When it comes down to it, every single thing that a parent does is a judgment call, from breastfeeding to braces, and beyond. Typically, when you think a particular action is wrong, you discourage your kids from doing it. But what about all those gray areas?
Eating is perhaps the one area that causes us great concern right from the start. Should I breastfeed? Should I let my kids eat cookies? How many? How often?
My firstborn had a seemingly normal appetite, but a really strange affinity for breadcrumbs and grated cheese. When I would take them out to make a meal, she would stick a spoon in them and eat them plain. It was cute yet weird at the same time. My husband and I joked that she thought she was a bird. Her odd affection for these two plain ingredients did wear off, but for a certain period, she asked for a spoonful of breadcrumbs or a spoonful of grated cheese and I indulged her. No harm done, I figured. She was a good eater otherwise.
Some moms allow far more than I did. It’s been noted that Angelina Jolie lets her kids eat crickets — as in the actual bug — for a snack! She says they eat them “like Doritos,” and that sometimes they eat so many, she has to tell them to stop because she’s afraid they’ll get sick. You think? Apparently she also is said to have eaten cockroaches herself, so I guess her eating rules are a little broader than most.
I realize that people do, in fact, snack on insects in other countries, but there is no way I’d let my kids eat bugs anytime soon. And I know that many food colors have derivatives from insects, but somehow chomping down on a crunchy six-legged creature just doesn’t seem the same as taking a spoonful of Jell-O.
Angelina Jolie’s bug craving might be an extreme case in the kids and food department, but I have many friends whose kids will only eat the pizza after wiping off all the cheese (my mother would have gone nuts over that one — wasting food!) or will only eat food if it is not touching any other food on their plate. Others go through a period of only consuming white food, or junk food. My childhood friend ate nothing but bologna sandwiches for months on end until she finally got sick of them and chose to consume a normal diet.
To a certain point, I really think most kids outgrow their strange eating behavior and I don’t see it being a big deal, unless they’re eating paint or chalk, etc. Yet many moms believe it’s important to be strict and deny these food preferences.
What do you think? What’s the weirdest thing your child likes to eat? Do you let him or her, or are you strictly business when it comes to mealtime?
Danielle Sullivan, a mom of three, has worked as a writer and editor in the parenting world for more than 10 years. Sullivan also writes about pets and parenting for Disney’s Babble.com. Find Sullivan on her blogs, Just Write Mom and Some Puppy To Love.
