‘How do you get a three year old to eat something other than dry pasta, with no sauce?’ This was a question I was asked this week and it reminded me that my 4 year old nephew was being similarly selective during the summer time. What about my own kids, what were they like I wondered? I honestly couldn’t remember a dry pasta phase but I do remember a lot of fussiness about lumps and bits.
When you think about it, if you’ve entered this world with a mouth full only of gums and have had at least a year of not having to bite or chew anything then would you bother if you could get away with it?
I still find the thought of eating an apple a bit of a chore, biting through the skin and then chomp, chomp for ages, give me fruit salad anyday when all the hard work has been done for me.
The dry pasta has to be a bit of a texture thing, it’s soft and bland and there’s no lumps or bits.
The only advice I can give is to keep offering different types of foods with different textures and try to make it fun. If you can get the child involved in the making of the food all the better. Those little hands would love smushing up bits of fish and potato to make fish cakes.
At the end of the day it’s just another one of those phases. How do you get your child to stay in bed at night? How do you get them to stop biting, weeing on the carpet or colouring on the walls? Parenting is a constantly evolving adventure and each child is a unique individual. There are no right or wrong ways there’s just your way. Enjoy.
Til next time, Sheila.
..thanks, it’s a pizza board but also doubles as a food art canvas!
Its almost too cute to eat. ‘Siciliana’ definitely doesn’t have a cheesy smile (chuckle, chuckle).