Try Try again!

Like many kids, Abhay too has always been and still is reluctant to try out new food. It took me ages (apologize for this expression, as with kids, even a month feels like forever!!) to get him to just nibble on half a slice of an apple. When he progressed on to eating the whole slice, we cheered like we would cheer for a cricket match! In the hope of making him more flexible with food, I enrolled him into a preschool that also provided meals as part of its plan. But I when I saw that he was alternating between only two options in his daily meal report viz. had very little or had none at all, I gave up!!! In all of nine months that he was there, never once did I get ‘ate all of it’ or ‘tried something new’!! How do we make them try out something new without throwing up? Most parenting books advise trying for at least 10-15 times! I mean, seriously.....is that possible?

Anyway, having exhausted all options suggested by books, Im now down to my signature method of ‘reading books’! Today I read two books on two difficult kids determined not to eat what they are supposed to. The first one, “Eat up Gemma” by Sarah Hayes and illustrated by Jan Ormerod. Little Gemma refuses to eat her food and shakes her head for everything that is offered. Everyone in the family is seen asking Gemma to eat up as she sits with her lips pursed. One day at church, when Emma finds a lady wearing a fancy hat with look-alike fruits and she leans forward to eat up. So when they get home, her brother hits upon an idea to have a bowl inverted into a hat decorated with grapes and bananas. Sure enough, Gemma finally eats up!

Another book, in an early readers format is, “Try it” by Christianne C Jones and illustrated by Hye Won Yi. It is a story of Tom who does not even try to eat his vegetables, with peas thrown at his sister, beans stuck up his nose, broccoli hid in his shoe, corn shoved in his pocket and a carrot made into a toy castle! But when mom makes a vegetable casserole with peas, beans, broccoli and carrots, Tom decides to give it a try and he ends up liking it and eating all of it! Okay ….I think Im now ready to get Abhay to try an Avocado! Wish me luck guys!!!:-)