Yes i was, yes i am. I simply cannot eat certain textures of food, they trigger an immediate gag reflex. My parents were fairly accommodating, they did make me clean my plate but by and large they cooked stuff that they knew i would eat. Or had acceptable alternatives at hand.
I was the opposite of picky as a child; I would eat anything. Because of this and because my parents liked good food, I guess I developed “standards” quicker than most. I didn’t like most of the crappy cafeteria food, but that was okay because I always brought a lunch.
When I was a small child, my father henpecked me at the table. If I didn’t like it, I had to try it and be told lots of stories about why I should like it. If I didn’t eat a food the way he wanted, he’d tell me about it (not eating the stems of broccoli was the big one… I still don’t do that today). If I declared that I wasn’t hungry anymore, he’d let me leave the table, then call after me asking if I wanted some crackers and peanut butter. His sister and mother are like this, too.
By the time I was five or six, I ate everything that was served at our house on a regular basis. I’d also happily eat other people’s permutations of familiar, kid-appealing things. I wouldn’t eat unfamiliar things, and didn’t want to try new foods, until I was around 11-12.
I am not a picky eater today. There are a few foods that I have enthusiastically tried to eat, then discovered that something in my subconscious rebelled against them–offal comes to mind–but for the most part I’ll eat anything. I am not a member of the clean plate club.
I’m not picky in the least. I don’t think I was picky as a child, but mom fed us such a limited range of foods (I think I grew up on Dinty Moore chicken & dumplings and beef stew as a baby, then branched out after toddlerhood) that I was probably the one who demanded more variety.
My mom did make me clean my plate. Then she’d call me fat. So my relationship with food is still a bit shaky. I used to be anorexic. Now, 20 years later, I’m slightly overweight and more comfortable with myself, though still trying to nudge off those extra pounds. I’ll never consider myself “recovered” - those old head games still come back every now and then when I’m particularly stressed.
My mom often tries to make my children clean their plates, too, when she’s visiting. She’ll hover over my son, arm around the back of his chair and point to things she wants him to eat. I’ll come over and ask her to knock it off. Then he’ll decide he’s done and she’ll come back and tell him to eat more. Then I ask her to knock it off again and let him go his merry way. I usually try to get her to avoid the table when my children are eating. It makes me mad and makes my son feel pressured.
As for my daughter, when my mom starts trying to get her to eat more, she just starts throwing food (she’s 1), so she doesn’t get pushed as hard as if she were older and followed commands reliably.
My son is pretty limited in the foods he’ll eat, though I usually give him something I know he’ll eat, plus something new with a required no-thank-you bite. He takes a bite, if he doesn’t like it, all he has to do is say so and he doesn’t have to eat it. My daughter eats anything - she’s young enough she hasn’t yet become terribly picky, though I’m starting to see some inklings of it.
My folks were easygoing; no clean the plate business, I was merely expected to try everything at least once and eat a reasonable amount of food. Also, they never fixed me a special meal, I found something good out of what they fixed for dinner.
My picky eating manifested away from home, I didn’t want to eat anything that wasn’t cooked to my mother’s specifications. If it didn’t taste exactly like it did at home, I didn’t want it. My folks nipped that in the bud though and I think I was trained to be polite and eat whatever by the time I was in grade school.
Mom and I did have a power struggle over green beans though. It was rather epic. I vomited multiple times and she responded by fixing me new green beans. A few more bite-vomit results and we called it a draw.
I still don’t like green beans and the smell makes me retch. I eat everything else though…too much of everything else.
We had the “at least try it once” rule in effect and there were a ton of things I only tried once. Most of them I grew out of but mushrooms are still a big no-no.
Ah yes, my favorite subject. I was extremely picky as a kid, which I’m sure was a pain in the ass for my parents. I’m still pretty picky but since I’m a grown woman and can and do provide food for myself, it’s nobody’s problem but my own.
My mother was an average cook. She certainly liked a bigger variety of things than she made but she deferred to the children somewhat. I could tolerate most of the things she made and a few I actually loved. However, if I didn’t want to eat something it simply wasn’t going to happen. I would just have to go without, which I much preferred. The only time she tried to pull the “you’ll sit there until you eat it” ploy was when I was about four and I didn’t want to eat ribs. I have no idea why but on that particular night the thought of putting them in my mouth was sickening and I refused and the next thing you know, there came the sun over yon horizon and I still had uneaten ribs on my plate. I’m guessing she’d possibly had other things on her mind and was kind of taking it out on me because she’d never tried to *make *me eat anything before or since that. And lest you think I was some spoiled princess believe me, I can tell you plenty of other ways in which I suffered, but eating wasn’t one of them.
To the poster who can’t imagine how anyone could not stand to eat a particular thing, I can’t imagine how anyone can! It is literally a marvel to me how anyone can just put any old thing in their mouth (no jokes, people;) ). Maybe it *is *some kind of mental illnes, as others have suggested, but I’m absolutely not joking when I say I’d rather starve than eat something that disgusts me.
i had that and so bad that i had to have surgery at age eight to reconstruct the floor of my mouth and the underside of my tongue. not fun, but in the long run it was worth the temporary discomfort.
the only things i didn’t like as a child were lima beans (still much, much hate for lima beans. quite possible i’d rather starve than eat them.), and june peas. my dad had a thing for them and we ate them a little more often than was palatable for me.
we were also expected to taste everything put before us. that was the trade-off. the parents made it clear that little sister and i could not say we didn’t like something if we’d never tried it before. mom made sure the amounts were very small, and she was an absolute pro at remembering what we had and hadn’t liked, so we never got away with whining that we’d had it before! 
that said, they were never adventurous with food themselves. i don’t ever remember even having chinese food in the house.
i myself didn’t know what to do with chopsticks or sushi until i was in my late 30s. now it’s commonplace for me and my friends to make a practice of eating food from as many cultures as i can find.
indianapolis has never been better than it is right now with a wide offering of ethnic food from many different cultures. in fact, i’m gonna cruise by my favorite indian restaurant tonite for dinner.
today as an adult, i’ll eat june peas if i have to.
lima beans and anchovies? hell will freeze over first. :eek: :eek: :eek:
I was moderately picky. My folks never forced the issue.
About halfway through college, I suddenly began to get adventurous with my food choices. Now I’ll try just about anything, and love discovering new cuisines.
I was moderately picky and still don’t care for a few items, but my range is much wider.
Mushrooms are still a bit of a problem - I don’t care for the texture. I’m pretty picky about seafood too - for the most part I just don’t care for it.
My parents made us try everything, but if you still didn’t like it - you could make a pb&j, and off to your room with no dessert. Not a fight out of me if the option was liver and onions, but I did manage to eat cooked carrots by smothering them with ketchup. (technically, I didn’t eat them, I just cut them up small enough to swallow the pieces whole with a little help from ketchup to lubricate.)
Lima beans though - yum!
Not a picky child at all. Loved a wide variety of foods. Also ate very healthy and low-carb - my nanny was a diebetic, and a strict and healthy one at that. Lots of baked/grilled/broiled/sauteed meats and stir fried or steamed vegetables. Small serving of rice or a half to single slice of whole wheat bread. Fruit was always dessert. I adore salads then as I do now. High school had this great salad bar; for lunch I ate a salad with grilled chicken, garbanzo beans, cukes, tomatoes, carrots, green peppers and banana peppers and sunflower seeds almost every single day. When I eat out now, I often judge it by “how many vegetables am I getting?” I love Thai and (real, not crappy American) Chinese food for this reason.
Ice cream was a rare treat. I did inherit my father’s sweet tooth, though it’s not too bad.
My only issue with food now is that I eat too much; I try and eat what I ate while training as an athlete from age 6 to 18. But that had nothing to do with how I was raised.
ETA: I should note that mind games my nanny played and what my mother ate in the womb were very important. My mom was studying for her medical boards - she got pregnant sooner than she’d thought she would - and basically ate tons of grilled chicken salads, fruit on the go, fish and mixed vegetables with Indian spices if my dad was cooking, etc. My nanny would say that certain foods were “big girl” or “grown up foods” and would allow me a taste or two, eventfully relenting and letting me have what I wanted. These “big girl” foods were seedless tangerines, lima beans, and so on. I was an easily swayed child ;).
I don’t think I’ve ever had more than four or five foods I really didn’t care for, even as a young child. And I always felt (defensive much?) that even for those I had a good reason (particularly distinctive taste/texture, but of course de gustibus non etc.).
For some reason we had or I remember having a tacit family taboo against people saying “I don’t eat X.” I think it was considered obnoxious or self-centered or presumptuous, especially for a kid, to make such a positive, definitive statement (not being obnoxious/spoiled was also at a high premium, and I do have memories of spoiled kids making the “I DON’T eat X” statement in a defiant, now-deal-with-it, fashion, or in a way that implied people who do eat X are wrong/weird/deluded). To this day it grates on my ear when anyone says anything more absolute than “well, there are a few foods I’m just not terribly fond of, but I understand others enjoy them.”
My mom was picky for me. My mom never cooked anything she didn’t like and she doesn’t like much. When I grew up and moved out I tried all sorts of new things, and my tastes continue to evolve.
For a long while I didn’t care for mushrooms, but now am fond of them.
My father in law was a very picky eater. He would not allow anything he did not like to be served in his house. When I met my wife, she was living on canned vegetable beef soup and white bread PBJ sandwiches. She had never eaten anything outside of Frank’s comfort zone, and could hardly imagine trying anything new. she wasn’t really a picky eater, she was just afraid to try things she might not like.
In the beginning, she would order something that she was familiar with in a restaurant, and then try what I had ordered to see if she liked it. It took awhile, but now she really enjoys trying new things.
Yes, I was picky, and in a bizarre way. My mom had tons of trouble getting me to eat anything but barely-adulterated meats, cheese, nuts, some fruits and veggies (I always loved all veggies), strawberry or vanilla ice cream, potatoes, pasta, and her home-made bread. I hated foods being ‘mixed’ and wanted everything separated on my plate - she made a lot of meals that combined a lot of ingredients, like pot pies and stroganoffs, so that was difficult. I particularly hated ‘fast food’. I would not eat sandwiches (ate my first when I was 18) or any type of commercial bread - the very smell of hamburger buns made me want to hurl. I think I did throw up the first time I ate American cheese. I disdained soda and candy, etc. Basically I liked the plainest versions of most things my parents had served me since I was a baby, and everything else was gross and made me gag.
I had to eat everything she put on my plate no matter what, and it was a huge power struggle and really shitty part of our relationship. However our whole relationship was a power struggle, and I don’t think the food stuff fucked me up any more than the rest of it.
These days I’ve returned to my roots and I only eat animal products, veggies including potatoes, sweet potatoes, and squash- and a bit of fruit and nuts.
For my own kids, I plan on only exposing them only to the whole foods I eat myself (no pre-made baby food) for as long as it’s possible. But I won’t be forcing them to eat stuff, just providing a variety of nutritious foods and letting them make choices within those parameters. Based on the kids I know, this usually helps create a palate that will tolerate things other than potatoes, pasta and chicken fingers. Kids can’t become fixated on the typical bland ‘kid foods’ if they don’t ever eat them. Some pickiness is to be expected in every young child though, and I think it should be respected.
I was a picky eater as a child and I’m still one as an adult. I try to be open to new foods, even trying eel sushi once, but that usually means I try something once and then move back to familiar foods. Der Trihs’ description of preferring to go hungry over eating a food I don’t like is accurate for me. I also have a problem with certain textures as others have mentioned, and my tastes in general are very bland.
My mom didn’t make me eat everything on my plate, but she did make me at least try a few bites. I don’t know how many times we had sweet and sour Chicken Tonight when I was a kid, but I never learned to like it. My grandmother used to make me eat everything on my plate if she was babysitting, but she probably didn’t babysit enough to have a huge impact.
I was a picky eater - in an east coast home where black pepper was an exotic spice. I would refuse foods I had never tasted.
Army basic training cured most of it - I was so hungry I ate what ever the mess hall would serve. During AIT on the west coast, the rest of my picky habits were eliminated by an Army buddy who had been to SE Asia and introduced me to many new foods.
Are you thinking of toddler-type meals that are marketed to kids, such as lunchables and various types of nuggets or are you referring to the purees? Just curious - many baby foods, especially the stage-one variety, are pretty nutritious and preservative free (though I’ve heard that some nutrients can get taken out due to high heat). Plus, you can often buy organic versions of those same foods.
There’s some good pureed baby foods out there that are just well-cooked veggies, etc without a lot of added sweeteners/starchy thickeners, but a]they all tend to be very, very bland which IMO starts the downward slide into begin unable to tolerate strong flavors by age 3 and b]I’m cheap and lazy so I can’t imagine I would buy them, rather than chew up/mash up/shred some of my own (flavorful, with added real fats) foods for the kid.
I was a little bit picky as a kid. There were some flavors that I didn’t like then, and still don’t like: olives, sweet pickles, pimientos, bell peppers, canned fish (tuna, salmon, sardines,) egg yolks (boiled eggs or over light/medium or poached,) anything with artificial grape, cherry, or banana flavoring, lemon extract. There were also some textures that I hated then and still hate: raw onions, liver, over-cooked squash.
Some things that I didn’t like then, I have learned to love: fresh tomatoes, bleu cheese, rye bread, and so forth. Other things, I’ve learned to tolerate - as an example to my kids, I re-try foods on a pretty regular basis. Many things make me say “Yep, still hate it,” but sometimes, things aren’t as bad as I remembered. (The other evening, I even managed to eat a small portion of fried oysters at my mom’s. I’ve always liked raw oysters, but that was the first time I tolerated cooked ones.) I’ve learned through the years that I really enjoy some things, depending on their handling/preparation. Fresh tuna or salmon is awesome. Canned is still disgusting. Fried or lightly sauteed squash is good. Stewed to death is bad. Onions are fine if they are cooked until the layers aren’t “squeaky” in my mouth (fried or sauteed.)
And I loved some truly weird things as a kid. Some of my favorite foods then and now include cabbage, mustard, turnips, lima beans, collards, brussels sprouts, asparagus, and so forth.
That said, nothing drives me crazier than children (and adults - I’ve met them!) who hate everything and subsist on chicken nuggets, boxed mac and cheese, and french fries. I grant that there are some “super-tasters” out there, but it seems to me that many children’s food issues come down to their parents’ attitudes: If you wrinkle up your nose while offering little Billy a taste of broccoli, there’s a pretty good chance he’s gonna pick up on your non-verbal cues! Fortunately, my kids range from “reasonably omnivorous” to “I’ll eat it if it doesn’t move too fast.”