever heard of this before? How can we combat it? I want to think he’ll just grow out of it, but I’ve met too many adults with weird food aversions to not worry. And yes, he’s always been a picky eater.
Perhaps it is the texture that is bothering him. I know that I personally can’t stand the flowerettes of broccoli- the sensation of it in my mouth literally makes me vomit. This aversion has also extended to the smell of broccoli, which is nauseating to me, and further extended to similar kinds of vegetabley smells, like cabbage, brussels sprouts, and cauliflower.
IMO, it’s just something he’ll grow out of. My nephew had a two year spate of not eating anything white- potatoes, mozzarella cheese, mayo. Then he started to again, as if the previous two years didn’t occur. LilMiss has a serious bean aversion. It started about a year ago. Before that green beans were her favorite veggie. I continue to make thing with beans, leaving her to pick them out. There weren’t any triggering events for either the nephew or LilMiss, it’s just a weird thing.
I would continue to make soup, especially ones with meats and veggies, then let him strain the broth off. Maybe he will eventually realize that when he spends more time dinking around with his food than actually eating it, it become a chore.
Well, I don’t have kids, so you can take this or leave it, but is it really that important of an issue?
With kids you have to pick your battles, and I don’t think this is one you want to fight. So what if he won’t eat soup? In my house we had a “two bite” rule: eat two bites of everything served or no TV or dessert. You don’t want to cook two meals, that would just be catering to him. But to force the issue is a mistake. Two bites, and then let him leave the table and go to his room without stress and hoopla. If he’s hungry, there’s always leftover soup. He will eventually get over it.
If he doesn’t like soup or stews, will he eat a potpie? My BIL will NOT eat stew but he will eat a potpie, which really is the same filling with a pie crust around it.
That’d be my advice. If he eats the stuff cooked in a casserole, then it’s not the issue that the food is all “touching” the other kinds (some people can’t handle that, or can’t handle separate food “courses” touching each other on the same plate). So tell him if he wants dinner, he can use a strainer. Either that or let him make his own peanut butter sandwich instead.
I think if I were in your position, I would take his soup or stew out of the pot with a slotted spoon, so the broth/gravy drains off, and put the stuff on a plate. If he objects to broth/gravy, I don’t think I’d make him eat it, as long as he eats the nutritious stuff.
Thanks for the replies. Like I said, I know it’s trivial, but it does bug me. It’s also funny to have his 2 year old brother try to set a good example for him at the table by eating all of his dinner.
He’s just picky in general though…my wife and i joke that, given his contempt for our cooking (and like I said, we set a damn fine table at my house), it will be his luck to marry a woman that can burn water.
I hope he grows out of it…but like i said, I know plenty of adults with weird (and frankly inconvenient) food habits.
But I do think that the PB and J solution is a good one, and we’ll work on that. Though he refuses to eat PB and J together…and refuses to eat bread crusts…and more PB than can barely cover the bread is too much for him…
My three kids were picky eaters too. Used to actually wash the plate after eating the meat and before putting potatoes on it. At buffets, would take a whole plate of mashed potatoes only. They’re all grown up now, and can pile their variety plates high with the best of 'em, usually with an amazed comment about what picky eaters they used to be. And no, none of them are overweight–all healthy and happy. We’ve had a lot of laughs about this over the years. I’m afraid making a big deal about it at a young age is likely to cement the aversion and make it last into adulthood. I’ve had the experience of not liking something the way I used to, for a while–maybe a few years or so–and later finding myself pining for it again. Go figure.
I can’t drink anything hot–no coffee, no tea, no soup, nothing. Attempting to do so makes me gag, reguardless of the flavor or texture. I can only drink “hot” chocolate after it’s cooled down to room temperature. I don’t have any problem with eating hot foods, or eating gravy or other “creamed” foods (such as mashed potatoes), only with hot liquids.
If he won’t eat soup, and that’s what’s for dinner, try scooping out the solids for him to eat, or serving it room temperature. Of course, room temperature gravy sounds rather repulsive…
My parents would have to force soup down my throat to get me to eat it. I never even tried it voluntarily until I was 23. Unfortunately, I got food poisoning around the third time I willingly ate soup and threw up, so I am back to not eating soup very much.
I begin to wonder if I’m raising some sort of alien. Crackers in the soup won’t work. “It’s all soggy and mushy”
This is a child who will eat crudités and salad sans any kind of dressing. The only condiment he will eat is ketchup, and that only on fries. Oh, well, he will eat soy sauce on plain white rice, but no mustard, mayo, dressings of any kind, b-b-q sauces, steak sauces, no gravy, no stew, no soup, and no casseroles with things mixed up together. He refuses cheese singles on his lunch sandwiches because the cheese will stick to the meat by noon. These are dry sandwiches with nothing but meat on them. He dislikes any kind of sauce on pasta (red, alfredo, anything) and will eat it dry or with a little butter and salt.
He will, however, eat asparagus and broccoli. He bathes at least three times a week, and drinks water or milk instead of sodas without complaint. His school did a BMI survey last spring, and his ratio was in the average/healthy range. I am fully aware that we need to just count our blessings and go on with our lives, but this does get tiring after a while. There was a time when all he would eat was chicken, plain mashed potatoes, apples, plain pasta, white rice, and milk. I joked with several friends that perhaps he was Taltos. :eek:
Ardred doesn’t like soup, but I guess he did as a kid. Stew and chili are fine, though.
We used to have to two bite rule when I was growing up. I would eat anything except peas. Blech. Just thinking about them still makes me sick to my stomach. My mom finally stopped making me take two bites when I took a bite and immediately threw up all over the dining room floor.
She just made me green beans instead.
My best friend in high school hated condiments of all kinds. He still does.
People eat different things. If it’s a power struggle over “I’m not eating what you make” that’s different. Sounds like he’s just picky and will either come around to it or not. Either way, I wouldn’t let it bother you.
He’ll get used to it when he’s in college and living on Ramen Noodles.
In a kids mind his aversion to soup is probably one of “It’s a warm liquid with chunks in it. Gross, kind of like vomit.”
I like soup but it doesn’t take much to put me in the mindset that it is actually pretty gross.
He should slowly grow out of it. I used to hate any kind of sauces like your son.
A decent salad made of lettuce and vegtables = good. Now your going to put dressing on it so the whole thing tastes like dressing = you’ve just ruined the salad.
A decent sandwich of meat and bread = good. Now you put mayo on it so everything tastes like mayo = you’ve just ruined my sandwich.
If your not fond of a certain flavor i.e. mayo, dressing, sauce then why do you think I want my entire meal smothered in the stuff?
