h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Mmmm! heavy metals, carboniferous hydrocarbons, low-grade radiation and organic waste. Is this found in a special sort of restaurant or can I buy it in the corner shop? Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!

When I was little, my mum used to make faces out of veggies (ie. potato for hair, tomato eyes...), that worked. She also did (and still does, now I think about it) the whole 'you loved it last time' routine.

We also had a 'gold star' reward system going for a while there...eat your veggies, get a star - get 10 stars, get a video etc. I don't think that's too good an idea, it's focusing too heavily on food.

If you make it fun and interesting then it'll work!

Going back to Queazer's original question... here are two tricks which worked with mine. I say "worked" in a somewhat qualified sense: one eats all veg, the other only peas and baked beans, but is more adventurous in terms of fruit that the veggie-loving one. 1) A sweetie, given 20 minutes before a meal, sharpens the appetite due to insulin rebound. Sugar is eaten, insulin floods in, mops up the sugar, sugar all gone, hungry. 2) Sit them in front of the TV with a fave tape etc. Concentrating on TV distracts them from expecting the food to provide 100% gratification. Good luck!

BTW, I meant to ask if you know the difference between Brussels sprouts and bogies?......... Kids won't eat Brussels sprouts.

Wait until the sod is really hungry. Then he'll eat whatever you put infront of him.

Having just logged into this debate and read all the sane and not so sane suggestions (there are some sick little puppies out there and I'm not talking about the kids!) - I too (sob sob) had this problem with my only son - I was almost ready to admit him to hospital so they could drip feed him; heck I was more than ready to try that myself! - Though it seems like an eternity - they DON'T DIE and they don't get sick and yes somehow (maybe they absorb the stuff through the pores when playing with it) food does get into the system. My son is now 22, in England somewhere (I'm in Perth Western Australia) and a very good eater and cook - can't really take any credit for that fact but hang in there and please don't stress.

Yes, the solution would seem to be to make it look interesting, to avoid any possibility of the preferred sticky sweet objects (in the hope that hunger wins out) and to be, in the end, more stubborn than the child - which is the solution to most child behaviour problems, if you ask me, but not easy when they throw a lying-on-the-floor-screaming-and-kicking strop in the middle of Sainsbury's on a Saturday morning.

For example, my two boys will happily eat tuna and mashed potato if it's turned into "octopuses" with green beans.

The good news is that they usually grow out of it. I grew out of food faddiness at the age of 13 when I went on a boy scout walking tour in Scotland with a scoutmaster whose idea of a nourishing lunch was bloater paste sandwiches, an item so disgusting that I defy anyone to eat a second. By the time I came home I would eat *anything!*

I can't bring myself to eat an oyster. It doesn't matter how scrummy people say they are I can't do it. So when my son says, "I don't like that," I have to think about my own shortcomings (few though they be!) and think what it would be like if someone forced me to eat an oyster.

Sure, but if your son were to say "I don't like that" to everything under the sun, you would have to view it slightly differently. For example you might interpret it as "I don't like that quite as much as I like double-chocolate fudge sundae with chocolate sauce and extra chocolate," which comparison would I guess encompass pretty much all members of the genus comestibles.

Yummy. Can I have some cream on that please - hold the brussel sprouts. Cheers.

I think there are more than one kind of parent. (Call me cautious if you must). One worries about whether their child will eat anything... ever. Another worries about the E numbers, calorie content, yin and yang, feng shui, and what the neighbours think.
I fall somewhere between the two. There may be others of course. In which case I will fall among all three, or four etc. That's a lot of falling - I must take more water with it!

There are roughly twice as many types of parents as there are types of children, I reckon. With children, as with accountants, the main thing is never to give in.

Oh alright then, you win.

Good. Now eat your broccoli.

Force feed 'em

It didn't work for Barbara Bush and it won't work for me.

Kids aren't stupid. Whatever you force in they can force out. I prefer it untouched on the plate to regurgitated on the carpet/duvet/trousers/car seat!

I don't advocate force feeding, never did. Just letting them get hungry enough to at least try it.

Hey its just food guys!!! - how fixated are you?!........ Your kids are obviously getting a life in that they find so much more interesting things to do than eat - now if most of the western world thought that way then all these diet companies would go out of business - have you tried PLAYING with spaghetti - its fun!

Hmmm. Edible macramé? Sounds amusing!