Everyone has preferences, of course.
You are not born hating a food.
You may be born allergic or sensitive to it.
Some kids tho’, they are born with a gene nicked or bruised or something. In a family who would eat the pizza box for a snack or anything laying on the table, there’s always one. That one can disrupt the whole routine. Make life a misery for everyone else.
I know that child. She sits at my right nearly every meal time.
I didn’t create her. I don’t think her parents were negligent, the other kids eat normally.
She’s just how she is.
I kinda love her more, for being outside the norm.
There are people with innate sensory sensitivities, and these can include taste and texture of food. In other cases people can have extreme levels of anxiety about trying new things, or may simply have no interest in trying new things.
Lots of child raising stuff talks about ways to make kids more or less picky. I really don’t know how much evidence has gone into these statements. Perhaps there is good research backing up the advice. Some of it seems “common sense” like introduce lots of foods when the kids are receptive, but that is a testable hypothesis, I just don’t know how well it’s been tested.
I think we spend way too many hours trying to figure out the kids “sensory perception” and their feels about something.
If they don’t like it, all the begging, bribery, cajoling, or threatening in the world is not gonna make them like it or make them eat it
Short of starving them into it (I don’t recommend this), just let it go. Let them sit at the table and watch you eat.
They’ll get the message or grow up eventually.
Always. They grow up.
Then they can buy, cook and eat their own food.
The amount of adults with these eating issues is directly related to how they were fed. If Dad got up and ran got the kid Chicken nuggets the minute he balked at a casserole or spaghetti, guess what? he’ll be the adult who goes to the adult restaurant with a bag from MickeyDs while everyone makes fun of him.
There’s this thing, you can’t please everyone all the time.
Kids need to learn they can’t always have their way. Early.
Unless there is a real problem. A real problem. Not something created by our snowflake society, let the kid sit there with an empty plate. They’ll eat the next meal with gusto.
" Picky eating starts early — and stays. Researchers looked at the habits of children ages 4 to 9, and found that picky eaters tended to stay that way. That means that parents need to start early to prevent picky eating, preferably before their child turns 2 (and that independent streak really sets in). So offer lots of different foods, including lots of different fruits and vegetables. Don’t cook a separate kids’ meal."
We always allowed our kids to have a “no thanky you bite” and not have to finish what was on the plate that they didn’t like, but they could count on it being served again. We also provided lots of side choices with meals.
My kids have certain things that they absolutely do not like, but they can normally eat just fine at any meal that is prepared at home or at any restaurant that we choose to go to.
My oldest daughter had a boyfriend that could only eat cheeseburgers, french fries, pizza or chicken fingers. He decided after a few meals at our house or at resturaunts with us that he would just not eat at with us any longer. Fortunately for her they broke up after a few months.
I was a charter member of the picky eater club. This was back in the 60s. My mother despaired, but never made me eat anything I didn’t want (except lamb stew which I promptly barfed all over the table.). However, she did not prepare separate food for me. My alternative was pb&j. I’m a lot less picky now and fortunately childless so I never had to deal with this problem.