Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Food

Ben is a fussy eater, there is no 2 ways to put it to even say he is not.
He just doesn't have the wide palate of taste of others and so is very limited on the foods he will eat.
He doesn't like dairy, no cheese, yoghurt etc
He is not a great fan of tomato based sauces or spicy.
He only likes potatoes that are mashed, doesn't like things that are fried. Not a great fan of the fat. (not that that is a bad thing)
He is also not a great fan of sugar, again not a bad thing. He does like chocolate cake and twix bars but doesn't eat candy.
He will eat rice and pasta, plain, until there is nothing left! He will also eat bread continuously until there is nothing left!

He loves Apricot chicken, mac cheese and fish fingers, chicken noodle soup, meat balls and fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, mince and pots with sweetcorn and sausages.

So when you do serve a dinner that he likes, then it disappears very fast sometimes.

BUT he has got into, not sure if it is a habit or not, of wanting something to eat an hour later just as he is going to bed. Now usually it is cereal and I have no problem with what he is eating prior to bed, it is just the fact that sometimes he is planning this cereal whilst eating his dinner!

He will finish dinner, in which he will eat everything given to him. We will then sit down and watch Friends on the tv, and he will then say 'Can I have something to eat please?'
10 minutes prior to this as finishing dinner he will say he is full and then suddenly he is hungry and wants food?

We tell him that he has to wait for his food to go down, to even register that he has eaten dinner, which he will do but he is still then planning food prior to bed.

So is he really needing this food at bedtime or has he got into a habit?

It doesn't happen every night, so he can do without it. But it is the fact he is planning it during dinner time. He will say 'if I finish all this can I have cereal before bed?' We do then tell him that finishing dinner has nothing to do with getting food later and that if he is hungry then to say now and we will get more food for him, but then he says he is full and doesn't want anything!
Sometimes he is having as much on his plate as I eat. I am nearly 40 and he is 5 1/2!

Is this normal?

2 comments:

Needled Mom said...

Kids have the strangest eating habits, don't they? All I can say is they they do eventually grow up.

When our boys were young I started a routine of each week one of them had to prepare the meal. That meant planning, shopping and cooking it with me. They really got into it and appreciated the "pickiness" of the other eaters after they had worked so hard. They learned what it meant to have a "balanced" meal and were found reading cookbooks for new ideas.

Fast forward 30 years and we now have two sons who own a chain of Italian restaurants. It does pay off. Good luck.

Laurie from Rotorua said...

Yeap...all sounds on track to me, boys seem to have hollow legs and he is growing fast, at least he is now happy to eat...well somethings!!
Cousin Ellis is also on the cereal or food one hour after eating...so he is normal...go with it if he is happy...he can afford a few pounds but he will run it off any how